With the growing number of young people skating and the addition of the sport in the 2020 Olympics, there seems to be a greater emphasis on building practice sites for skateboarders. PERFECT! It gives us a ton of new skateparks to try and ride. The last one we had the pleasure to test: Saint-Hubert!
At the edge of Highway 116 and the CN Railroad, the Saint-Hubert Skatepark has been completely renovated this year. And when we say completely, it means that nothing remains of the old park. Everything is brand new. It must be said that it was about time, the last Saint-Hubert park’s obstacles were quite obsolete.
That said, the Saint-Hubert Skatepark is not the easiest to skate. With a high amount of obstacles at the four corners of the park, finding your own skateboarding area is a task itself. Nevertheless, there is certainly ways to have tons of fun at the new Saint-Hubert skatepark. We give it 7/10.
First look
When you get there, you cannot help but feel a little excitement at the sight of the new concrete structures. Built to remind us of real streets, the park looks beautiful, but we can immediately conclude that transition lovers will be a little less hyped than the Street Dawgs.
Street section
The highlight of the Saint-Hubert skatepark is its street section, where you can find ABSOLUTELY all the obstacles you like to skate in the streets. Big section with rails and hubbas, small section with small rail, small gaps and ledges, a long brick bank, an A-frame with flat gap and rail, manuals pads of all heights and much more. What's really cool about this park is the simulation of a real street, with a water fountain, flat bars, sidewalks, curbs and everything you can find in the streets of your own city. If you like skating street, you won't be disappointed by Saint-Hubert's new park.
Transition section:
Although there are several transitions in the skatepark, only the big ¼ pipe and the mini-ramp are really skatable. At both ends of the park are double quarter pipes that look like broken streets. Despite the beauty of the thing, these two obstacles offer virtually no possibility for tricks. Apart from turning, they are pretty useless. We did not count these as part of the skatepark transitions. As we mentioned earlier, this park will certainly bring joy to transition lovers, but let's just say that it's not the most incredible on this aspect.
The Flow
Finally, the most important criteria for a park according to us: The Flow. The flow means the level of fluidity with which it is possible to move through the skatepark. Even if Saint-Hubert's new park is big and has some of the most diverse obstacles we've seen, the park is not exactly made to cruise around and take advantage of its flow. Our advice: pick a spot in the park and skate this spot, then move on to the next one. Without experiencing the lack of flow and/or skating into other people's lines, this is how you will get stoked to skate this park.
At the end of the day, the new Saint-Hubert park is for sure worth a visit. 100%. Even with its lack of flow and transitions, this park is much, much better than what we are used to and whoever will take the time to get used to the park’s obstacles and kinda weird flow will be rewarded with hours and hours of fun. Guaranteed!
SEE YOU AT THE PARK!