Words: Ali Menzies
Photos: Rick Curran, Neil Currie
It was like going to Disneyland. I couldn’t really sleep for the excitement that the next day was going to bring. Well that was what it was like for me and Euan anyway. We had all been looking forward to getting up and trying out the New Transition Extreme Skatepark in Aberdeen ever since we first saw the plans drawn up by Andy Dobson way back when.
» More photos at end of article…
The expectations set by the plans were not let down, the place is amazing. And that bowl oh that BOWL!! Andy Dobson, Dave and crew worked for weeks on it’s construction, I can safely say they didn’t waste one second of their time. Think of the Livi bowl. Then make the wee bowl 2 or 3 foot deeper and a fair bit wider. Remove the rough as sandpaper surface and add the smoothest birch ply instead. You then have the A’deen bowl. This thing is super fast and smooth. I’m pretty sure that this bowl will be claiming a few victims over the years as the speeds that you can reach on it are ridiculous.
The rest of the park is real nice too. It is one of the few indoor parks that I have been to where you can happily flow from one bit of the park to the next and pretty much keep your speed up. The whole park is ply’d throughout so there are no joins or changes from wood to concrete. There is a nice wee mini in the far corner and a proper vert wall with a door gap in it. The big elbowed mini is pretty sick too with a nice bowled end with one corner going to over-vert and a nice little loveseat in the middle. The park isn’t just full of transitions though, there is plenty of more street oriented terrain such as a driveway fun box with a very decent run up to it and one of those euro gaps at the top of the roll in. There’s a great corner hip (kind of like Radlands but not as steep) which leads into a kicker and spined quarters. Right in the centre of the park is a nice mellow hipped funbox leading out into various directions.
All in all a real nice selection of obstacles. The park has been designed in different individual sections which all flow into each other. It’s the sort of park where if it’s quiet you will be able to carve around the whole park and hit line after line. When it gets busy I would suggest keeping yourself to one area at a time or there could be some nice collisions going down. Whatever line you choose it will be good fun.
I felt very privileged to be one of the few to get in for a skate of the park prior to it opening up. I also know how envious you will all be of the small crew that went up for the day. One of us mentioned to a local at Kemnay that we had just been sessioning the park and to say that he looked gutted was the understatement of the century. Big thanks to Neil Stevenson for getting this project to where it is now, Andy Dobson, Dave and crew for the lovely finish on the wood and Craig Mitchell for sorting it out so that we could get up for the day. Much respect!
I thoroughly recommend that you all get up to War of the Thistles this year because I am led to believe that the park will be pretty much opening up for the event. Bring it on!!
» Click any of the images below to view a fullscreen slideshow.
