googled harrow sk8 park

[zed4130]

i spent many weekends here  its changed abit 

[QUADROPHENIA]

that be a old photo, last time i went a couple of years ago they had dug out the peanut, i can remember in 84 we tried digging out the performance, spent all day at it even got a shovel in the head at some point. we dug past the old casey sign and were getting on well then the council re-filled it on the monday. i loved it at harrow was there every weekend 40p return on the underground. I cant remember it to be honest but i rode with stodgy back then at harrow then didnt see him for 20 years till we met up at oxford skatepark. every park has a ruler and harrows was matt baines he really did friggin rip, i heard he went on to be a really good skater. harrow held a freestyle comp for the first british haro factory rider which chris young won, even bob knew harrow was the place to be.

so when we going back? dont forget your sandwich boxes to help out empting the halfpipe of water

[MartyC]

We need to get a day out there sorted, last time I rode there was 20 years ago, although I have skated there a few times in between.

[zed4130]

the last time i was there was 1984 

[CD17]

Shall we all bring shovels & dig those bowls out.

Are they filled with mud 

We could put right the wrongs of the local council 

[MCSMagnum]

Now we're talking.....

Harrow skatepark has a ton of history for me.... went skating there in 77 on a thin kiddies plastic board on one of those pefect endless days you have when you are 10, was blown away seeing proper skaters on wide wooden boards, and even slalom boards.... then used to ride there from Watford most every week in the years 81-83.... until some bastard mugged me for my silver streak!!!....from then on I felt safer getting the tube across london to rom....

There was one particularly nutty local rider there I remember, but fooked if I remember his name..... would basically do anything you suggested..... once tried to pop out the performance bowl.... that thing put roms to shame, what with the three foot raised vertical wall at the top of it.... needless to say he popped out, and popped right back in again... ouch.... another time he attempted to clear the fence around the park from what we always called the bollocks.... the two banks at the end of the slalom run.....  he got his front wheel over but his back hooked it and another potentially lethal but hilarious slam ensued.....

From 86 to 04 I worked at the kodak factory 5 minutes walk away.... regularly I'd walk down there and see what was happening.... see various skating and bmxing revivals come and go... most of the time it's been free to ride there, but occasionally they try to charge for it.... in my not totally reliable memory the peanut, cloverleaf and halfpipe were all there in 04.... but the pool had long since been filled in.....

If anyone fixes up a day there, I'm down from the midlands, as that place is probably the single one most resposible for my interest in bmx still being as powerful 25 years later....

Mike

[MCSMagnum]

Haha, looking again at the google earth picture tells me how bad my memory is.... pool there, peanut gone....

So zed... if you last went in 84 you would have been roughly the same time as me...were you local to harrow at the time?

Mike

[QUADROPHENIA]

the peanut is still there and now dug out and very friggin deep, i remember seeing in bmx action bike a photo of ruffell riding the performance with the wall but i never got to see it, think its the mag with him airing the pool
i remember a kid trying to jump the fence, fookunukun or something like that, he borrowed my full face helmet and bloody scratched it

i loved going to harrow every week, saving my dinner money so i could go

[zed4130]

Haha, looking again at the google earth picture tells me how bad my memory is.... pool there, peanut gone....

So zed... if you last went in 84 you would have been roughly the same time as me...were you local to harrow at the time?

Mike

  yeah mate ,i came from watford originaly ,ive been living in dorset for 9 years nearly 

[MartyC]

I used to skate Harrow between 1977 and 1981 with the likes of Buzz, Steve Douglas (Reid back then), Mick Forster, Dave Hopkins, Steve Routledge, Pete Pierce, Sh1tHead (Colin), Steve Lily, Rodga Harvey - all of the Harrow Boyz as we were known back then.  We used to blitz the place and most other skateparks that we hit too  .

Rode my bike there for many years after, was talking to an old friend on Saturday about when we used to ride there, I once cleared the fence at the end of the b0ll0x although the top of it was bent over it was still a good 6 feet high, I also used to be able to clear the footpath on the left of the b0ll0x that you can see in the pic.  Bent a set of Tange forks jumping out of the peanut bowl and used to do no hand no footers,  take my cap off and two hand front wheel grabs jumping out of the snake run .

[MCSMagnum]

Haha, looking again at the google earth picture tells me how bad my memory is.... pool there, peanut gone....

So zed... if you last went in 84 you would have been roughly the same time as me...were you local to harrow at the time?

Mike

  yeah mate ,i came from watford originaly ,ive been living in dorset for 9 years nearly 

wow didn't realise you were a watford boy.... so where else did you ride? Never seemed too many places in watford, and not many decent riders there at the time.... I used to mainly hang with a few lads in south oxhey where I grew up, a lot of the time going to harrow... also spent a lot of time riding with my cousin and his mates in hemel as there was a group of decent riders there with the track and quite a few decent trails to ride....

Mike

[zed4130]

Haha, looking again at the google earth picture tells me how bad my memory is.... pool there, peanut gone....

So zed... if you last went in 84 you would have been roughly the same time as me...were you local to harrow at the time?

Mike

  yeah mate ,i came from watford originaly ,ive been living in dorset for 9 years nearly 

wow didn't realise you were a watford boy.... so where else did you ride? Never seemed too many places in watford, and not many decent riders there at the time.... I used to mainly hang with a few lads in south oxhey where I grew up, a lot of the time going to harrow... also spent a lot of time riding with my cousin and his mates in hemel as there was a group of decent riders there with the track and quite a few decent trails to ride....

Mike

i went to the hemel track a few times ,ther wasnt many places in watford to ride ,hence my streey backround  there was a small sk8park near the leasure center near francis coombe school ,but they knocked it down to build a indoor bowling green  wow south ohxey not too far from me then  hey there was some decent riders in watford 

[MCSMagnum]

i went to the hemel track a few times ,ther wasnt many places in watford to ride ,hence my streey backround  there was a small sk8park near the leasure center near francis coombe school ,but they knocked it down to build a indoor bowling green  wow south ohxey not too far from me then  hey there was some decent riders in watford 

I only ever went to the leisure centre park once, was as far as harrow, and not exactly in the same league! we had some jumps in south oxhey which was mainly where I rode locally... have some pictures from there I'll have to scan sometime... as for the decent local riders, guess I never found them apart from a couple of guys I used to hang with... as I remember it there were a few guys in places like meriden and holywell, but was a bit dodgy going there if you came from south oxhey!

around 83 I moved to bushey, used to go to some jumps under bushey arches.... some nice enough guys went down there, but their riding kinda sucked! I do remember a little guy there had a white pk with black tuffs and flites.... really tasty bike....

Hemel was a good laugh.... quite a few nutters there, including my cousin (I was forever having to call his mum from a&e to tell her he'd bust his collarbone again!), they used to really push my riding along, and as well as the track there were some great trails and street spots to ride, they kinda had a knack of finding and making rad spots in the most unlikely places....

So where in watford were you from?

Mike

[zed4130]

i lived on the kingswood est i rode with the meridan lot    ,  i rember the rucks with the south oxhey boys  kids eah    i rode with david palmer and ian mcCdonald  good riders , i rember the archers jumps ,my aunt worked at the big garage that i think now is a harley dearlership ,it was mercede's before ,and my aunt was there before that  there was lots of little trails hidden around watford  there are housing est were some were now     i havnt been back there for years , i went to visit my grandad ,in harrow ,a month back ,i hated it ,too busy for me ,  we must of bumped into each other at some point , i had a white pk with black tuffs ,in 84 and i took it too those jumps a few time ? well before it was stolen  there werent many ripers around bitd , my mates were cool ,i would jump anything , palmer could roll back forever ,and mccas could frame stand for hours 

[rakas17]

i used to ride harrow in the late 80's and early 90's  skating and bmxing..  i'm from watford, well actually oxhey and the jumps under the arches that you talked about is the place where i broke many a bone. my house was about 1 minutes ride from there. i once went down the roller coaster ( which is one of the long steep downhill runs) on a ninja scooter with semi flat tyres, at the bottom the tyres squashed flat and threw me off into a pile of stingers cracking my knee cap .  i remember riding home on my bmx trying to keep my hurting leg straight.   about 5 years after that i did a very similar thing a harrow, doing a 360 out of bowl 4 i shattered my ankle and had to  ride with 1 leg to the leisure centre next door to blag a lift to the hospital   those were the days. 

 

[pickle]

I only know of the skate park next to the leisure centre! i don't know of the 'old' Harrow park??    and i've worked and lived around the area for 13 years! 

[zed4130]

rob the old sk8park was in watford next to the leisure center  they knocked it down ,to make way for a indoor bowling green