Lame

If anyone has ever ridden the etnies Skatepark of Lake Forest, you know they let bikes in, but it’s not necessarily “bike friendly.” Since the day the park opened there have been, pardon my honesty, asshole skaters working the place, a number of confrontations between them and bike riders, and tons of intentionally shitty moves (playing the worst possible music during the bike sessions, not drying up puddles in sections until after the bike session is over, etc.). There’s also a bowl there that bikes can’t go in because of the pool coping. Did I mention that there are only three bike sessions a week for a total of 6-1/2 hours of riding time? Want to know how many hours the skaters get during a week? 68-1/2. If you’ve ever been to the mid-week night session or the Sunday morning session you know it’s packed with bikes to the point that it’s not even that fun to ride because of the volume of people everywhere. To add to this, it seems that whenever there’s a special event of some sort it happens to fall during a bike session. It’s happened many times, and still happens, as you can see from this note that was posted today at the park. The only positive thing, BMX-wise, is that they hired a BMXer to work there?Dillon H. Dillon is super cool and has probably kept a lot of riders from writing the park off completely. I know many guys have gone there once and because of all the BS have never gone back.

I own a house in Lake Forest, one of the reasons I moved there was because of this park. My taxes go towards helping pay for that place to exist. It’s great that they allow bikes (every park should, but we know how it is), but this is lame.

Do us a favor, take a second to call the number in the photo and complain, and e-mail the people below and let them know how unfair the skatepark is to BMX. Even if you live far away and never have the chance to go to this park, you’ll be helping other riders and fighting for a good cause. If you do write or call, please try to sound intelligent and not just go nuts. Done the right way, it could help things, done the wrong way will only hurt.

Thanks!

?Keith

*Just so you know, this park is run by the City of Lake Forest, and etnies doesn’t have much say on what goes on there, so please don’t go hating on etnies.

Here are the people you should complain to:

Nick Gates: NGates@ci.lake-forest.ca.us

Vicky Blethen: VBlethen@ci.lake-forest.ca.us

Rob Gaylord: RGaylord@ci.lake-forest.ca.us