DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE RETROSPECTIVE
BIG TIM KLEMONSKY
INTERVIEW BY JIM MURPHY
PHOTO BY PAUL WARNER
We started the Duty Now for the Future articles to honor those skateboarders building concrete for other skateboarders. These skaters are dedicated to building skate structures, day in and day out, where quality is job one and money doesn’t matter as much as the finished product. They are the ones carving the future for generations to come and we want to bring their stories to you in order to understand what goes into building those killer parks that you get to ride! We want to thank these skaters for all their sweat, hard work and dedication to skateboarding! They’re not afraid to lay yards of pool coping down, so get out there and grind it up!!! That is our Duty Now For The Future! D-E-V-O. We dedicate our Duty Now For the Future Retrospective to Bob 2 aka Bob Casale. R.I.P.
Yo, Tim, I’ve got a few questions for you. Are you ready?
Yeah. I’m ready.
Number one. What’s your favorite skatepark that’s ever been built?
I’d have to say that I would like to skate the park that Lil Eddie and I did with Collette in Wheeling, WV. I’d really like to skate that one again.
What is your favorite backyard to skate?
That would be Attleboro because I’ve put my heart and soul into it.
Who is the one person that influenced you the most building skateparks?
It’s a combination. I can’t say just one person. It’s some of the older guys with Team Pain and some of the guys that I did Skater Island with, like Twister, and building ramps with my friends and some of the guys on Dave Duncan’s crew.
What do you think has been the biggest innovation in skatepark building over the years?
I think the biggest innovation would be either the cradle or that horseshoe full pipe in Kokomo, Indiana, that Eddie built. It doesn’t even make sense to me, but it looks amazing.
What do see in the future for skateboarding 20 years from now?
I see skateboarding as a well-rounded machine with vert and obstacles and a lot of bowls and a lot of transition. I see a lot of parks with bowls and vert that allow for people age eight to eighty to ride. I see concrete coping making a huge comeback.
“I see concrete coping making a huge comeback.”
What innovations have happened in skatepark building that have become obsolete and aren’t being built right now?
I would say the sloping egg pool. I think it has a lot of benefactors. I think that’s something that’s missing in skatepark design now.
When it comes to pools, waterfalls or slant?
Slant.
What is your Duty Now for the Future now?
To kill, crush and destroy and build it back up.
Is there anything you’d like to build that you haven’t built yet?
I would like to see a snake run that goes through the woods, like a cement halfpipe trail. It would be like a nature hike, but it would go all the way and wind through the woods and keep going for miles and miles, not like a ditch, but a perfect halfpipe that would keep going on forever with some bigger ends and some smaller ends.
Nice. Pool coping or pipe?
Is that a fucking joke? Pool coping, of course.
[Laughs.] Right on, Tim. That’s sick. Who is on your crew right now?
Basically, anybody that’s hardcore.
Thanks, Tim. That was the rapid-fire questions for skatepark builders. You are the man.
Thanks, Murf.
Skate tough, eat muff.
Oh, every day.
