Flats

  I did a little piece on the beloved skate spot Halifax has dubbed "The Flats" about 3 or 4 months ago. I pitched it along with another piece to Scotty MacDonald over at King Shit. I didn't post it up because I was waiting to hear back from Scotty. Some time went by, then more, then Scotty called me and left me a 3 minute message about the whole thing. I enjoyed it and thought you might enjoy it as well, so if you click here you can listen to the message in it's entirety. Scotford is a great dude, but a full email inbox can take it's toll on anyone. I should also mention that towards the end he mentions he's going to put the "Morgan Smith" thing on the web....he means the Morgan Campbell interview I did with him about his Staple mag. Hopefully we'll be seeing that Morgan Campbell interview up on the King Shit site now that the new issue is done eh Scotty? Anyways, here's my Flats article.

Flats:

Flats- Mid 90’s- John Hargraft photo

Every city has one. The meet up spot, it’s a stock element to any skate scene. You go meet up with the homies, drink your first coffee (or beer) of the day all with the ambition of eventually going street skating only to succumb to the social soiree that defines a meet up spot. Here’s a little ditty about a paved slab that we here in Halifax refer to as the Flats.

To my best knowledge, the Flats were born in the early 90’s, a bastard child to the Moosehead Grand Prix. The city paved a strip through the Commons Park grounds and like any illegitimate child of city planning, it was adopted by skateboarders.  To quote OG Halifax local ripper/photographer Greg Baller “Beer, fast cars, city politics, and quick-thinking created that spot.” 

After the adoption came the character building. With the last of the funds from the ASA (Atlantic skateboard association I can only assume) fund Baller bought some concrete slabs and lifted them in using his scrotum as a sling, they called him “Long bag Baller” for years after. Somewhere around the same time there was also a manny pad with a little step up added. These obstacles have become the herpes of the spot, never going away, but throughout the years there have been many a less serious STD’s, (Skateually transmitted diseases)  passing through the immune system of the flats. Countless kicker ramps, flat bars, boxes, Boudreau box, quarter pipes, outdoor gyms (yes an outdoor gym that doubled as the best manny pad the flats ever saw) and any garbage picked up along the way have littered the flats. It became the skate park before the skate park and even hosted its fair share of contests.

Dave Priest, early 90’s comp. Rainy Melon. Jody Jamieson photo

Dave Priest- mid 90’s comp-Melon fakie- Jody Jamieson photo

Jon Regan, mid-puberty switch FS flip, Early 90’s comp.  Jody Jamieson photo

In 1995 the city built what was supposed to be the first stage in a skate park, the bowl. I didn’t live in Halifax at this point but I imagine this took some heat off the ol’ flats.  But honestly right now as we speak the flats is located on the same grounds as a half a million dollar concrete skate park, but I still skate these 15+ year old concrete slabs and I’m certainly not the only one. I mean I do skate the new park, but my cup of cum is really the flats.

Me (Nacho) Switch Crooks-2006- Greg Boudreau photo

Before the new skate park was done the flats was basically all we had (besides street skating, but who has the ambition for that these days?)  One day I remember fondly is showing up to the flats for an average sesh and seeing Arto, Creager, Kyle Leeper and Sheckler skating the flats. Yes “double pits to chesty” himself skating our lil spot. Seeing a dude like Ronnie Creager, skate a bench that me and some homies hack sawed the back off of (much to the disparagement of the Halifax regional police) was a treat indeed. I also have to give a big shout out to my homie Birdman, fly like a bird, Adam Burgess for sticking the metal edge on the concrete block with liquid nails. That thing has been standing strong for 6 or 7 years now.

 Craig Boudreau?-KF indy?-John Hargraft photo

 Ok, so its not the Brooklyn Banks, and its never beget a boner from an out-of-towner so anxious to skate the spot he prematurely ejac’s in his Levi’s but it has seen its share of nbd’s, epic S.K.A.T.E games, beers, blunts, punks, fights, and anything else that comes from hanging out in the streets all day. As of late it’s even seen some hate from the city, that makes it a legit skate spot right? If the city starts to deconstruct it without thinking of what the space is mainly used for? Recently the city dug up some gravel on the other side of the blocks rendering them un-skateable. It’s not a huge set back though, once the spring hits we just need some strong arms to move the blocks back so we can once again do tricks over them.  I’m thinking that the city planted those trees to make it difficult to see the cops. Once those bushes grow in we’ll have SWAT teams leaping though them and busting skateboarders for no helmets. That’s what I said, yes, no helmets. For some reason or another our fine city of Halifax is deeply concerned with our “safety” and cannot bear to look at us skateboarding sans helmet, without handing us a ticket. Be thankful your city has better things to do, wait, ours does too it would just rather deal with the skateboarders than the real criminals. Long live the Flats!!!!