The city of Montreal has another brand new skatepark located at the infamous Olympic Stadium in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and you need to go skate it.
Built around the Vans Bowl that was created 2 years ago to host the Canadian stop of the Vans Park Series competition, this collaboration between Vans and the city of Montreal was designed by none other than the California Skateparks Company with consulting help from Empire skate team member Charles Deschamps. Another park that used the knowledge of real skaters to its advantage. Congrats guys!
This park is amazing and the most unique one we’ve skated in a long time. The obstacles are all there, but they are placed in a creative way and include random features making the park a lot more flowy and fun to cruise around. Keep scrolling for more pictures of the park and our detailed review of this one of a kind skateboarding playground.
THE STREET SECTION
Although the park is built around one of the best bowls in the world. It is mainly street oriented and offers so much different stuff to skate. On the obstacles level, the park has got everything you need to have fun. Down rails and hubbas, flat rails, ledges, hips, manual pads, banks and more. Whatever your type of skating is, there will be something for you to shred.
As you enter the park, you’ll see a very long downhill flat rail that’s right along a smooth bank. If you start at the top of the platform right next to where that rail is, you can hit a lot of obstacles in a row as the features are placed one after another around the bowl. You can start your line there and finish with something on the bank to rail or rail into bank. That line is so fun. You might need to push, but that’s what makes this one a real street park. The concrete is extra smooth anyway, so rolling in the park stays fun.
The main aspect we really liked about the Vans Olympic Stadium’s street course is that it’s very different from all the other parks we’ve seen around here. Every classic obstacle is there, no worries about that, but they are disposed in a fun way and have special features attached to them. Let’s take the small down rail and Hubba for example. You can skate them the normal way, but you can also pole jam up it. Every single obstacle in the park can be skated in many different ways and leaves a lot for room for personal creativity as well as progression on different types of obstacles.
THE TRANSITION SECTION
As we mentioned earlier, the transition section at the new Vans Stadium park is very minimal, if you don’t count the bowl of course! That being said, there are small transitions placed at strategic spots in the park so you can still pump around without loosing too much speed. On the main street platform’s side, you’ll find a quick transition that can send you right back in the middle of the park and on the other end, there’s a massive bank that gets smaller as you approach the end.
Not much transitions between all that, but as we mentioned earlier, the ground is so smooth there that you’ll have fun just pushing around and hitting all the funky obstacles on the way.
THE FLOW
The Olympic Stadium's flow is sick. Very slim chances to run into other skaters, unless the park is very crowded. In any case, the Vans Olympic Stadium’s park is really vast. Not the type of park where you never need to push, but you can still cruise around the place without too much effort. The features are mostly placed one after another, making it easy to do long lines around the infamous Vans Bowl.
The lines in the park are very linear, allowing for less collisions and less risks of having your line cut by someone else who’s going the opposite direction. There’s a manual pad feature in the middle of the park that can look like it’s going to break the park’s flow, but not at all! After skating the park, you realize that even if this feature is the only “middle” obstacle, it will help you to redirect your trajectory in the park depending on what part you want to hit next!
You know the drill! Visit our skateshop at the link below and venture towards the Olympic Stadium to enjoy one of the finest park we’ve ever skated! SEE YOU AT THE STADIUM!
