City of Bowie Skatepark, Maryland

photos and review by Mickeal Elliot Broth

WHERE: 3330 Northview Drive, Bowie, MD 20716

WHAT: Concrete park with quite a bit of creative juice to be squeezed. BURLY bowl.

GOOD: Smooth concrete poured in a variety of interesting ways. The park has a pretty great flow throughout and I can imagine a huge variety of lines can be found here. Definitely something for everyone, from beginner street dog to pool destroyer. The bowl is terrifying. It’s a got a pool style tranny with lots of vert and an over-vert cradle of death. And there’s even a mini snake run that takes you from the deck of the bowl area and shoots you into the big qp hip with speed. I could go on and on but you should just make a point of going.

BAD: Not too much that I could see. I was there at 10am on a weekday when it was flurrying so I could imagine that at other times it might get pretty packed but that’s why you go early. You have to pay a one-time $10 fee to get a registration card (which is certainly reasonable) but I didn’t bother because you have to go down the road to the Bowie Gymnasium and I was feeling lazy. After about an hour a park ranger came and told me I needed to register but he was super cool and told me I could keep skating and just to register when I was leaving. I guess the bad would be that it’s about two hours from where I live.

PADS: Helmet. Probably a good idea anyway for the bowl.

FREE OR PAY: One time $10 registration… then free free free. And no fence around the park either. Fuck fences.

DIRECTIONS: google maps

OVERALL: Awesome park!! I wish it were closer to me. Virginia needs to step it up… and not by building a great park, then setting a bunch of fucking rules and making you pay every damn time. Fuck that noise. Maryland is getting this shit right and Bowie is a great example. Make it a destination.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: City of Bowie

PARK PHONE NUMBER: 301-809-3076

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