#oververt

Waldport, Oregon

Like so many other things in life, context has turned out to be important to skate trips. My visit to Waldport was influenced by context in a few ways; the beautiful drive along the Pacific coast to get here, the stops I chose to make along the way, and even the media I consumed years ago.

Waldport was part of an early wave of concrete skatepark construction, when the Pacific Northwest was just beginning to take shape as what would eventually become arguably the best region on Earth to skate concrete. This initial explosion of concrete parks was exciting, experimental, and groundbreaking—skater-owned companies were emerging, pushing the envelope of what could be built and skated. The way skateparks are designed and even ridden today is largely a result of these creative endeavors.

I remember, as a teenager on the East Coast, seeing pictures of Waldport on skate websites. This was one of the first forays into over-vert I remember being aware of—it may even be the predecessor for the cradle.

With that context in mind, I made Waldport my last stop of the day (after Newberg and Lincoln City).

The first thing I noticed about Waldport was how quiet it was. The skatepark is basically in the parking lot for a hiking trailhead, and is appropriately serene and heavily wooded. The park may have scared me a little, but it was nothing compared to the lone hiker who emerged behind me in complete silence.

The bowl is the main feature here, with some cool little obstacles around the perimeter. It’s a funky bowl, to be sure—a clover bowl with every wall a different size (even opposing walls vary quite a bit). I found that whipping around the bowl to get to the cradle wasn’t too difficult, though it definitely didn’t have the same racetrack vibe that some of it’s younger neighbors provide. It was easy to get enough speed to get around the oververt, though I was carving around just inside of the colored concrete patch (several feet below coping).

I struggled more with staying away from the cradle than getting speed for it, which made me feel like the point of coming here is really to skate the cradle, and that’s it.

Lil Jon airing the 3 foot wide, 4 foot tall oververt tombstone with pool coping no less at Parisite Skatepark, New Orleans 2017