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With my *real* job, I have been over in Atlanta the past month or so (with another month to go) and have gotten a chance to get out a bit and skate some of the parks around here. I am up on the north end of Atlanta between 75/85, so it's kind of a hike to anywhere. However, here's reports on a few from close by....

**** Factory Skatepark (Newnan, GA) ****
Made a trip "way" south of Atlanta to visit friends. While there, I stopped over and skated good ol' Factory skatepark. Huge park and set-up very well. Incredibly large vert ramp...on par with SPOT (skatepark of Tampa) 13ft ramp. Nice 6/8 mini, but a bit too much flat too accomodate bikes.....oh yeh, they allow bikes there. HUGE street area with diverse obstacles...not the same-ol-same. Lastly, a very fun micro-ramp (3-4ft). On my last trip there, they were unloading a 6ft wooden kidney-esque bowl that they had bought from a closing skatepark. No word on when it will be re-constructed. For more, check out their site:

Factory Skatepark


**** ESPN X-Games Park (Discovery Mills Mall Atlanta,GA) ****
Very simple...avoid this park like the plague! I went to skate the 7-10pm session....$14. Got there at 6:15, ate in the food court, and waited till 7pm came. The park LOOKS great...all kinds of various ramps (vert, 6ft with over-vert extension, micro 3ft 1/2 pipe, street course, etc)...but looks can be deceiving. I decided to "warm up" on the 6ft in the back corner. Padded up, stretched out, dropped in, *BOOM*. Slammed right on my elbow as my board slid almost side-ways on the first carve of the first wall. "What the hell!?!?" I thought. I figured it musta been so slick due to dust from sitting in the back far corner and no one skating it. I thought "maybe I'll go warm up on the vert ramp". If the 6ft was hairy, the vert ramp was Sasquatch! At least this time, I didn't slam, but my first backside carve on the vert ramp, I slid completely sideways up the ramp and back down the ramp. I have skated metal ramps in the rain that weren't as slick!!! So I thought, I will make the most of my time and go play on the micro 3 ft halfpipe. Little did I realize, it was the slickest of them all. I could literally drop in and slid anywhere I wanted on the ramp. On coping, I could do fakie tailslides across 3 sheets with ease. It was laughable. I asked a local kid if it was always this slick. He said "yeh....but more now cause this kid just waxed the coping." Gee great. I then looked close and saw the problem The wax was so thick on coping that pieces would flake off and slide onto the ramp. As people rode the ramp, that wax would get rolled into the skatelite and almost become part of it. I could see a sheen of wax all the way down the transitions and about a foot into flat on both sides. I scrapped my nail across the skatelite and sure enough, a nail full of wax! "Screw this." I thought. I went to the desk and asked for a refund. It was 7:20pm. The girl at the counter asked "What's wrong?" I said "Do you ever clean these ramps? They're slick as crap." She teplied, "We clean them every night." I said, "Yeh, but do you use hot water to clean the wax of the ramps too?" She said,"Ooooh, I don't know about that, I just work the cash register." I got my $14 and walked out vowing never to return. Now I understand why the place was filled with just a bunch of little kids...they don't know better yet. What a shame.....that park had so much potential.


**** Pickneyville Park (Atlanta, GA) Review ****
Finally got to go skate Pickneyville last night from about 8:30 till 10:30 (closes at between 11-11:30 from what the kids said). Well, first off, it is a fun park...but not on to make a "special" trip for. You'll be pissed if you do. The whole thing is pretty much about 3 ft "transitions" (though most portions are mostly banks) with NO COPING. They do have coping on three straight walls but it is set in below the concrete (ie. NOPING) so it really doesn't count. Fun part of that is that you can haul ass and roll in from anywhere (you will not hang up anywhere in the park). Bad part is, you are not going to be doing many grinds (if...*if* you can catch parts of the noping, you might. I got only a few f'side and b'side 50-50's throughout). The pyramid thing in the middle is fairly useless....steep, lumpy banks. The "snake run" is ok, but is pretty much a two-hit short, s-curve. This flows into a 6-7 ft deep "bowl" that has NO TRANSITION. It is pretty much a round bank. You will not be keeping a line in it...trust me. Aside from that, the whole park is fairly lumpy and has several large cracks filled with some caulking filler throughout (Shitbird Blackfartz ran right over them no problem). Again, I don't want to sound to harsh....it can be fun IF you make it fun. I had a good time hauling ass and rolling into the far-side, hitting a facewall frontside to build speed, then pop-up and try to manual across the "hip" into the bowl portion. Never made it, but came very close...always a next time. I imagine this park is very similar to what was around in the 70's from what I have seen in pictures (ie. small transitions with rounded tops).

View looking from the bowl/resovoir out


View from the corner


View from the corner (w/ labels)


Park Overview



**** Mall of Georgia Skatepark, Atlanta (w/ pics) ****
Visited what use to be the Van's park at the mall of Georgia on Tuesday night (6/29/04). Supposedly, the old owner of Atlanta's defunct "Rampage" skatepark now owns it (Rampage was a great park, so I am hoping to see good things if that is true). This place is completely redone except the fun "bowl". I had a good time. Nothing big and burly to skate except some large 1/4-pipes and a vert wall, but much fun to be found. It was not very crowded and there is LOTS of room. Sessions are $12 for 5 hrs....yep FIVE HOURS! Not bad. Had a blast skating with a small group of young kids there. Of all the street stuff, they just wanted to skate the bowl and mini with me. Pretty cool. Big shout out to Lindsey and Jesse.

Full view of park (from entrance gate)


Full view from back vert wall


Mini-ramp (very tight and fun)


Fun bowl


Fun bowl (from corner)




Hope this helps those planning a trip to sample the skateparks Atlanta has to offer! It's nice to have a job that sends me around travelling...I get to skate some damn nice places!

Amorone