Greenwood Village Skate Park offers a suburban community the chance to skate transitional bowls, gaps, and a mellow ledge.
Artwork by Mateo Rocha
Being my local skate park, Greenwood Village (GV) has a laid back set-up where skaters – or bikers – can perform flat ground tricks, ride bowls, clear gaps, and enjoy Colorado through the clear view of the Rocky Mountains.
One great element of GV is its transitional bowl (small size, pool-shaped skate-able bowls). All of the vertical features fit inside the single large bowl of the park. The angles of the quarter pipes are very mellow, so for any person who is not feeling comfortable with bowl skating, this makes for optimal training grounds. A downside of the bowls is the fact that the coping (metal tube bordering the tops of quarter pipes) is too small to lock grinds on easily. One has to lock on precisely into the grind or else the board will slide right out.
The transitional bowls include seven quarter pipes, one hip transfer, and one spine-transfer, all measuring a little over five feet tall; ideal for relaxed bowl riding and improvisations. Since the bowls are so smooth, it is optimal for warming up and stretching muscles with out the hazard of pushing too hard right off the bat and pulling a leg.
When riding along the transitional quarter pipes going West one will eventually drop down into the lower half of the bowl, where the vert walls start scaling up to nine feet, and then 13 feet (vert walls and vert skating is vertical riding on large size walls). The coping on these pools are very well placed, even though the angle of inclination could still be shaped better for smoother riding.
Photo by Mateo Rocha
One has to be creative when street skating at GV. The park provides a gap known as two-block, because of the two large stair-like steps measuring about seven feet high. The landing of the two-block is angled downward; so that it’s not a ramp, but it is significant enough that if you don’t land just right you can slip out violently (you can also just clear the entire angled landing to the flat part and you won’t have this issue). A low, long ledge borders the park along the East side, measuring over 30 feet, where skaters execute countless combinations of grinds, slides, and manual balancing acts.
Being creative is what makes GV entertaining. If one can’t open their mind to seeing a feature differently, GV will only seem mildly amusing. One perfect example of ingenuity in this park is the “Colorado rock,” a large rock that acts as an extension to the east facing quarter pipe, where skaters charge at it to execute wallies (wall ollie), spins, or grabs.
Photo by Mateo Rocha
If given the chance to remodel the park, most local riders would take it without hesitating. GV skater Wade Novotny comments on the issue: “This park needs to have a larger street section. We could add stair sets, pyramids, rails, and walls to the East side of GV. Regardless, this park is pretty chill, but I would add so many new features,” said Novotny The feeling is pretty mutual between all the locals at the park. A street-oriented addition to GV would change the park scene from being a mellow little park to a more highly cherished place to skate.
I realize entirely that GV is a pretty low-scale park compared to the other colossal parks in Colorado, but when there’s nothing to do on a Wednesday afternoon in Southeast Denver, GV seems like a pretty ideal place to be. The openness of the park, the smooth concrete, and the people make Greenwood Park pretty welcoming. As a skater there is nothing more I can ask for from GV than this.
Most people who come through the skate park might consider it to be “lame” because of the amount of features it does not have. Contrary to popular belief, GV still manages to attract one skate crowd, including myself, back to it’s grey concrete. Something about the relaxed nature of the park, with the beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains, and being surrounded by trees, makes this park what I like to call my local park.
