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
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
Plank Eye
Check out our contest videos if you haven’t already!
We received the latest Skateboard Mag for January 2009. We still have Decembers issue which comes with a free dvd.
Our First Contest Footage
Our first contest was a blast. Check out this page to view the video footage from the event. The third video (Advance Game of SKATE) is coming soon.
-Carlo
Contest
Our first contest was this past weekend. It was really fun. Thanks to everyone who came out. Give a shout out to Jay for taking the win on both contests and also to Chase who won the young division in the game of SKATE. Runner up in the highest Ollie was Austin Malone. The runner up in SKATE was Brandon Z. Good job everyone.
We will upload some pictures and video from the contest within the next few days.
-Carlo
New Products Coming
Products baby. We’re getting the shop decks in tomorrow. Come check em out wednesday after 5pm. We also have 3 new sets of Tensor Magnesium Light trucks, short sleeve t-shirts, new grip (camo, skull print, zoo york cut out) all coming in the mail.
Also, “AND NOW” the new highly anticipated Transworld video arrives at our shop within the next few days.
Come get your copy, we will have a limited supply.
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- Artober Fest Bellevue Fundraiser
- Go Skateboarding Day Pittsburgh 2011 Tuesday, June 21st
- The Outlaw Collective/Johnny Hero Interview Part 2
- History of A.B.S. – Avalon Bellevue Skateboarders and Bayne Park Skate Plaza
- Aldrin Garcia Breaks Highest Ollie World Record
- Projekt 50/50 – Art on Skateboards
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