{"id":29946,"date":"2000-02-01T17:13:30","date_gmt":"2000-02-01T22:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=29946"},"modified":"2015-05-07T13:45:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T20:45:52","slug":"tom-risser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/tom-risser\/","title":{"rendered":"TOM RISSER"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE ULTIMATE BACKYARD<\/strong>
\n BY TOM RISSER<\/strong><\/p>\n

PART 1: THE ULTIMATE BACKYARD RAMP<\/strong>
\nIt started out as your basic 8\u2019 tall half pipe almost 8 years ago. But learning to skate on the old concrete skateparks of Charlotte in the early eighties, made me long for more interesting terrain. And so the ideas start flowing. What if I chopped down that tree and moved that log pile? I could connect a 3\u2019 high quarter pipe over here with a spine. Or how about a corner connecting the two walls together? Phase 2. Three weeks later: Phase 2 completed. Six months later – I\u2008really need a 6\u2019 section. Phase 3. Four weeks later: Phase 3 completed. Eight months later: You know, I need some vert. Phase 4. etc.<\/p>\n

Now, I stand at one end of the ramp and scan the magnitude of this monster. I didn\u2019t plan on it getting this large, it just sort of happened. I never told anyone about it either. But one day the neighbor\u2019s kid wandered by and was somewhat impressed.\u00a0 He told someone at school; who told someone else… and before I knew it I was getting calls from Florida from skaters who wanted to schedule their trips around my ramp. I\u2018ve been told by some that it may be the biggest backyard ramp in the world. Who knows? I\u2019m not really sure it\u2019s fair to call it a ramp. It\u2019s more like a skatepark of overlapping transitions. I do know it consists of:<\/p>\n

Over 135 sheets of steel
\nOver 200 sheets of plywood
\nOver 500 pieces of ribbing
\nAt least 100 lbs of galvanized screws
\nAt least 200 lbs of nails
\nIt covers approximately 5,620 sq feet of riding surface<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019ve performed around 99% of the construction myself, I try not to think about the number of hours (or the $). I know my back will never be the same. . . but. It\u2019s worth it. When all the work is out of the way and you step on your board to fly around the outer-belt (the fast section that loops all around the outside) or transfer from the vert across to the 3\u2019 main ramp, you know this is the greatest technological advancement known to man, at least on urethane wheels. How long can I keep doing this? That\u2019s a question often asked by myself, my parents and my wife. I guess I don\u2019t fit the stereotype. I\u2019m not a teenager. I have kids, a steady job, I don\u2019t have a tattoo. . . but I love to skate!\u2008As long as I can I\u2019m going to keep flying around that ramp.<\/p>\n

PART 2: THE ULTIMATE BOWL<\/strong>
\nAbout five years ago I visited the Charleston Bowl and started thinking about building my own bowl, but I wanted something I could fit inside of a barn and ride for decades. What I really wanted was concrete, but all of the local pool builders didn\u2019t have a clue what I was talking about. Then around October of this year, Brewce Martin told me about Wally Hollyday, the\u00a0 legendary skatepark builder of Cherry Hill fame. I logged on to his website at www.skatedesign.com and sent him an email.<\/p>\n

A few days later we were passing design sketches back and forth and talking about some ideas for using state-of-the-art concrete cutting tools, transition templates, cad layouts and precision rolled coping. Within one month Wally was on a flight to NC and I had begun digging a hole next to our house. The end result is what we believe to be the most technically advanced bowl construction ever made. At least for now, because Wally will continue to take these techniques and refine them into some of the best concrete skate structures of all time.<\/p>\n

From the day Wally arrived I knew I was not only working with a hands-on perfectionist, but an artist shaping the largest of clay sculptures. One month of curing later, it is perfection. A combination shape of a 6\u2019 square bowl with a 4 1\/2\u2019 shallow end hipped over a 3\u2019 mogul into an 8\u2019 kidney. Total shape is 45\u2019 x 60\u2019. It will soon be covered with a metal clad barn and a concrete deck, with landing ramp platforms surrounding it. I may even tie it into the monster ramp for the ultimate snake run.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fast. It\u2019s smooth. It\u2019s simply the best bowl I\u2019ve ever seen. And, it\u2019s in my backyard.<\/p>\n

If you or your town are going to build a skatepark, there is only one person to contact. If you want someone who gets down in the dirt and cement, who has the skills and the experience to create a masterpiece of function and quality. . . call Wally Hollyday. There is no one better. . . period.<\/p>\n

Regarding those steel skaters surrounding the ramp:\u00a0 Just a few months ago I bought a MIG welder and started tinkering with scrap pieces of metal from work. I made a life size metal \u201cskater dude\u201d and somebody said it looked pretty cool. So, I made another one and now they\u2019re cropping up around the place like frozen robotic ramp security. Sometimes at night I\u2008think I hear them grinding the rails. I\u2018ve noticed they leave fresh scrapes of paint on the black surface where they\u2018ve ridden. They think they\u2019re so smart because they always stand back in the same place the next morning. But I\u2019m on to their little activities. But really who can blame them when you\u2019re standing that close to the black monster ramp all day watching others shred. I guess there\u2019s a little skater blood in everyone, even if your joints are welded tight.<\/p>\n

======<\/strong><\/p>\n

PHOTOS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top to Bottom: Overview of long time local Dave Maxwell grinding the masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Murf checks the air over the new structure.<\/p>\n

The Black Monster Ramp<\/p>\n

Wally says it was the best crew ever.<\/p>\n

Tom\u2019s skater\u00a0 art guards the property.<\/p>\n

TO ORDER JUICE MAGAZINE ISSUE #48, PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE ULTIMATE BACKYARD BY TOM RISSER PART 1: THE ULTIMATE BACKYARD RAMP It started out as your basic 8\u2019 tall half pipe almost 8 years ago. But learning to skate on the old concrete skateparks of Charlotte in the early eighties, made me long for more interesting terrain. And so the ideas start flowing. What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4028,4041],"tags":[11218,4367,11217,4378,6058,4360,3818,14255,4332,14262,29,2719,11216,4379],"class_list":["post-29946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-skate-2","tag-black-monster-ramp","tag-brewce-martin","tag-charleston-bowl","tag-cherry-hill-skatepark","tag-dave-maxwell","tag-diy","tag-jim-murphy","tag-juice-magazine","tag-murf","tag-skate","tag-skateboarding","tag-skatepark","tag-tom-risser","tag-wally-hollyday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/TOMRISSER1.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29946"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48582,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29946\/revisions\/48582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}