Cascade Skatepark | Skateboarding Historical past

Cascade skatepark, is situated off Route 40 in Catonsville, in Baltimore County. The remanence of components of this skatepark nonetheless stay, but in the present day it’s hidden amongst bush, filth and simply scrap, but this can be a very cool spot that was as soon as an enormous a part of skateboarding historical past in Baltimore.

Cascade Skatepark was constructed by Lee Plate and Lee had a dream when he was a child to race vehicles, but may by no means discover a protected place to take action. So when his son David grew to become obsessive about skateboarding and the truth that there was no protected, authorized place to take action within the space on the time, it gave beginning to an thought which might later become the development of the skatepark.

Lee took the plunge and bought his stake in an auto service station through which he was a co-owner and partnered up with one other native businessman Joe Mullaney. Each Lee and Joe did a whole lot of analysis a yr earlier than the development of the skatepark, they visited parks up and down the East Coast and had been in a position to acquire inspiration and likewise recognized errors that had been frequently being repeated. They’re quoted saying

“Once we had been prepared to begin designing Cascade we knew not what to do”. Lee Plate

It ended up being a 250,000 USD facility on two acres that housed 7 several types of out of doors bowls / swimming pools that assorted in talent degree, which had been opened in August of 1978. The variability that this place had would have been epic, we stumbled throughout an previous flyer that was made for the park they usually had actually considered so much when it got here to the number of terrain, which included a double pool with vert part, 50 metre banked downhill slalom, freestyle competitors space, and snakeruns. There was additionally one indoor pool that was geared for extra superior skate boarders. The indoor pool was 24 ft extensive and 10.5 ft deep, which was opened in Jan of 1979.

Throughout a brief interval after the power opened, there have been a couple of invitational contests that had been held at Cascade. One was held on the third of March 1979 and this place was a hub for skate boarders in Baltimore in the course of the late 70’s. Throughout this time there was Cascade and one different skatepark, the Concrete Wave, that existed within the space on the time. From what we will collect this place held and nonetheless holds a whole lot of sentimentality to many skaters of the 70s technology.

In order we transfer into the 80’s sadly nearly all of the skatepark was destroyed, but one bowl would stay for an unlikely cause. Apparently this bowl was constructed to additionally act as a water drainage system. In the course of the building of the skatepark the quantity of soil that was shifted and the truth that the grounds had been barely slanted an settlement was made with the county to construct this bowl which might additionally act as a water run off station, that also is attached to the county storm water system to this present day. Ironic that in the course of the previous few a long time it has nonetheless been skated and survived regardless of having quite a lot of heavy objects together with filth and branches dumped into wider areas of the bowl.

Now taking a look at how this spot has been used over the a long time, it looks like it has been used occasionally. Regardless of the makes an attempt to make this place unrideable. It made a characteristic in Powell’s Chaos throughout 1992, in the course of the Bucky Lasek part, he’s skating the steeper pipe in the beginning of the bowl, and lands an honest measurement ollie. It’s also mentioned to characteristic in an addition of Thrashers epic spots: the locations you have to skate earlier than you die. From what we will collect it has all the time been a recognized spot that did collect skaters in the course of the 80’s and 90’s and folks would danger trespassing to get to skate it.

Powell “Chaos”from 1992 skip to 2:51 for Bucky Lasek skateboarding Cascade.

There’s a little bit of a legend that the indoor bowl nonetheless exists, but this has not been confirmed. It’s mentioned that it nonetheless sits there on the property however nobody has been in a position to trip it because of the complete property being guarded off.