Vancouver has a long history of skateparks, some more known than others. I remember finding out about one lesser know park while buying a David Carson designed Transworld at Whiterock’s Barnacle Bills (I think it was 1985). Am I the only one who remembers that the water park on Granville Island used to be a skatepark… a place for “street” skating! In 85-86 this was basically a new idea, as skatepark meant Tony Hawk at Del Mar doing Mutes (yup he’s been rippin’ that long and longer). But right around this time Mike Vallely and others were changing what everybody thought skating was. Riding straight up a wall, nosepicks, and even Freestyle by Rodney Mullen and Kevin Harris (one of the best deck graphics ever) were showing kids that other types of spaces could be ripped up.

Just a side note – Powell Peralta was huge in the eighties, every skater I have mentioned was a Powell rider…. personally I was into Zorlac and Dogtown for its imagery, but the boards were hard to come by. Being from Ladner I hopped the bus to the PD’s on Oak and bought a Hosoi…

I saw this poster on a telephone pole and caught the bus to Granville Island the next weekend to check out the skate contest. To be honest the ride down the hill to Granville Island offers more thrills than the park itself did, especially when you see those train tracks half way down. But I was surprised to see close to 50 skaters bonelessing, street planting, and trying to ollie over a small gap. My friends and I watched the contest for a while but spent most of our time ollieing off a near by loading dock…(one that I am surprised to say I’ve never seen in a picture!) There was even a skate shop, what is now a new age store, used to be one of the few places that skateboards could be bought (Westcoast Skateboards, Cal Streets and PD’s being the others).

The scene was short lived due to the obvious limitations of the Granville Island park in comparison to the East Van bowls and other places. It did and still does offer some intro terrain to skate for those just getting into park riding and maybe some inspiration for those who are more advanced. I know for myself the park helped me to see that I didn’t have to spend all my time building ramps and that everything you see in the street could be used to do something on.

In the summer it’s a water park so if your going show up after 8 PM. (rager1)