Maryland Am at Charm City Skatepark in Baltimore
Published 5/26/2014 by Rob Meronek
Jason Chapman invited us up to Baltimore to check out his skate park and scene that he's been part of since 1994 when Charm City Skatepark started. The park's second home in that time is now in an old paintball warehouse. It's huge, has a vert ramp, and more wood than a forest. Today, Jason ran his Maryland Am Contest that we helped run with The Boardr Live, our scoring app that we run our events with. Baltimore is an interesting city with some good skateboarding. We should make it part of our long term plans. More on that later. As usual, my story is in the photos below.
Photos
The early mornings at Charm City start with Jason and son separating trash for recycling and cutting the trash expense down. Jason is neck deep in all the details from top to bottom at this business.
Tyler's a Baltimore local that ended up winning it today. That's a backside noseblunt slide. Tyler's whole family was there backing him.
Billy Drowne was on Shetler's AIN road trip to the Contest. All wallrides like this remind me of Jake Johnson. I hear he rides for that one Cussword Awesome company now?
Tyrone Henderson has been skating our old am contests for a few years now. He's a Baltimore local up here killing it. This is a fakie 5-0.
A heavy shopping trip.
How does your local shop compare? Jason stocks everything from local brands to the ones you all know.
Baltimore's local skateboard wood company is the 410 Skateboard Co.
There's a bunch of other businesses around here also called Charm City. It's funny how town need a nickname to appeal to people just like certain skateboarders do.
The ramp cave.
There's three huge sections to this warehouse and every one of them is filled with wood bent to skatable shapes.
That perch up there looks a little sketchy.
Pyramid moguls are not your everyday park feature.
Maybe you can learn some gross looking rodeo flips on this thing?
For your waterfall of skateboard stunt stacking.
Is that a tanning chair turned skateboard obstacle?
The entire ceiling is nearly perfectly evenly covered with paintball war remnants like this.
AJ used systems from two different decades to announce the Contest. He's been doing events since the Beast of the East days.
The crowd was a good mix of parents backing their little skate rats. Nice to see.
Rumor has it that soon the iPhone 6 will be out and extra large like the Samsung phones.
Pause for a gear check.
Pause for another gear check.
And one more pause, this one with Jason manning yet another detail of his business, documentation and skate photos.
I like Charm City's grip tape.
What app is he using right there?
It's an all ages and skills contest that Jason's doing here. This is the Advanced Division top three. Toby Bennett won it.
Wait, there's a vert ramp here? I wonder if Bucky shreds it or how many letters in games of SKATE get dropped daily.
DIY medical supply, or Obama Care.
Ziggy introduced me to Nattie Bo, the local sauce choice of champions.
Once I find a DVD player, I'm going to check out the premiere issue of EXPNVM.
After the Contest, we made a little time to push through downtown on our own. We didn't hit any jackpots of old man spots, but it sure was interesting.
I bet that pilgrim on the horse skates this ledge when no one's around.
Parts of downtown Baltimore remind me of Europe.
This definitely could be the Czech Republic or something.
Francis Scott Key died in this building.
The duck pond in Downtown Trampa and this building have the same status on the National Register of Historic Places.
Stacking tourist photos.
When you come from flat Florida, even baby little hills like this are fun to bomb.
This guy likes shoes more than you and me.
Sports kids playing friendly in the hood.
Ironwoman?
The neighborhood has style here.
We stayed with our friend Betsy from the Smithsonian while we were here, had a home cooked meal, and enjoyed 40's from the local bullet proof glass protected convenience store before waking up shortly before 4am to get home. We're already back. See you soon, Baltimore and Betsy. We're doing an event with the Smithsonian and Rodney Mullen on Go Skateboarding Day in Lakeland, Florida. We'll be back in Baltimore with some grand plans on tying together some skateboarding shindigs around your neck of the worldwide woods. Thanks for the hospitality Charm City and Betsy.
