Get Rad
Get Rad Skatepark Tour for Children’s Health IV
Went down on September 26 to 29, 2019
Update: 10/5/2019
The Get Rad Skatepark Tour for Children’s Health IV: The Ramp Rip Rides was a blast!
A crew of nine skaters departed from Seattle the morning of September 26 to skate parks up and down the coast for four days. This year we highlighted the indoor ramp scene in the Pacific Northwest, but we hit a couple outdoor parks too.
We started with a blazing session at the diecutstickers.com ramp in Tukwila. Then it was off to 5th floor in Tacoma, where local ramp building wizard Ryan welcomed us to his crazy ramp palace. After a few hours of fun and hammers, we headed for Seaside, Oregon, to rest up for day 2.
Next morning, we went to another of Ryan’s projects, an undercover ramp park in Clatskanie. This was definitely the raddest spot on the tour. Next up was Stronger Skatepark in Milwaukie, where A.J. gave us a warm welcome and all the locals shredded with us for a few hours.
Day 3, we skated the park in Seaside, an outdoor bowl spot with crazy flow and some deep bowls. Then the crew wanted to go back to Clatskanie. Did I mention that park was rad?
On the final day of the tour, we skated the Astoria park, which is gnarly. A 12-foot, big, open bowl with pool coping. Some of the guys got grinds and we gave pointers to some kids.
Finally, back to Seattle for the final sesh of the tour at All Together Skatepark. Everybody was tired and sore, but they had enough in the tank to get some serious bangers on the spine ramp, banks, and ledges. This video is going to be sick.
A truly memorable experience. I am awed and humbled by the myriad ways so many different people pitched in to make this tour a success. People skated with us, opened their facilities for us to skate, donated gear to give to local skaters, donated talent and work, hyped us on social media, and did a thousand other things to make it all come together.
And as of this writing, we are just under $5,000 raised for Seattle Children’s Hospital for this year. Our best year ever was year two, when we raised $5,600 and broke the world record for the most parks skated in a day. Will we set a new bar for fundraising this year? Please donate and help out needy kids and families at Seattle Children’s Hospital!
Video coming soon!
Update: 9/4/2019
Ready for year 4? Let’s get rad!
Over the first three tours, we skated a ton of parks, had a blast, and raised over $10,000 for Seattle Children’s Hospital. On year two, we even broke the world record for most parks in one day! Now we’re gearing up for the Get Rad Skatepark Tour for Children’s Health IV: The Ramp Rip Rides.
For this year’s tour, we’re hitting some indoor spots to highlight the amazing, but underexposed, Pacific Northwest indoor ramp scene. We’ll skate September 26 through 29. Still working out the final tour schedule, but it involves some Washington and Oregon halfpipes. Visit our page often as we will be updating frequently.
Come skate, like and share our page and posts, and above all, donate to help out some kids! We want this thing to go viral this year!
Update: 9/22/2018
The Get Rad Skatepark Tour for Children’s Health III was a blast! No record attempt this year, just a bunch of rad Pacific Northwest Parks, good vibes, 360 contests, and product giveaways to stoke out the kids.
We started at Jefferson Park in Seattle, one of the best parks in the region. After shredding with the locals for a bit, we headed south and skated the Olympia, Kelso, and Woodland parks. We even got a private bowl sesh at one of the local legends’ houses!
Then it was on to Oregon to stretch out the sore legs and get a good night’s sleep. Next morning, we met up with the Skate Like a Girl campers at Windells. Yes, Windells is just as rad to skate as it looks in all the videos. Wow.
The 360 contests were a blast! Spinning 360s is old-school even for us old dudes, so it was really neat to see the young kids try it out. Some of them really took to it and got some good spins in!
Check out the video, and please donate if you can. We were all really happy to do what we love and raise some dough for Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Where shall we go next year?
Update: 8/18/2018
The Get Rad Skatepark Tour for Children’s Health 3: The Reunion Tour goes down on August 25, 2018!
We were thrilled to break the world’s record for the most skateparks skated in one day and raise a bunch of money for Seattle Children’s Hospital. Now it’s time for a reunion tour!
In 2016, we made our first record attempt. We skated tons of parks and had a lot of fun, but the tour stopped abruptly at park 26 when one of the guys got hurt. No new record, but we did raise $2700 for Children’s.
In 2017, we tried again, and we made it this time! Thirty-two parks, about a thousand slams, and five very tired and battered skaters, and best of all, $6000 raised for Children’s!
For tour number three, we’re taking a different approach. No record attempt, just a bunch of killer Northwest parks, friends, and fun. And we’re taking the tour to Oregon! Here’s the route:
- 8-10 a.m. Jefferson Park, Seattle, WA
- 11 a.m. Olympia
- 2 p.m. Kelso
- 4 p.m. Woodland
- 7 p.m. Hood River, OR
- Destination: Windells!
We’ll do a 360 contest for swag at each stop. Get ready to spin!
We’d be stoked if you’d support the tour with a donation to Children’s, whether large or small. And please share and like our video and this web page.
Update: 9/6/2017
The Get Rad Skatepark Tour for Children's Health II was a success! On August 26, 2017, four skateboarders, aged 32 to 46, skated 32 skateparks in one day, setting a new world record! We've already reaised over $5500 for Seattle Children's Hospital. Peep the tour footy, please like and share, and if you can swing a donation large or small, we'd be stoked!
Update: 8/27/2017
WE DID IT!
32 parks
15 hours
Countless hammers
Over $5,000 raised for Seattle Children's Hospital so far!
Tour footage coming soon!
Update: 7/17/2017
Seattle has many things to be proud of, including one of the finest children’s hospitals in the world, as well as one of the greatest concentrations of amazing skateparks. Welcome to the Get Rad Skatepark Tour, partie deux!
On August 13, 2016, four Seattle-area skateboarders, aged 31 to 45, set out to break the world record for the most skateparks skated in one day to raise funds for Seattle Children’s Hospital. The record of 31 parks was originally set in 2012 by three rad pro skaters in the Vancouver, B.C. area. The Seattle area has a crazy number of skateparks, and we figured we could do at least 34.
We started at six in the morning and went on a huge spiral route that took us through Seattle and then to the south county. We skated big parks, little parks, awesome parks, and awful parks. Dudes were taking risks, landing new tricks, and having a blast. You can see the footage here.
Then, at park number 26, Brian, one of the guys on the team, took a huge slam and got hurt, so we called off the tour and got him to a hospital.
We were disappointed that we didn’t break the record, but it was an amazing and unforgettable experience, and we raised over $2700.00 for Seattle Children’s. We are super proud of how it all went down. Above all, we’re glad to be able to report that Brian has had an excellent recovery from his slam.
Now we’re gearing up for our second attempt! We have a team of ripping skaters who are down to skate all day, get some hammers, and do something positive. This year’s team roster includes Joshua Pluger, Marshall “Stack” Reid, Mark Mensalvas, Jesop Gale, and me, Kenneth Barger. The tour goes down on August 26th. We’re confident that this year we’ll smash the record and surpass last year’s fundraising levels by a long shot.
What counts as skating a park? Each guy on the team has to land a good trick. What constitutes “a good trick” is entirely subjective—we all know our skill levels and what we value in skateboarding. What one dude considers good, another dude might not even consider a trick. But this is one of the beautiful things about skateboarding: Skaters know when a guy is stretching his limits, and we get stoked when he lands his trick, whether it’s basic or totally bananas.
We chose to support Seattle Children’s for a number of reasons. Several of us have family or loved ones who have received treatment at this world-class facility. I was even treated there myself as a baby! I was born with an incomplete hip joint, so they gave me a cast to immobilize my legs until it grew the rest of the way in. I bet I wouldn’t be skating dozens of skateparks in one day if it weren’t for Seattle Children’s. Who knows if I would even be walking! This is a small way for us to give back to a place that has helped so many people over the years.
We’d be stoked if you’d support the tour with a donation to Children’s, whether large or small. And please share and like our promo video and web page.
Update: 8/20/2016
Thanks for visiting the Get Rad Skatepark Tour for Children’s Health page. On August 13, 2016, four skateboarders, aged 31 to 45, set out to break the world record for the most skateparks skated in one day to raise money for Seattle Children’s Hospital. Click here to peep the tour footage, or simply read on to see how it went down.
We knew that setting out to skate 34 parks in one day would be a huge undertaking and endurance test. We stretched, trained, plotted, and schemed for months. The morning of, sunrise was at 6:03, and by 6 a.m. sharp, we were skating Benefit Park, a tiny skatepark that is literally across the street from my house. How stoked am I that there’s a skatepark in front of my house?
We wanted to make sure every dude got at least one or two good tricks at each park. What constitutes “a good trick” is entirely subjective—we all know our skill levels and what we value in skateboarding. What one dude considers good, another dude might not even consider a trick. But this is one of the beautiful things about skateboarding in general, and this crew in particular: We’re all stoked when a guy lands something rad, particularly when we know it’s a challenge for him.
Our route took us on a huge spiral, looping through the city of Seattle towards the north, across to the west, and all the way back through town to the south. We skated fourteen parks before we even left the city limits.
Then we headed for south King County. The further we got out of town, the weirder the parks got. We hit sketchy pre-fab parks, huge parks, tiny parks, even one park that was under renovation. The construction guys were down with the tour, so they let us skate the one quarterpipe that was skateable. That was a particularly fun and unexpected session.
At park number 26, Brian took a nasty fall and got injured. We suspended the tour and got him to a hospital. He ended up spending three nights in the hospital and won’t be skating again for several months. He’ll recover fully, but it was pretty awful when it happened.
We didn’t beat the record, but it was an unforgettable experience for all of us and I am super proud of the team. I’m stoked on how the after video came out. I have never seen these dudes skate so rad.
We are profoundly grateful to all the donors to this campaign, whether your gift was large or small. Donations are still open. Please click through and make a donation.
And we thank our amazing sponsors.
Above all, we wish Brian a speedy recovery. You were killing it out there, brother.
Thanks for checking out the Get Rad Skatepark Tour for Children’s Health!
We are four skateboarders living in the Seattle area, and we are going to make a world record attempt for the most skateparks skated in one day. The current record is 31, set by three rad pro skaters back in 2012. We mean to set out to beat this number. Our goal is 34, but if we can get a few more, we will!
We were originally going to do this just for fun, but we ended up deciding to do it for a good cause, and we chose Seattle Children’s Hospital. Please click through and make a donation, whether large or small.
Why Seattle Children’s? We’re all Seattleites or adopted Seattleites, so there is some hometown pride in supporting one of the world’s finest children’s hospitals. But this is also very personal for us.
I was born with an incomplete hip joint. I was treated at Children’s, and from when I was seven to fourteen months old, I had a cast that went from my shins to my waist. They tell me I learned to walk in that thing! This allowed the hip to finish growing in. If it hadn’t been for the world-class treatment I got at Children’s as a baby, I would have been disabled for life, and I certainly wouldn’t be a skateboarder!
Our team for this tour consists of Brian Brookhart, Mark Mensalvas, Jesop Gale, and me, Kenneth Barger. We aren’t legendary pros, but we are four skaters who have been doing it for a long time and we love it.
We’re excited about making our world record attempt. And we’re stoked that we’re living in a place that has one of the world’s greatest concentrations of skateparks. Some of them are good, some of them are awful, some of them are downright legendary, and we’re going to hit them all. It’s skateboarding’s golden age, kids, get out there and get some!
Peep our promo vid, and watch this space for updates. The Tour goes down on August 13, and we’ll post the footage afterwards.
Please like and share our web site and video. Make your donation, and please support our sponsors. Get Rad!
Kenny as a baby
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