Just curious if there are any skaters lurking about. I head a group called the International Society of Skateboarding Moms and we're looking to do a nation-wide tour. Your vote for best skateparks in the U.S. ?

Thanks!
Barb
www.skateboardmom.com

Well they may not be among the best in the country, but they are certainly in one of the best locations:

Kihei Skate Park at Kalama Park, or the Stone Wave Sk8 Park in Paia, both on Maui

Its funny but skateboarders are non existant here.

All the kids surf instead. I wonder if that is the case in all coastal areas?

Someone opened a skate park here and it went out of business.

Skateboarding is big in So. California. We have many skate parks, and many of the boarders also surf.

The Vans skatepark at The Block in Orange, California has a nice observation area where mom's could sit and watch the action.

I expect that if my skateboarding husband and I ever have kids, I'll be a skateboarding mom some day too! For now, I'm the skateboard wife and have been with him to many a park over the years. Just a few memorable ones: Huntington Beach, CA; Denver, CO; Rye, NH; Silverthorne, CO (probably my favorite due to it's location in the Rockies). Sometime in the near future they will be opening one in our city of Boston, which has an active skateboarding scene and in fact, our good friends own one of the only skate shops in the whole city. So if your group does a tour and you find yourself in Boston, you should definitely stop into The Orchard, on Mission Hill.

If the kids don't skate, how do they get to the beach? It is not uncommon to see skaters with their surfboards under their arms heading to the beach, both on Maui and in SoCal.

Hey logandog, what makes you think we are looking for a place to sit and watch the action? we are SKATEBOARDING moms. Yes, we actually get on the boards and ride. But thanks for the idea. We meet at Van's skatepark in Orange every Friday morning!

carlytown, I've actually had a tour of the site for the Boston skatepark by the skatepark director. My group (Intl. Society of Skateboarding Moms) plans to do a demo there when it opens! Come on down!

It looks to be an awesome facility.

since you mentioned boston, just north 38 miles, is newburyport, a hot destination in and of itself. we have an incredible skate park that consists of three differently shaped bowls of varying depths surrounded by a narros surface of various humps, rails, ramps, etc. it is free, fenced in, with a skateguard posted at all times.

skaters come from all around. we've seen you skateboard moms there before. you're fab; it's quite impressive to watch you!

we're going to spend a week in oakland,ca. can you advise me where my 10-year old going-pro skater can skate and are there skateguards (meaning i can do a drop-off; he's only 10), and is there a fee?

we will day trip to santa cruz, and do an overnight to big sur during this week. if you know of any really good skate parks in those areas, that would be helpful too.

i love the skateboard lingo. keep dropping the vert you moms. here's a great idea - an online u.s. map of skate parks with photos, detailed descripts, schedule of events, and reviews/forums. skaters really do get around....tell me how you got into this sport?
corwina

http://www.50-50.com/absorb/articles...ado_2001.shtml
Just head up I-5.

corwin, what a coincidence you saw me and my pals at newburyport. that was a heck of an event--great town, too. perhaps your skater child saw me perform at his school the day before? anyway, sorry to say, I'm not too up on the NorthCal skate scene. I would advise checking out www.concretedisciples.com but please note that that site also has stuff on it that might not be for young eyes! Cheers, Skateboard Mom

yes, skateboardmom2, parker saw you and came home telling me the whole family had to go to your event at the skatepark. you were signing things or had t-shirts or something. it was a hoot.
all my girlfriends came with their families to see ya'll skate. we loved it.
we did years of fundraising to get the newburyport park built. in my modest opinion, parker's too, the newburyport park is better than rye, nh mentioned by carlyshells. we go to rye frequently ....especially in the winter since it's indoors, larger (more crowded ususally), and as it's fee-based instead of FREE, they host more events with the pros.

many thanks for the website. i'll bookmark it for the trip. let me know what your learn about good parks from your inquiry.

corwina