Welcome to another edition of our Empire Skatepark reviews! This week, we check out three flawless parks that were brought to you by one of the most established park builders and the guys who made the infamous Saint-Jérome park: Rick Design Skateparks.
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Rick design Skateparks has been in the game for a while and is another great example of skateboarders taking charge of the skatepark situation here in Quebec and bringing the results that all skateboarders need.
Rick Design was created in 1999 by Eric Labbé, an automobile body conceptor. Eric had a real talent for conceiving and producing quality body parts and even won prizes for his work, but at some point, he decided to go back to his old love and started to use his design skills for skateparks, which he now does full time, along with a crew of experienced builders/skateboarders.
Now with about 20 people in his team, Eric Labbé and the Rick Design crew are responsible for more than half of the skateparks available in Quebec. The company, among others, is also responsible for highlighting the importance of having functional and well-designed skateparks in order to have people enjoying it to the fullest.
Sorel, Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures or Salaberry de Valleyfield, these are definitely worth a visit. Keep scrolling to check out 3 of the latest Rick Design parks.
SOREL
Located at about 1 hour from Montreal, the Sorel Skatepark is truly something else and is worth the road trip. Built on the old Sorel Skatepark’s frame, the new park has everything a skatepark needs and a lot more. With more than $800 000 invested in the project and the help of skate legend Dan Vez at Spin Works for the design, you can deduct that this park is one that you should put on your hit list if not already done.
The Street Section at the Sorel park is very diversified and has got all the classic obstacles needed in a park. The cool thing about this one is that there’s more than your classic obstacles. Plus, the park’s layout is square and easy to understand.
On one side, you have a big section with classic stairs, rails and down ledge. Right beside the big section you’ll find some more rare obstacles like a double kinked rail and ledge. On the other side, you have medium and small sections with the same types of obstacles. In the middle of the place, a nice manual pad, kicker over rocks, flat ledges, flat rails and a nice A-frame jump and rail. In any case, we suggest you to hit this park more than once if you plan on skating everything in there. There’s a lot of ground to cover.
Even if this park is more street oriented, there’s still a lot of cool transition opportunities. First, you probably noticed the giant vert wall that’s covering one full side of the park. This part is right along the big section and is perfect to get speed and cruise through the park without pushing too much. At the end of the giant vert wall, you’ll find a bowl corner with a hip. On another corner of the park, you’ll find a smaller quarter pipe and on the last corner, a smooth hip. Last but not least, the park also has a full mini-ramp that’s ideal to warm up before the session.
Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures
This park is a bit simpler than the Sorel one, but is just as good and fun to skate. This one is the newest and second park built by Rick Designs in the city of Saint-Augustin. Located at about 20 minutes from Quebec City, this one is worth visiting. The park is unique, has a great street section, a nice transition section and also includes a full pump track that is really fun to skate.
The Street Section at the Saint-Augustin park is awesome and was built to allow everyone to have fun. Beginners or advanced. One one side of the park, you have a smooth platform including a down ledge, stairs, a step up, a down rail and a flat rail on top of the bank. The middle of the park has very cool features like a wide pyramid with a smooth rail following the shape of the obstacle, manual pads, flat rails and ledges and an A-frame bump with a-frame rail on its side.
The transition section is not the craziest one, but is definitely good and will allow ramp lovers to get their fix. The transition section is situated on one side of the park only and features a wide quarter pipe with a smooth bank in its middle. At the end of the wide ¼ pipe, you’ll find a bowl corner that’s perfect to pump and get back in the park with speed. Last but not least, the pump track can be considered as transition and is really fun to cruise as well as to warm up.
Salaberry de Valleyfield
We love the Valleyfield skatepark because as much as it is a great park that has all the necessary features to have fun, this one is also a bit funky, making it that much more interesting. The park is about about a 40 minutes drive from Montreal and is definitely worth your time.
The street section at the Valleyfield park has got more than what you need to have fun, which is great! Like Sorel, you’ll need more than one visit to experience every obstacle at this park. On one end, a table top with a down rail and down ledge, a “Pier 7” type manual pad and cool ledge/bank think that offers infinite tricks possibilities. In the middle of the park you’ll find hips, flat rails and ledges as well as another small rail going down 2 stairs.
Valleyfield’s transition section is mostly mixed with the skateparks middle street section. There is a quarter pipe attached to the middle ledge section and another one attached to the center platform that forms a perfect mini-ramp. The quarter pipe that’s attached to the platform also forms a steep hip that’s cool to use to swith your line. On the other end of the park, you’ll also find a medium 2 sided ¼ pipe that forms another hip and right next to it, you’ll also find a massive and gnarly vert wall to get back in the park with speed.
