The Other Skatepark of Tampa
Posted
on
on Friday, January 02, 2004
by Rob
Did you know there was a free skate park run by the City of Tampa? Well, it's not really free since taxpayers of the City probably got ripped off on those metal ramps…
| The Other Skatepark of Tampa Dumb Story and Even Dumber Captions by Rob MeronekPhotos by Rob Meronek and John Paul Grebe  Did you know there was a free skate park run by the City of Tampa? Well, it's not really free since taxpayers of the City probably got ripped off on those metal ramps. That dumb grown-up stuff includes you no matter how old you are. When you buy a $46.95 deck in the shop and have to pay over $3 extra in sales tax, some of that money is allocated by the City for recreation type stuff. This little skateboard area the City of Tampa built is from money like sales tax you have to pay. So here's what you get - the City of Tampa Skatepark or whatever it was called. Paying those sales taxes is even more of a slap in the face when you realize the government is using that money to set up a facility that competes with your private, taxpaying business that you make your living from. The sales taxes we pay help the City of Tampa have a free facility that competes with ours that we have to charge for to pay our bills - interesting. I love making a living in skateboarding as much as I love skateboarding itself, so these are the things you end up thinking about. Helmets again were required, but the coach at this place was much more chill than the last varsity captains at Sarasota. How can some of the parks in Florida like the Tallahassee Skatepark be done right? It has optional safety gear and no set hours like the rest of the sports the City builds facilities for. Then in the same State, you get some parks that end up like Sarasota, North Port, and now Tampa? I don't know, but at the end of the day, we had another fun time. As long as that keeps happening, I'll wear my helmet whenever they ask me to. Rob Meronek |
 This is Forrest with the coolest helmet in the park. I was oddly attracted to it when picking from the pile of stinky lids the park provided. |
 Soon, we discovered the helmet had magical powers, except it made you do dumb stuff like John Paul here. |
 Oh ok, it's an xtreeeme magic helmet. John Paul, take that off before you get hurt. You can loose the glove while you're at it. |
 The extreme magical helmet also makes you do old guy tricks like this frontside melon. Luckily it flew off my head before it could make me do anything else extreme, which would have of course gotten me hurt. |
 Everyone knows it's not just skateboarding that's extreme. The magic helmet worked on BMXer Sean Albright here, too. |
 Wait a second, how did Sean Albright do this spinner thing on the bank without his extreme magic helmet? |
 I didn't want to wear the extreme magic helmet and then get on Sean's bike because I might end up in this dangerous, but like, totally macho position. |
 Holy crap! Look at that! The extreme magic helmet landed all our asses right in the XGames! Now I'm on the come up - watch for my new pro model shoe in Asian grocery stores everywhere. |
