In my neck of the woods, there was a local newspaper building with a perfect little 3 stair that the locals skated every day for like 10 minutes until we got kicked out. On the weekends it was all clear. This was during the 90's. The paper went out of business in the early 2000's and the building was demolished in the mid 2000's. I saw the workers actually tearing up the stairs one morning on my way to work. I pulled back around, asked about the rail, and they were more than happy to give it to me. I took it to a friend that worked in a metal fabrication shop and asked him to bend the support bars straight and cut them down to 12" in exchange for a case of beer. The most time consuming part of this story was bringing a small sledgehammer and spiked masonry chisel to this shopping plaza down the street from my apartment late at night and slowly digging out holes in the pavement (at the bottom of the hole, I epoxied a big spoon to a long screwdriver to scoop out the last few inches) to set pieces of PVC tubing for the supports to slide into. Aside from saving the first handrail I ever did, I learned so many tricks on that rail during late-night sessions. A couple other dudes somehow stumbled across my late-night sesh a month or two later and became regulars, so when I moved to Denver in 2009 I gave the rail to one of those guys and I hope he's either using it or passed it on for the next crew of skaters to enjoy.
I had a kinda similar experience, my friends and I broke into an abandoned building and made our own (bad) skate park out of salvage wood from the building itself. 6 years later I'm hanging out at my city's new skatepark talking to some new people and I mention this diy park I made. They were shocked that I had made It and apparently it was used a lot by kids from around the neighbourhood. I had taken a break from skating so I was completely unaware of this and it made me feel really happy that I had made these kids lives more fun.
"This is a skateboard park, eh!" You don't know how happy hearing that made this Florida guy. BTW, I'll be telling my son to "stop being a blob" when he's playing too many video games, haha
"Does anybody even do anything REAL anymore?" -Ben Degros (circa 2018) XD So true. It's even worse now. Those motorized skateboards kill me. I saw one the other day and I'm just chuckling to myself like "This kid has no clue"
Cool shout out to the skaters building ramps in the 80's. I was 10yo when I started building quarter pipes, jump ramps and halfpipes at home in the late 80's. I gotta say it's an amazing feeling to see the amazing parks being built 30 years later. I wasn't sure if transition skating was dead forever there for a while. Absolutely thriving now and the new generation are absolutely ripping. I absolutely love watching the Vans park series and those style of parks. Tbh a bit emotional to see transition/ bowls thriving so well after not being sure if it ever would again. Caught one of your bowl videos and really enjoyed it.
This past summer my 36 year old neighbour got my 26 year old self back into skating after a 10 year hiatus. Skating better than ever, now. STOKED that I found your youtube channel, Ben. Beautiful ledge and nice skating brother! We have a gorgeous skatepark here in Port Colborne, Ontario if you are ever in this part of the country!
I haven't been able to go skate so last month I made with my little bro a quarter pipe a ledge and a rail to use on the backyard, it literally has been a blessing, especially because I suck at transition tricks this quarter pipe gives me the perfect height so whenever I go to the park I can use the big stuff with some fear but I can actually commit to the tricks. So literally guys if you can build your perfect obstacles because most of the times the skatepark doesn't provide for the ones starting to skate, and when you are certain age you can't just try to learn a trick by going kamikaze at those crazy high and sharp skatepark obstacles.
Geez Louize you and I have so much in common!! Age, work history, similar past and lots of solo ripping !! That’s an excellent mobile ledge. In the spring I am planning on using a jersey barrier as the backside/support for a 3 ft. Quarterpipe. Gonna do the traditional fill it with dirt, wood, rocks and other random materials then pour the crete!! Skateboarding Is Not a Crime !! ;-)
Nice video Ben thanks for sparking my imagination ! I used to work as a metal fabricator and built bars and grindboxes with stainless coping and brought them out in a truck at weekends it was great fun and we all improved so much. Now I need to build something like this that can go in the back of a Mazda 6 hmmm.
Wow that's dedication I don't think I could carry around a heavy piece of marble everywhere with me. Hopefully I'll get a sesh on some marble someday, all the nice spots near with marble are skate stopped.
Very nice ledge. Maybe attaching some folding wheels like the ones you get on those folding trolley's to each end of the ledge might make it easier to handle getting it in and out out the car?.
I need to make my own, that looks amazing. Idk why there'd be a piece thinner than his, but if you could only get one less than a foot or so, you can just make a box and cut out however much plywood and 2 by 4 to where it fits flush. Can't believe he tried skating that thing as is at first and not attaching it to wood underneath for support. He's a hundred times more handy than myself and almost certainly has more common sense than me lol
I wanna skate that park hella bad! That bank looks like fun! Im gunna make one of those legdes!!! Fakie 5-0 180s out look so good .. especially front 180 out..
Adding some 2-3" locking casters and screwing in eyelets on one front edge to add a pull rope would make that much more manageable. But yeah, learned all my slides on a 15' OSB/Plywood scaffold my dad built for a project, then left at the house when my folks split up, and having a portable ledge/manual pad really helps, esp. if you live in the soggy PNW, or an area with trashy streets/sidewalks.
Love your channel. Keep it up. I loved the video of the concrete bench you made. Being a 38 year old skater I can relate to your content and enjoy that. Keep the videos coming.
I run a small home Renovations company in Greensboro, NC. I always come across counter tops being ripped out. At 36 I can throw my back out by sneezing or twisting the wrong way, so this isn't for me....but I had to laugh because I get so much stuff off of jobs that I plan on using, but never do. I knew immediately that you scored yours off of a job. Haha... Oh, and I'm still a beast at 36 ;)
Add wheels and a tow hook. Yes make it into a trailer for your car. Just tow your park around. At least add wheels so you don't need a cart. As soon as it's on blocks the wheels won't matter. A set of skateboard wheels and trucks would be good. Plus it would give you extras on hand if you snap a kingpin or a bearing while skating your portoleadge. I have a kitchen island I'm not exactly using at the moment...hmmmm..... My granite is only as thick as your top layer. Wonder if it will be thick enough not to break. Any thoughts? Looks fun. My favorite skate spot was always Copley Sq. Boston all marble. Now I can make my own. Thanks Homie.
Amazing video Ben, love it. All that effort for a slab to skate on ... 8:35 earned you a sub. 11:54 awesome I love it ... watch out for the back sprain!!
I had a session at a park a while back where some kids had a remote control car. Soooo annoying. Cool ledge. If ever come across some marble I might have to make one
In Spokane wa there's a couple counter top places that have free bins in the front of there places and they have some really decent sized granite leftovers. My buddy built a skatepark in a small town in Washington and he made a ledge of leftover granite. It's a 20 foot long cyrved concrete ledge with granite along the edge with about 7 inches of granite before you hit concrete. It grinds and slides beautifully.
I have been looking for a free piece of granite since first saw this thing, but I think in the end I am gonna end up buying plastic decking to make the top. I just need like a 6 foot ledge for garage skating. Though fakie inward heels there is some key I am missing. Also, thanks for all the vids to help me fix up my home. Happy holidays.
i have some welding skill and have been thinking of bulding a rail to grind (lighter than granite) might do it next week out of stainless if the wallet permits
Very cool but if you wanted to make it more portable (albeit not as fancy or nice overall as a granite ledge) could you construct it with a sheet of aluminum attached to the top and bent over the sides? Should still be grindable I would think and a whole lot less weight? I ask you, Ben, because you're the carpenter
I love your channel! I just got back into skating and I am addicted to your videos. Your personality is so entertaining and the Canadian accent makes me feel right at home. Keep up the good work!
that kid in the green, his face at 7:43 haha. that is a sick ledge and marble is the best but really heavy. ur skating was sick too, i would definitely get some flip tricks in to it for us to see bro.
Can you screw in some handles on the side? Maybe have those Steele threaded collars sunk in the wood, so the screws won’t eat up the wood when they’re taken off and on for transport.
It always seems a bit odd to me when a skateboarder tells someone else they shouldn't be doing something somewhere. "This is a skateboard park"... and the parking lot I used to get kicked out of was for cars... the perfect ledge next to a blockbuster that I used to get kicked out of was for sitting and regretting the weeklies you picked... that RC car sounded annoying - I wonder if the sound my skateboard made annoyed my neighbors in the 90s? maybe you've forgotten what it was like back then, Ben? :D
Hey ben one thing i notice is when you transport that awesome ledge is that you are doing it the wrong way never lean forward and lift something heavy like that straight away im affraid that you might hurt yourself while doing that it’s too dangerous. We should always takecare of our back in positioning it while lifting that kind of heavy. Bend your knee then squat down and keep your back straight then do the lifting that way your keeping you back safe while doing it. Am just a concern follower here, don’t want you to hurt yourself as we might not watch an awesome channel like yours anymore. Anyway you takecare, will tune in for another great episode of yours. Cheers!
I do tile so I always tear out sills but they're too small to do this, I'm definitely gonna talk to the cabinet crew to lmk next time they demo one, had this idea for years but saw this now I gotta do it
You should seriously find a permanent home for that thing. Like that would've been sweet on that concrete box you made. Thoughts on a backyard skate park?? Great video!
I made one out of 4x4's, 2x4's and puck-board...plastic. It says slip and die on one side and slip and slice on the other. Loads of "fun". Manuals are deadly on that thing.
Dear Ben- I‘ve got a piece of solid granite that’s 1.25“ thick, about 6‘ long and about 12“ wide. I want to make it into a ledge and was thinking about just filling two 8x8x16 inch concrete blocks with concrete and then mortaring the top to set the granite on there. my question is- is 1.25“ thickness for the granite going to mess with my slides since the granite will overhang the concrete blocks by 2“ on each side? should I do what you did here and glue a 2x12 to the bottom of the granite so the wheels have something to slide against?
Gotta take advantage of what u have, improvise and DIY. That ledge came out Fucking Awesome. Speaking of Fucking Awesome, I see the Gino Iannucci deck haha. Maybe an FA or Hockey Deck review?
💡 I'm thinking I'm gonna build a concrete countertop/ledge reinforce it with a mat of #2 bar but fill the center with a 2x12 and skin the bottom with 1/2" plywood and then polish the concrete to a shine!!! I think it might be lighter than your marble but not by much.
@Ben Degros Have you ever heard of the 8ft transformer rail? Flat bar on one side round rail on the other, turn it sideways and it's a ledge. Different heights, or one side higher one side lower than the other. 65 pounds. Check it out.
I bet your trucks barely get worn down when grinding that smooth granite! Do you think angle iron on plywood would work just as well? Or do you need the weight to make it stable?
Ben, why dont you keep a short piece of conduit or pipe in your van and a bar. lift the slab upp with your bar and slide the conduit under the slab so you can roll it out instead of shifting it back and forth. im an Ironworker and i know how to move heavy things lol
That stuff is so unbelievably heavy. Also, never carry at both ends. It will split immediately. Always support the middle! I have seen so many people destroy a beautiful piece of Granite/Marble because they had no idea. Just a delivery guy ya know. Edit: I wanna see the R/C car do a lip slide. Too funny. No scooters? Merry Christmas!!!
