Author: Daryl Smith

Howdy.

Big shout out to the Australian Skaters I met: Shane, Andrew, Ben. Thanks guys!

Breaking out one of the patches needed to lessen the risks of face-planting.

Patched with a mellower curve. It was a more angular join before. Lets hope nobody rolls over before it hardens…

Circled:Another patch to fix some damage. The other footprints have been buffedaway, hopefully not leaving a noticably wobbly surface when ridden on.

Again, circled for ultra-clarity of meaning…

Not to fix damage as such, but to smooth out the blends.They weredangerous pocket-like areas. Just right to throw you into a speedy heap.

BTW: There are many bike tracks over this area already, so I am nervous about damage to the patches before they set hard.

Hopefully withoutintruders-rolling-over-them-at-night-because-they-shouldn’t-be-there-yet;they will not be noticable problem areas anymore.

Obviously not filled in yet; when I took these photos. But probably shortly afterwards.

Fun ONCE FINISHED.

The wall will also need severe buffing and filling due to the mucky shuttering joins.

Tarmac at both entrances has been layed, a tad roughly. Pity wecouldn’t afford it as ’crete.

Am also kicking myselfabout the bench/ledge on right side. The affordable meterage shouldhave been pulled backalongside the park, beside the slope of the platform. I think it wasrushed through as ’seating’ / ’entrance definition.’ I missed thatone… sorry. A few more meters of it would have been ideal.Maybe we can fundraise, to pay for someone to lay a bit moresometime…?

I think I will christen that gap between the top of the upperplatform and the rather sketchy edge of the block; ’The FundingGap.’

Oh, so wet. Notice that patched area again.

Stay tuned

PS: There are still forged comments coming in claiming to be from “Daryl.”

’It ain’t me, babe.’ As the the song goes… I am only writing stuff up here. ok?

Rumour Control is in The House.

>Re commments: Bikes vs Boards… no point in scrapping about it.

ANYONE behind the fence atnight is guilty. There a lots of tracks of ALL sorts: bike, rollerboot,and skateboard, all in evidence. Lots of scuffled anonymousshoeprints in moist concrete too.

When I was younger, I was as punk as the next guy when it came to skatingplaces that were technically or fully illegal. But I can’t see thevalue of breaking in to skate a unfinished SKATEPARK. An action thatcontains no cool /punk credit at all… and endangers the finish of the park for ever afterwards…

It will MOSTLY be little neddy kids with no sense. Heck, theirparents probably pull the fences down for them… but for thosethat AREN’T neddy little idiots: STAY OUT. NO EXCUSES AT ALL.

Thank you for your patience!

***MacDaniels, Whitehall Crescent: This Sunday night. For a Fundee Soundsystem Test-Explosion***

I’ve put a little bit of ’ready to pour’ ness on the flat hip,
Just because they’re starting to form it.

Plus the blob inthe angled block, because they’ve put in a big dollop, as the meat ofthe thing, before casting the rest around it.

Bowltastic.

Earlier.

Duracrete are great.

Building the flat bank hip.

The View.

I’m outta here, back soon. Will be watching avidly from afar.

Rick will be manning the camera-pumps.

laters skaters.

Aaargh….

I shall rage no more about it.

Tis done.

It’ll get FIXED, one way or another.

Nice one guys…

Jeez, what do these crazy kids think this is? Some sort of whacky SKATEBOARDING rink?

The fish are all going to die, when they brush against that rough bit!

😉

It’s almost (but not) comical the way you can read what happened in the concrete. Handsprints and all…

Here’s something to feel good about.

(as long as no one ruins it tonight…)

How sweet does that crete look?

Sorry about the crunchy bit in the middle of photo…

G, very cold, but stoked, I think.

I just can’t get over how sweet that looks.

Thefloat marks near the lip (on the left) make it look like its doingsomething it isn’t.. if you know what I mean. That’s a pure 5mtransition, to a sharp lip. The shine throws your eyes off a bit.

A blown-out photo, sorry, you can see the begining of the bowl-spray. (!)

An even more blown-out, crooked, photo.

Kinda looks like Father Jack is helping out today…

easy fella.

We all know what he would say about those “Pesky Kids.”

Here’s the map.

Again, I didn’t add on what I didn’t actually see finished.

But I’ll give it that corner of the bowl…

I think they might have been spraying even more that afternoon.

Gotta admire the tenacity of the wee concrete-wrecking turds though eh? Pitch black night, over a fence and they HAVE to go for it…

Hopefullythey will keep skating, and become total rulers. Then we can all alwayspoint to that bit and laugh at their youthful, k-swiss wearing STUPIDITY.

🙂

PS If anyone DID want to hang out at night and guardthe setting concrete (from outside the fence…) GO FOR IT. Itwould probably be only need to be for a couple or three hoursafter the Duracrete guys leave at night.

They reckoned bythe state of the marks in the concrete that it was well within an hourof them leaving that the wee brats went in…

Maybe a couple of hours later and the damage would be have been lessened, as the concrete hardened that wee bit more.

Maybe not…

Am not gonna update the map anymore than I have witnessed.

They said they were definitely doing more; I was up there about 11am but not sure which way they went…

Possibly even the new block was poured by the afternoon…?

Will see tomorrow…

The wall newly exposed

Sorry, wasn’t feeling too creative w camera today. Liked the look o this bit tho!

Will pop up again tomorrow. (Wednesday)

Rick will be taking over the site updates soon.

I’m away for a wee bit.

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Uncle John and Whitelock Album a total stormer.

Listening to it right now.

12 copies double-vinyl delivered to Fopp, Dundee, today. CD’s out sometime next week or so.

Get one while you can.

First the bad news:

1.The Health and Safety mandated’haunching’ on the wall ride is now facing INWARDS, and isincorporated lower than planned. See photo. This was intended to stop”Crazy People” (???) walking along the top of the wall, and nowmakes the wall ride even weirder than the original plan. It now stopsgrinds and blunts etc. This angled-bit will be stopped and leveled outbelow it’s current position. Maybe we can do some carefull modificationin the future, in right spots for the coolest line: blunts etc. A weelip of crete put back on.

2. The coping in the bowl is not exactly straight, on theriver-side.It isn’t huge, but it’s definitely visible. I am a bitworried about it. Will check it again tomorrow to see what can be done.

No photo, camera ran out of battery…sorry.

The park will definitely have it’s flaws beyond any I’ve designed intoit 🙂 but hopefully they won’t affect much. And we can sort SOME ofthem later.

Oh well…

Itwill continue around on the top of this. Thus leaving us with less thanthe specified 3m total. The haunching should have been ON TOP of the3m…damn. This will affect it lower down too…

The good news:

Hello!

The block itself ain’t to pretty to look at, but the view will sho’nuff be ok.

Wally-able top end of OTHER block, yet to be poured obviously…

>Check the angle of the shuttering.

More good news… Duracrete cracks on.

Surf’s up dude.

You can see the curve at the bottom a bit better here.

And here.

And here. The rough bit is mainly dust left over from cutting the slab to make a clean join.

The other side of the new beast.

map update.

Uncle John and Whitelock Album out today. Check this past Sundays Glasgow Herald for review!

out.

A bit more mellow than the real thing. See these:

http://www.50-50.com/contribute/skatemap/hawaii/wallows.shtml

http://www.50-50.com/absorb/articles/1996-2000/spot_wallows_tribute.shtml

Not exactly ’proof,’ but that top section is now poured. 🙂

Progress map changed… they did something different to what I predicted.

Nomore pouring until monday. Duracrete are off back down south to theirown beds, for the weekend. They deserve it. The newfangled concretepump they had was being a bit wonky, so they are bringing up a bigger,more reliable one on Monday.

STAY OFF THE NEW CRETE! TAKES A MINIMUM OF 3 DAYS TO BE DAMAGE PROOF!!! spread the word.

Jah love.

Breaktime, or they’d be working it.

Like fresh meat from the butchers.

They hate me for making it so difficult to build.

Freudian theorists could have a field-day with this photo.

It won’t set properly for 7 days. And 3 days til it’s really safe to even walk on, let alone skate.

Taking a photo through the whatchamacallit-surveying-scope-’hingy was Iain’s idea.

prepping the edge so the ’crete sticks.

yup. another:

Althoughthe line of finished concrete is different in the photos, compared tothis progress map; they were expecting another load of concrete in thatafternoon. So I have guesstimated their progress.

Also, the bowl is not completely rebarred, as can be seen. But hey, close enuff to show as ’ready to pour.’

Here’s a photo from, er… dunno actually. Pre-1970 I would guess 😉

The building in the background on the right is, more or less, the site of the skatepark.

Possibly another update tomorrow.

This isn’t for the new larger format; although thats pretty cool too (thanks Rick!) sorry for the slower download times.

It’s for this !

Thats the first banked section! Whooo hoooo!

Looks rough now, but the were set to be polishing it for a while, they said… This was about 4:15 or so, getting dark and I’ve fiddled with the photo to make it clearer.

I’ll go back tomorrow and check. 🙂

Meet Duracrete. If you see them in a pub in Dundee, buy them a drink, and anew pair of wooly mittens. Damn cheerfull in that darkening chill. Rockon boys, we’re all counting on you.

This photo; less fiddled with, not too many minutes later.

We all owe this man huge skateboarderly hugs (and free drinks for life)for magnificently overseeing this project. We also owe another chap(not pictured) more of the same, for processing our “non-easy” designinto the numbers and drawings that the contractors needed. ALLHAIL TOM AND ALAN; LORDS OF ENGINEERING in Dundee City Council. 🙂

No foolin.

Yeah Dude! Unknown local performs a rather tasy frontside grind on a pieceof transition guide; used to shape the surface unto coolness.

That arc you see is a complete guide; all steel and super slick.

Fancy going bowling?

…soon.

Keeping the frost off for pouring tomorrow. …?

Cranked up the brightness a little, aren’t digi cameras great?

Ooops! how did that get in there?

Youcan go see this Dundee-born skater pick up birds in the Wellgateshopping centre, for the rest of the week, apparently. He has quite agood technique, and a laid back stance, as you can see.

Couldn’t resist putting one more in.

Here’s the progress map:

Sorry for this negative ending, but:

PLEASE HELP KEEP PEOPLE OUT OF THE SITE UNTIL IT’S COMPLETE!

DON’TBARGE IN FOR A SKATE, IT WILL ENCOURAGE THE IDIOTS TO GO IN TOO! (Andthey WILL wreck things out of sheer subconscious frustration that theydon’t know how to skate…)

Just for some perspective; I’ve been as punk as most, when itcomes to “illegal trespassing,” to session amazing, but technicallyout-of-bounds skate spots. This is different, obviously. All this hardwork can be damaged more easily than you think, if not given time toset properly, unmolested. Word.

Please please please. Be patient. It will be there for ever after, so you have plenty of time to enjoy it. Soon.

May your bearings never squeak.

Lots of ting.

At the end of the path is the back of the wallride…

New shuttering!

Blair and Woody stopped by while I was onsite today, so we all went round to check it out.

Woody smells VERT.

Blair in Wallos Jr. for scale.

Coping capers

Looking a bit bigger with people in it?

lasttime you’ll ever see this particular volume of the universe empty ofconcrete. 200mm high manual pad to 750mm high drop. see plans.

Thoughts like trees.

I couldn’t get up to the site before the guys left today (saturday)so the photos aren’t the juiciest. All taken from outside the fence.

Still… progress to be seen:

Thefrost has been hitting hard these past few days, but it’s good to seesome of the undersurface / rebar continuing to be slappedon.

Iam assuming that what is under that sheeting is more under-surface.That covering will undoubtedly be to keep the frost and rain off it.

Hey,there’s the flat block/ledge/pad whatever you want to call it.Shuttered up and ready to pour. I don’t think the rebar is in, but Ihave put it on the progress map as such. Close enuff.

Here’s another view of it. Can’t see any rebar in there yet. Here’s the plans for those blocks:

There will be about 2m in between them… lack of room/money etc. 🙁

There’s the scaff for building the next layer of the wallride up.

Letshope some vandal falls off it and gets skewered. Maybe it’ll keep theothers away. They pushed the big yellow compressor off theplatform into this bit a couple weeks ago; chipped the concrete,damaged the undersurface and spilt diesel and oil everywhere (on ournew concrete!)

Sorry; blurry photo. You can just see in the murk, that they have poured the first layer of the curved portion of the wallride

Another equally bad shot.

Thewallride, just to remind you, is going to be another 600mm higher thanthe top of that rebar is showing right now. About level with the top ofthose scaffold poles.

Dunno why I put this in. Doesn’t really say anything.

Minor additions to map.

Here you go Traer! ( and everyone else 🙂 )

The wallride shuttering apparently survived the weekend’s intruders.

You won’t see this view again many times.

It’snot meshed yet, but I put it on the progress map as ’ready to pour.’It’ll get done in the next day or two. It’s not a very weatherinfluenced job.

You can see the transition guide in use, in the back there.

Fleshing out for sure.

Standing at what will be the the back of the platform for the bowl. Looks tighter than it is.

Getting there slowly but surely.

Weather really starting to get cold… end of this week forecast to be a lot worse. Not good for pouring concrete.

******************************************************

We’re gonna be lacking benches and stuff, for that topslab o’crete.

So if anyone wants to start up a collection or do fundraising-band-nights etc… we can buy some REALLY nice, proper concrete benches, to have all toourselves. :0

No Skatestoppers, Complaining Shoppers, or Irate Coppers.

Yes yesy’all. “Sorry, these benches are only for skating on.” 🙂

1 pre-rounded perfect edged, shiny smooth, 2m long,marble-like bench.All ours for just for a few hundred Earth Money-Pounds.

Yep, I’m afraid thats really what they cost. Every bench cost alot. Even the cheapy-looking metal ones that say “designed for wheeledsports.”

I will post photos of a variety of good’uns to choose from, eventually. I’ve got official catalogues for them. Nae messing about.

Instant plaza; justadd money.

******************************************************

Lots of images today.

I apologise to those with slower ?tinterweb connections.

Photo-stitching makes this look a bit warpified. Bentificated.

“Helloooo precious!” An ittybitty bit o’new concrete, nestling coyishly, in the Autumn leaves.

(I really should get out of the house more)

These ladder-leaf things are the templates for the gravel sub-base.

rubbish efffort stitch-wise, but still worth looking at.

Some of the shuttering up… I am trying not to think about the vandals.

This makes me shake my head in fear of the Turd-Army. Any fancy a bet as to whether it lasts the weekend’s vandals or not?

More work on Monday for the joiner if it gets trashed. Another day lost for all of us. Let’s cross our fingers eh?

On the left, you can see that they are starting to build up the bank-hip, with subsoil they are scooping out of the northern side of the park.

The shoulders.

Our wee homage to ’Wallos’. As yet skeletal.

There is a lot more ’sweetening,’ at this hip. In fact it’s almost a full blown transition. Except it ain’t.

This illustrates that they are concentrating on raising the level of this area, to build the final platform for the rectangular bowl . Otherwise, a very boring photo of a compressor in a hole.

Aloha,

Stoked! I can update the Progress Map again today.

I knew it would be worth going up to see it!

Under that plastic is the new concrete, poured yesterday. Hard enough to walk on evidently.

There’s the other new bit.

Prepping the other side of Wallos for undersurfacing.

The wallride bowled corner getting sorted.

Even when all that mesh is covered with concrete, there is still another bit to go on top…

How cool would it be to make the curve out of toughened glass…? 🙂

peas

Lots of photos today. I wish I could make them bigger! I have kept them crunched down a bit to save downloading time.

The first of the verticals!

WhenI walked up to the fence and saw these, I cheesily admit that the firstthing that came into my head was that song by Blur(?) that ’they’ useall the time on those bad ’alternative sport / adventure’ shows on TV:wot goes: “Whoo-hoo! A-GA-FEE-LA-A-BOBO! Whoo-Hoo!” (repeat untilbored)

🙂 I know those aren’t the real lyrics but thats what it sounds like.

Anyway,I got stoked… in spite of that.

Closer.

So, almost finished, notice the channels cut out of wall. When the transition goes in, it’ll be done.

Theidea is: you carve up the transition and then catch your front wheelsin that ledge. Then you fly sideways and land your whole body onthose spikes sticking up in the ’bowled’ corner.

Pretty COOL huh!

Just kidding. I think you might have guessed that.

The channels are to ensure enough concrete thickness where thetransition goes vertical against the wall. No thin pinging/flaking’crete.

I must say; this bit of the park looks like the imprint of someone who sat in moist sand. A sort buttock-cast.

Not to worry.

Noticethe guys working on the rebar, behind the curve of the wall. That’s thejoiner, watching, who will be putting together that curved shuttersoon.

Mmm, there’s that song again in my head.

Can you hear it when you look at this photo?

“Whoo-Hoo! Wagga-Baga-Na-Lu-Lu!” etc.

I love the latest bit’omesh. All curvy and stuff.

This means the only bit of flat-work left to mesh and shutter is the platform around theSquare Bowl! Then it’s all ’downhill’ as they say.

Slightly better detail, despite the JPG crunch.

Stop looking at his bum. Look at the park.

I have run out of witty comments.

Whooo-hooo!

This ’Keyhole’ is going to be a bit gnarlier that I had imagined.

It’ll be interesting anyway. Remember; this is basically a curvedbank, not a transition. Variably 20 – 40 degrees, with a 500mmsweetener at the bottom. It hope it will be good for practicingflip-tricks; because it’s a flat face. Then you can take them to theminiramp where the transition makes them trickier to land.

Insert lame joke about spiderman here.

They (Clachan)reckon if the weather holds they will be increasing the speed ofconstruction. In the last month, we’ve had 16 days of rain.

*Euan’s question: ’Will this site be maintained once the park is up and running?’

Answer:’Dunno.’ Probably to a certain extent. Depends what people want from thesite after it is finished being a construction update thang.

***A big DundeeConcrete shout out to ’The Mighty Goosh.’ Currentlyrecovering from knee surgery. Get better soon. But not too soon,because the park won’t be ready, dude. ***

“AGGA-BAGA-NA-NU-NU! WHOOHOO!”

I don’t have that single or album, but I have the feelling I will never want to, now.

Stoked… there’s the first bit’o undersurface.

Beforeanyone (attention: bikers*) thinks they can go and sneakilysession the place… that surface is thin, and rough as hell. There arespikes of rebar sticking out every foot, and it does NOT meet the flatbottom. So you will end up damaging yourself, as well as the park.

__________________________________________

Rubbish photo below, sorry. It was geting dark, hence the blur. You can just aboutsee the rebar sticking up. It’s what the plastic is snagged onto.

closer:

Those things ain’t twigs.

The first of the shutters going up to make the wallride.

Re: toilet provision and lights.

There is a RUMOUR, thatthe council are thinking of re-jigging another bit in Dudhope Park intoa ’multi-use sports area,’ whatever that means. I would guess thatwould also mean some funding going into things like toilets etc. As fortiming with the skatepark; I doubt it will happen in the next year ortwo. Lights… who knows.

Honestly, If we had more money there would definitely be moreconcrete and most probably lights. I am frankly embarrased by the lackof STUFF round the edge of the park; blocks, rails, banks etc.

That ’bite’ taken out of the southern portion still keeps me awakeat night. Another 10-20k and we could have had an amazing mini-plazawhere there is now going to be just grass. sigh….

*In response to a recent comment: I say ’bikers’ because they werethe last people as reported to me having been into the site and ridingaround (judging by the tracks left.) Also the tempting possibility ofriding what LOOKS fine for large wheels, but in fact is still unsafe.

No offense.

To be honest, I don’t think any semi-respectable bmxer would want towreck their bike, or themselves on such gnarly terrain. I’m actuallyworried about the wee brats who will inevitably break in and give it ago. But then they probably won’t be reading this, wouldn’t listen anyway,and thus, this is apointless rant by yours truly. 🙂

If you DO see any idiots impaledon the rebar, please call an ambulance, as per normal. And possiblyClachan;to tell them to bring some disinfectant.

Let us roll on.

PS: Check the article on Scotland in the new Thrasher!!!

’They’ wanted to talk about the construction of the wallride/wave thang, so I went up totalk build-talk. It’s a difficult thing to build in certain,constrictive ways, but I think we have it sorted as good as.

I couldn’t pretend to actually be a builder, but I do know what we need to happen…at one point the guy started repeatedly banging his head against the desk…is that a bad sign?

Just kidding. btw

Hmmm, When taking this photo, I was standing down there,camera at eye level. I’m only about 5’8″, so thats gonna be a prettychunky hip, if I’m not mistaken.

I can’t wait to see Stu Graham hauling his gorilla booty over that thing.

This, of course, is from the other way. In the previous photo I was sort of under the van.

Not literally. I’ll be XXXXXXXXXX’d if I’m gonna get my new £5 fleece dirty for a fool thing like that.

It was over by that drain up to the right. no not thatone, the other one, up. Yeah I know It’s just a wee dot. sorry, webresolution, it’s a drain.

Bored yet?

MMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH.

Or ’rebar,’ if you like.

And proof that the guys were getting on with the job, in the sunshine.

More proof.

Me on lip of bowl, not at correct/width height yet.

Patience.

Speaking of which, there is now way this puppy is getting built by the end of November. Is there?

No pessimism here, just realism at the way the weather clamps down on crete pouring. But, better done well than rushed, eh?

Other end of new mesh, the top of wallos.

What do you all say to the idea of Tshirts?

Dundeeconcrete could get them printed up and and sell them for Lights-Money….?

Any takers?

We are also thinking of setting up a paypal account, for donations. Who knows.

Ifanyone out there wants to make something happen ( a gig night etc.)then go for it. Perhaps giving the money to SWAV is the best option inthe short term.

Let us know and we will help advertise ting.

Stay tuned.

More pour.

Been so wet recently, didn’t know if it would happen.

Wheee! The newest flat-bottom.

(Or wee! it’s raining)

More mesh too. Dunno what to call this area.

Here’s the same angle in model-speak:

A handy progress map :

Crude but effective.

Uh-huh…

hmmm…..

well…. there’s SOME movement at the site, a little, sho nuff.

Mesh and shuttering laid for the flat-bottom of the top section.

I’m sure glad he’s watching!

… in case anything sneaks up on the guys doing the work.

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!

WHEN THAT GUY SAYS:

………..(please insert the suspense music here)

Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh GOLLY!

I can’t WAIT!

I’m gonna make my OWN POPCORN to eat while I watch the NEXT episode! hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!?

The other side of our ’Wallos’ version, has been raised and compacted. levels looking good.

Sawthese mysterious hieroglyphs on one of the shutters near the fence. Ilike the digger, and the people in the trees, but I have the feelingthat the worried guy with glasses,on the left, is meant to be me!

Am quite calm about it all actually.

Rubbish photo, but here’s the newly re-poured wallride foundation.

Thetop bowl (for lack of better term) has had it’s flat-area compacted andleveled, you can see the drain hole there. Notice the new level in themiddle of photo.

slowly but surely.