Welcome to
Donald, Oregon

This is a love story.

May 2000

May 2001

May 2002

Ian Merrick sets one up for the home team.
 
 

    Donald supported it's youth 100%.

From asphalt slab and home made ramps to Oregon's first and only public skate pool,
Donald has been nothing but love, trust and good spirit.

Praise and gratitude to the 750 people of Donald, Oregon.

  Donald Rules.

Location
  Donald is about 15 miles south of Portland, just off I-5

Directions
  From I-5 take the Donald/Aurora exit and head west.  In about one mile, go south/left on Butteville Road.  At the stop sign, go east/left on Main St.  The park is next to the railroad tracks.
 

The park is 2500 square feet and cost about $35,000.  It was built by Dreamland in less than a month.
  Who would have thought of a better and more appropriate use of space?  Not many, but only one group would build it.
  Donald's new park is not just another concrete addition to Oregon, it is a cultural addition to skateboarding in Oregon.
  The pool is a slightly smaller Nude Bowl, a long time icon of insane sessions in the desert.  Within skateboarding is a devout and burly sub-culture of pool riders.  Skate parks owe much of their roots to pools.  Donald's is almost nine feet deep.  But kids are incredible.  In two days of skating the pool, local kids almost reached the coping.  Two days!  These are kids that had never before ridden vert.  In two weeks, the 13 year olds were able to carve over the stairs!  That is amazing.

  The quality of most skate parks currently designed and built is being butchered for false ideas of "safety" and community pride.
 

This is a foolish idea, but it is being used by predatory companies such as Purkiss-Rose -the most prolific skatepark designer in the country- and modular skatepark companies to obtain city bids for skateparks.  Often the decision makers are adults and parents who don't skate.  Purkiss Rose and the like are taking advantage of this ignorance and preying on fear.  They promote the idea of "safe" skate parks.  But, again, this theory is the opposite of truth.  Big structures are not dangerous.  What is dangerous is when skills outgrow facility.  This leads to boredom and frustration, which trouble and injury often follow.
Skate parks need to be built to encourage skills, not retard them.
 Another idea that Purkiss Rose and other playground industry companies are exploiting is "community design" or "community input."
  Almost never is it the case that there is enough experience in a community to design a super skate park.  Why do we allow these facilities to be so strongly influenced by the whims and fantasies of 13 year olds?  If you want a super skate park, hire professionals.  Dreamland, for example, builds what they feel is the best design, period.  They have been skating their whole life.  They understand what works and what doesn't.  The country, especially California, is littered with examples of community designed skate parks.  How many are on the top ten list?  One, Burnside.  How many communities have to be robbed before there is an understanding that community designed skate parks don't work well?!  When a skate park is designed (or built) poorly, everyone loses.  The youth lose opportunity to grow.  The City loses money, both on what it spent and the value lost in a vacant facility and lose faith in skateboarding.  Parents lose the hope of excitement for thier kids.  Kids are awesome, but regarding skate parks they shine in the result, not the process.  Kids and adults who don't skate have no place in the design process of a super skate park.  It sounds harsh, but it's not.  I guarantee there are more good feelings behind a super skate park than a poor one.
  Donald city members addressed the fact that they didn't know anything about skate parks, though they had built a wooden one themselves.  They trusted the professionals of Dreamland.   Beginning of story.  Now Donald gets visitors every single day, from all over the place, Australia, England, California, Japan, Washington, Newberg.  The last time I visited, there were six women and a daughter there, all skating.
  So don't let the greedy people at Purkiss Rose or Skate Wave or any of these other modular skate park companies, prey on ignorance based on fear and fantasy in your community.  Purkiss Rose has designed more parks than any other company in the States.  Then reason would suggest they are the best designers in the country, that their designs, from sheer practice if nothing else, are excellent.  How many Purkiss Rose skate parks are in the world's top ten list or even top thirty.
Donald sets the best example for a small skate park
 


Mark "Red" Scott


Chris Adams, in addition to this feeble over the stairs, gapped the micro pipe to the deep end.  Uhh!
 
 

Donald's original page

Donald action photos

Donald action photos 2

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