Paul Rodriguez — “Why I Closed My Park”
What started with a box and flatbar ultimately became Paul Rodriguez‘s private park in 2007. The park grew to a full wooden course, serving as a training facility for Paul and his homies. The park would receive three complete overhauls and 4-5 remodels from several different companies before its destruction in 2015. Earlier today on Paul’s YouTube, he went in on how his park came to be and why after 8-years he decided to close it down.
“Other than the fact it would be awesome to have your own skatepark, the reason I put the plan into action was because I was having a really hard time during the week getting good skate sessions in… I was looking for a place to go skate uninterrupted.”
Paul admitted he was beginning to get frustrated with hitting the streets during the week. The obvious reasons: getting kicked out, not finding a spot you’re particularly hyped on, the inconsistency weighted against the demands of a professional skateboarder. So Paul talked to his sponsors and made it happen. From 2007-2015 Paul’s park was everything he had hoped, but things started to change as our park, Shane O’Neill’s park, and Biebel’s park gave Paul consistent access to productive sessions during the week.
“It just got to the point where like, shoot, I am spending all of this money and I don’t really go there as much as I used too. Skating everyone else’s parks and public parks, so it just kind of made sense maybe I should let it go. It served its purpose for sure. I miss it, but it’s also freeing not having that responsibility.”
Paul clears the air after rumors of board theft and break-ins floated around as the reason Paul closed his park. When you take into account about the demands placed on Paul on a daily, weekly and annual basis, a private park is a sanctuary from the madness. As you already know Paul, our doors are always open.
