History of A.B.S. – Avalon Bellevue Skateboarders and Bayne Park Skate Plaza
A.B.S. stands for Avalon Bellevue Skateboarders.
A.B.S. was a crew of friends that spent their time skateboarding, filming, and hanging out in Avalon and Bellevue. We skated the streets of Avalon Heights, Eugene Street, and all around town. We also took trips to B-cubed Skatepark, McKinley Skatepark and other street spots around the city. Alex, Karl and Zach Greif’s family had a camp out past grove city and we even traveled up there in our Volkswagens to skate the town of Franklin.
Bellevue has always had a huge skateboarding presence. Two groups of skateboarders started renegade skate-parks in an abandoned tennis court in town. Before the time of the A.B.S. crew, I was involved in the first renegade park. It basically consisted of a wooden table on concrete blocks, an old door propped up like a ramp on more concrete blocks, and other various trash-found obstacles. At the time, we didn’t understand that we couldn’t legally have the obstacles at the park. So the borough workers had no choice but to throw everything away. Another group of kids, years later, brought home-made grind boxes, rails and ramps to the same location. For some reason, this renegade park lasted for a longer period of time. Although the obstacles lasted longer, they were still confiscated and thrown away by borough workers. The skateboarder’s hearts were broken, but they understood that their belongings had to be removed from the park for legal reasons.
In the past 10 years, I have been out skateboarding with at least 50+ friends and local kids from the Bellevue area. Some still skateboard regularly and others wish they could skateboard more. In July of 2008, Brian Buck and I opened Plank Eye Board Shop in Bellevue. We have met and skated with a lot of people since opening our shop. The skateboarding presence in Bellevue has grown even stronger over the years. We started attending borough meetings to let the council know that we are here and we need a safe place to practice our skateboarding tricks. Now the skateboarding community’s enthusiasm for a safe place for active, constructive, and creative skateboarding has aligned with the borough council’s vision for a better Bellevue. Our efforts are quickly gaining strength for an attractive skate-plaza to be built at Bayne Park.
The A.B.S. video clips below are from a video I made as part of the AV crew at Northgate high school in 2003. It features a large group of friends that were dedicated to skateboarding and filming everyday. Karl Greif and I have gone on to college to pursue video production and currently work in the field. This just proves that skateboarding isn’t a waste of time and can lead kids in a positive direction. All of the local kids in town and kids from all over Pittsburgh are excited to learn more about the skate-plaza progress as the hype on the facebook group Bellevue PA Needs a Skate-Plaza!! shows!
Be sure to help our efforts for getting a skate-plaza by supporting our shop by shopping both online and in-store: http://www.PlankEyeBoardShop.com/ and by sharing this below and joining our facebook group Bellevue PA Needs a Skate-Plaza!!
and our page!
Also a DVD copy of the A.B.S. Video and other skateboard videos can be found here!
Thanks,
Carlo
Cheap Skateboarding Goods – February Sale
We have tons of skateboarding clothing, decks, trucks, wheels and more on sale this month. Take advantage of all the great prices.
New Shop Deck Sizes In-stock at Plank Eye Board Shop – $34.99
We now have 8.125″, 8.5″, 9.0″ in our red shop design. We also have shop un-cuts, cruisers, old schools, and long-boards.
We also have the standard sizes in regular, deep, and matador concave shapes. Shop decks make great Christmas gifts. They are red and full of Christmas spirit. Get out and skateboard!
Zoo York Decks, Bearings, Wheels, and Stickers Just in Time for Christmas
New Zoo York goods have arrived at Plank Eye. Zoo York has some awesome graphics running at the moment. I especially like the the two Sean Cronan Series decks we received. These decks showcase photography of New York City. Come in and check them out.
Cheap Beanies and Skateboards on Black Friday 2010
Keep your head warm this winter. We have beanies 15% off this friday.
All clothing and headphones are also 15% off.
Complete skateboards starting at $59.99
Shoes starting at $39.99
Decks starting at $29.99
FREE AUTOBAHN ABEC 5 BEARINGS for the first five customers who buy a skateboard deck.
***All sales are for in-store purchases only
Check out our online specials here
New Funbox at Plank Eye Board Shop
Like skating those fancy pants plastic wood benches? Well then you better come to Plank Eye and skate our new funbox with us. It’s a 9 inch tall, 6ft long, 21 inch wide with a plastic wood plank top. If you’re too cool for school, buy the other one we have for sale and skate it all by yourself at home.
Val Caruso – Ollie on Ollie off
Dave – Manual
Zaire – FS 5-0
Zero Gravity Skate-park Added to Pittsburgh Skate-park Guide
Zero Gravity Skate-park
110 Main Street
Wintersville, OH 43953
We have added Zero Gravity Skate-park to Plank Eye Board Shop’s skate-parkgoogle map skate-park guide. Yes we know it is not in Pittsburgh. We just wanted you to know it’s close and that you should drive there to skate this winter.
Check out the montage above!!! Created by Dave Carulli.
Plank Eye Board Shop Wallpapers for your Desktop!
Grab the new Plank Eye wallpapers for your desktop featuring screens from the Warehouse Edit! The first set of links below each picture downloads as shown, the second includes the original Plank Eye Board Shop logo.
[To download, right-click on Fullscreen(4:3) or Widescreen(16:9), then select "save-as."]
Warehouse 1:
Black & White | Color
Fullscreen | Fullscreen
Widescreen | Widescreen
Warehouse 2:
Black & White | Color
Fullscreen | Fullscreen
Widescreen | Widescreen
Warehouse 3:
Black & White | Color
Fullscreen | Fullscreen
Widescreen | Widescreen
Warehouse 4:
Black & White | Color
Fullscreen | Fullscreen
Widescreen | Widescreen
And if you haven’t checked out the video yet, head here to catch up on what you’re missing!!
Plank Eye Visits the Warehouse by Kris Mortensen
Kris works his video production magic yet again. Check out his other work.
Plank Eye Visits the Warehouse from Kris Mortensen on Vimeo.
Northgate Art Student Halloween Window Painting 2010
The art students at Northgate JR/SR High School came through town and painted Halloween scenery on store front windows around town. Here is their creation on our store front.
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- History of A.B.S. – Avalon Bellevue Skateboarders and Bayne Park Skate Plaza
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