Spot Check Diablo Valley
story and photos by John Botch

With its rolling hills, warm climate, BMW-driving yuppies and low crime rate, the Diablo Valley is a great place to live. Its got the best of both worlds, meaning a sprawling countryside with cows mooing and horses trotting for the country folk, and plenty of malls, nice restaurants, cool-guy clubs and bars for the city folks. It’s one of the few places you can safely raise a family. With its better than average schools with better than average teams and better than average standards and values, your kid will become a model citizen. Don’t have a family? No problem. The girls in the valley are much prettier than in your area, especially if you like blonde girls with fake tans and big fake boobs! Just choose your big-lipped mamma, stick it in, pump a few times and viola! Your own family will be started! The Valley is too boring you say? Well it’s only 35 minutes from San Francisco so you can get your ecstasy-induced groove on all night long, hop on the Bay Bridge and be home within minutes for a good night’s sleep. Instead of waking up to the smell of homeless urine and rape, you will hear the sounds of birds chirping and children playing.
Yeah, life in the Valley is pretty great, but you’re probably asking yourself, “What does any of this have to do with skating?” Well, a bunch of parks were just built, making the Valley an even better place to live, and as with any area as populated as the Diablo Valley, there are a bunch of street spots for your enjoyment. In other words, what a great place to do a “spot to go skate” article. So check the photos, call your friends and head for the Valley. Word!

CENTRAL PARK, SAN RAMON
Ever notice how many sayings there are referring to the wonders of home life? “Be it ever so humble there is no place like home,” “Mi casa es su casa,” “Home is where the heart is” etc. etc. And while being out on the road can provide wonderful experiences, coming home from a long trip to your comfortable house can’t be beat, especially when you have a skatepark like Central Park a mile away! Even though some would say this park has many design flaws (trannies are too steep, layout is poor), I believe it makes the place better, and the fact that the park is open everyday until midnight makes it even more lovely. Here’s the layout: It has a bowl w/ a shallow end, two small hips and metal coping, a fun box, 1/4 pipes everywhere, a bowled corner, plenty of hips, ledges and a variety of rails. It’s definitely one of those places that you either love or hate, but whatever your take on this park is doesn’t really matter; it is right by my house and that’s all that counts!
Facts: Free, helmet required, 8 to midnight (nice lights).
Directions: Take the Bollinger Canyon Road exit off the 680 fwy., go east and the park is about a mile on your right. See you there.

PLEASANT HILL YMCA
It’s about time big organizations get involved in building skateparks for the kiddies, especially outfits that are dedicated to youth like the YMCA. Now, you might want to keep it real and have corporations stay out of skating, but the way it looks lately it’s far too late for that, so we might as well just enjoy these superstructures that people like the Young Man’s Christian Association build! Or don’t, it’s up to you. But if you do, you will be treated to an ESPN-type snowboard course that is actually quite fun. Here’s the layout:
The street course is huge, complete with big banked walls, ledges, rails, snowboard jumps, plenty of vert, hips, escalators and a nice mini ramp with an extension. All of this and the fact it is all layered with skate light wood make this a hot spot for sure. Of course the biggest problem are roller homos, but that doesn’t matter. Just run a few over and all the rest will be scared.
Rating: 8 out of 10.
Facts: $7 a session, full pads. (Wear long sleeves and pants!)
Directions: Off the 680 freeway, take Willow Pass Road west, go about one mile and the park is on the right (next to the police station).
I had been wanting to check out some of the new parks in the East Bay for quite a while now. Then I got the idea to try and skate 10 parks in a day. Our intern from France, JP, was leaving soon, so I figured he’d be up for the adventure and I was right. Our agenda was thusly; Davis, Napa, Benicia, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Dublin, Palo Alto, Fremont, Pleasanton, Tracy and then the Sacramento River Delta for bass fishing and beers. The night before we left, Sonny handed me Bruce’s piece with directions to the three parks I couldn’t find directions to on the web. We were on! We left Sacto. at 7a.m. and our first stop was Davis. I knew the park would be closed this early since it’s fenced with a full time pad and helmet cop, so we went to the Davis Ditch instead. I had been there a few days earlier and it was overgrown with weeds. So this time I came prepared with clippers for a weed whackin’ session. We had a fun early a.m. session and moved on to the next spot. We decided to skip Napa ‘cause it was out of the way and I’d been there before. Down to nine, we rolled up to Benicia and JP was stoked ‘cause he’d seen a Bill Pepper video part there. After a short session, we moved on to Pleasant Hill’s YMCA park. I knew it’d be closed, but I thought I might be able to pull the journalism/publicity thing. But, the Young Christians weren’t having any of what I was selling, so we just took photos of the masonite mecca and moved on. Be warned, the YMCA is strict; the ramps are chained up, helmets and pads are for sure and it costs some $$$. It looks sick though, I wish we’d been able to skate. San Ramon more than made up for it though. That park is awesome and I’ll definitely go back. We skipped Dublin on our way to Palo Alto, ‘cause we’d be going right by it on our way back. It may be kind of old school, but Palo Alto fucking rules!! The high speed carving and forever flow lines are so much fun! JP was super stoked on it as well. If you have any affinity to surfing, carving and going fast, this park is worth a two hour drive and if you’re nearby, just go. Fremont was next, but our directions sucked and it took us forever to find. More masonite, but free. Not as good as Pleasant Hill though. Nice mini ramp for sure. We were kind of bitter about getting lost and losing time though, so we didn’t hang for long. Besides after San Ramon and Palo Alto, we had caviar palates. Next up was Pleasanton. I shoulda read Bruce’s description first though. After dealing with the traffic and finding the place, we skated for 10 minutes. I won’t be back. Next was Dublin. It was getting late and the traffic sucked. We thought about beelining it to Tracy. Bruce’s description of Dublin made us want to go for it though. Fuck! It was all fenced up and closed ‘cause they’re putting in lights. It looked insane though, as good as or even better than San Ramon. I will be back when it’s open. When we got to Tracy we were whooped, and the beer on ice was calling our name. The street course and small bowl was fun, but it was bass time. We hit a cool dive bar called the Heinbockel Inn on the way. Ice cold draft beers in an iced mug were $1.00. Friday night is the lingerie show. An hour later we were chillin’ in my boat on the Delta, drinkin’ beer and listenin’ to the birds. We caught one bass and had a great dinner at the Breadfruit Tree. It was a good day.
Final Tally: 10 attempts, 9 completions, 7 engagements, 1 bar, 1 bass, 11 stops total, 275 miles, 16 hours.
Check out www.skateboarding.com and the Yahoo map page for directions to the parks that Bruce didn’t cover.

STREET SPOTS
Like I said, any place as populated as the Diablo Valley is going to have a whole bunch of street spots. Guys like Wade Speyer, Dave Warne, Brian Fraustad and others were the first to find a lot of the places that are still being skated today. Recently skaters like Brian Anderson, his boyfriend Brad Staba, Corey “mini-Greco” Duffel, Joel Jutegier and others have added quite nicely to the plethora of spots. Without the aid of a photographer who actually lives in the Valley (until now), the Valley hasn’t gotten much exposure in the mags or on video, and when it does surely the question will be, “Where the fuck is that place?!” There is everything here, marble ledges, bad ass handrails, gaps etc., but of course I am not going to provide directions. Find some locals from Metro Board Shop, they might let loose with the info. However, if your sponsor is on you to shoot an ad or get some video footage that isn’t played out, try to get a hold of me through Heckler. I might me able to help you out.

PLEASANTON
This heap is the grandfather of the Diablo Valley skateparks. Although a good place to learn hip tricks, there isn’t much more to do here. Locals like Mike Pepper and “chunky” Jesse rip this place so hard it almost looks fun, but with so many other good spots around you will be bored in 10 minutes. Actually the best thing about this park is the pub right next to it; when you get tired of skating you can drown your sorrows over a pint of good beer. Word.
Rating: 2 out of 10 (unless you count the pub, 9 out of 10).
Facts: Free, no pads.
Directions: In the middle of Pleasanton.

DUBLIN SKATEPARK
I had to take my girlfriend to court one time. I’m not sure what she did, a traffic ticket or smoking pot or something, that part doesn’t really matter. It’s what happened to me that matters. See, she never went to court before, and while the judge was talking to another criminal, she asked me a question. While I was giving my reply the asshole judge slapped me with disrupting court procedures and sent me to the Santa Rita county jail for 24 hours. It was fucking crazy. One second I am in court with my girlfriend and the next I am on a bus with hardened criminals. Now if this was today I wouldn’t of tripped, I’m somewhat of a tough guy now and probably would’ve had fun bullshitting with these characters. But back then, I had long bleached hair, no tattoos and was a prime candidate for jail loving! Soon off the bus and in the actual jail for fingerprinting and mug shots, the whistles and threats of man-love started coming. I was scared shitless. Luckily the guards saw this and were kind enough to put me in solitary confinement. “Yes!” I thought, “I am in the clear. Just sit out my 24 hours, get released and I am home free.” No such luck. This guy that kept starting fights in the main population had to be separated from the other prisoners, and of course he needs to be in solitary. Well when they were trying to find him a cell, they chose mine! It seems they didn’t see me huddled in the corner, and now I was chillin’ with a hardened criminal. Fucking great! Well I’m happy to report there was no raping going on, he was cool to me, seems he was just into fucking with the other brothers only. He even had some great stories about gang life that kept me laughing for hours. Then he left. I was real sad to see him go but no big deal. I had only 12 hours more to go until sunshine! Of course I wasn’t out of there for about 15 hours, but whatever, that’s how it goes. When I hit the streets the only thing I could think was, “Man, I’m never fucking going near that fucking place again!” And I kept that promise up until now. See, the new Dublin park is located right by that same jail and it is so fun that I have to go back. At least I am on the outside this time. On to the terrain: snake run w/ bowl and metal coping, a capsule bowl w/ a channel, hips, ledges, spines, rails etc.
Rating: 6 out of 10.
Facts: Free, pads.
Directions: Take the Santa Rita Road exit off the 580 fwy., go north, follow the signs to the jail, park is on your left.
There you have it! The valley awaits you and your four wheels, so grab your crew and head out. You won’t be disappointed. That is, unless you don’t like skateboarding.

ANTIOCH PUBLIC SKATEPARK
Last stop is the new park in Antioch. With its circular track formation, this place is fun for the whole family. You can skate it either clock or counterclockwise hitting all of its wonderful obstacles, or choose to session just one part (just don’t get in anyone’s way). What does it offer? A figure 8 bowl w/ metal coping, a long curved 1/4 pipe w/ metal coping, plenty of hips, small pumpable corners all around and plenty of ledges.
Rating: 6 out of 10 — not the best, but indeed worth going. Facts: Free, pads required (cops give tickets), plenty of sluts and gangmembers.
Directions: Off hwy. 4, take Deer Valley exit south, go about 5 miles then turn right on Prewitt Water Park (across from Deer Valley High).