Bellingham Skatepark - Bellingham, Washington, U.S.A.

Sad to contradict the legends' opinions, but after a few years of drooling over this place I finally got to hit it and... Yeah, it hit back pretty hard.

I'm not 100% which portions of the park represent the phases of construction, but I'm assuming the bowl was the newest addition and probably the only part that was designed by anyone who'd ever ridden a skateboard... But even that was flawed in my opinion.

The taller part of the main section of the park has some banked walls with transitions too sharp to ride smoothly. Got ejected going up and down, and no sir, I didn't like it. The bowl has nice coping, smooth tranny, but it's entirely angled downhill. I might be spoiled by Mill Creek and Arlington, but I prefer my flatbottom to be flat. The bowl rides okay, but didn't have enough parallel walls or flat for me to feel natural doing anything but riding it into the deep end. Maybe I just need to come back with a local to see the better lines, but I tried a good dozen different ways through and seemed to end up in the same spot.

But, in the end, it's a pretty decent park for an odd and janky one. Seen MUCH worse in my day, but didn't really enjoy too much of my day at Civic park.