Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

The Skateboard Palace (Opened Sept. 8, 1977, Canada's first indoor skatepark)



Looking back, this was a fun place to ride and always out of the rain and snow. But it wasn’t perfect, but nothing ever is.
   This was supposed to be the slalom area or banked slalom area. It was fun to bomb down as fast as we could. Tim and I are “catamaraning” from the top. (Click photo for larger image).    The front of the place. My dad’s motor home parked out front. He would haul us up there from Seattle, and sit in his motor home and work on his computer for hours. In 1977 this was probably pretty unusual, but he was a computer programer, so it wasn’t unusual for him (Click photo for larger image).


Eric Metcalfe's Burnaby photos from the '70's.

Tim and I visited the Burnaby skatepark a couple of times, it was housed under a ice rink, and one problem was the roof was so cold that it would condensate and drip, but they fixed that problem after a while. One time my dad brought us and a few members of our Jr. High School Skateboard club at the time. This is a picture of me in one of the bigger bowls. Notice no coping. I never had the lipslides wired, but it was pretty easy to do here.

Here's Tim. This picture was in our 1978 Jr. High School annual, hence the poor quality. You can see my board laying on the deck in the background. It was an interesting place, but the concrete dust was pretty bad at times.


   These two photos are a continuation from the one at the top. We would lean together to steer around the bowled end of the slalom area (Click photo for larger image).    (Click photo for larger image).


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   This little wall was kinked to vert hard. I was trying to get as high as I could on it. (Click photo for larger image).    (Click photo for larger image).


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Kyle was one of the best in the Northwest.
Photo of Kyle Kenny taken by Eric Gallison
This is a rather difficult spot to try and do an air. The wall isn’t even close to vertical.
Photo of Kyle Kenny taken by Eric Gallison


   (Click photo for larger image).    I’m still not sure what half of these trick names are! (Click photo for larger image).


   My dad can be seen in the background, most likely making fun of me, making me laugh. (Click photo for larger image).    (Click photo for larger image).


  Photo taken by Eric Gallison (Click photo for larger image).