Adventure

PA Summer Skate Road Trip

August 17, 2017shelbssays@gmail.com

Sometimes the best trips are unplanned

Last weekend two pals and I decided to hit the road and travel across the state to find some cool skate parks and camp out. We only had two skate parks picked out and decided to let the rest of the trip play out along the way. It ended up playing out a little like this:

300+ miles traveled across the state
100+ bug bites
50 pee breaks
10 coffee breaks
4 skateparks
1 random beach trip

First stop

We shoved everything into my car around 7:30 AM and left for Lancaster Skatepark. To our surprise, we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves the whole time.

second stop

Before leaving Lancaster, someone asked if we’ve hit up York Park before. After a couple hours in Lancaster, we decided to check it out.

Overall, the park was awesome besides how crowded it was. I’ve never been to such a crowded park in my life. I give the park an 8 and the vibe a 4. People weren’t very friendly at all- but I don’t blame them. If I skated at a park that crowded every day, I probably wouldn’t be the happiest either.

Our trip to York was cut short due to a thunderstorm.

The storm brought a pretty lil rainbow on our way to Philly 🙂

third stop

The rain didn’t ease up shortly, so we decided to start to head towards Philly and check out FDR skatepark. By the time we arrived, it was way too late to go out and skate. Stuck in south Philly, unsure of where to go next, a lightbulb went off inside of my head.

We made it to Ocean City New Jersey within an hour and found a camp site to hammock at over night.

In the morning, we stopped at a Wawa in town to organize the car and stock up on some snacks before planning to chill on the beach and then head back to Philly. Sierra and I were grabbing things out of the trunk when a woman noticed our skateboards in the back. She introduced herself and gave us her contact information. We explained that we are on a skate trip and planned to head to Philly soon. Her name was Jaime. She told us about some local surf and skate spots. Instead of heading back to FDR that day, we ended up going to Ocean City’s skate park which she helped build herself!

I’ve never been to a park where everyone was so cool and helpful. Before I left, I was ripping in this bowl I never thought I would be by the end of the day- thanks to everyone that was so encouraging.

In the afternoon, we headed to the beach to spend the majority of the day surfing.

fourth stop

In the morning, we left our sketchy hotel room, found a diner along the way, ate some choccy chip pancakes, and were off to FDR. We swore we’d just check it out and skate for a little bit since we were all so exhausted. But six hours later, we were still skating.

FDR is truly a sacred skater’s paradise- built by skaters for skaters. The park is huge with more still being added to it. Everything is covered in colorful art, which made for some really unique pictures.