Mark Hubbard interview: the man behind grindline

Thrasher Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Luke Ogden

Why are you qualified to build skateparks?

Twenty-eight years of skateboarding--searching and destroying--and building skate terrain has given us the experience to represent the skateboard movement. To travel the world in search of the best, the worst, the gnarliest, and the weirdest--every structure in our mind is analyzed, ridden, and recorded. Having this information and the opportunity and will to travel state to state, country to country, spot to spot, makes this obsession the only reliable way for creating innovative, progressive skateboarding parks. That knowledge combined with 16 years of design-build experience makes us an unstoppable force in the future of skatepark terrain. We know what sucks and what rules. Sure, everyone has an opinion, but the experience and confidence of 30-plus design builds and a skate nation behind us has created an enormous gap between the corporate contractors and the core skater parks. The level of distinction between a design built by a golf course company and the skate nation is astronomical. We're busy uniting the skate work force and establishing a supreme presence in the world of landscape architects and general contractors. We don't take lightly the responsibility of the enormous task at hand. It is our mission to represent the past, present, and future of skateboarding, not by creating stupid replicas or safe designs, mediocre parks that weren't pushing the limits, not being afraid to mess up, because we know skateboarding. We'll guide the future of our own thing; skateboarding is ours, not theirs. We'll combine the skate crews and alienate the competition. The world wants skateboarding? Well, they can't have it, let alone handle it. But we will give it to them, not the other way around.

How do kids get someone like you to build a park in their town?

Well, they approach the city council or a lot of the time they get together with the local businesses and powerful people in the community who can jump through the right hoops to get something started.

When they get all that stuff together, do you guys consult with the kids?

Yeah. We hold a design meeting, talk to the kids, see what they want. Lay it out, draw it up, send some different ideas. They choose what they like with what they see and we meet them half-way with what's going to be really good. We make it all work; their ideas and our experience.

How many parks have you built se far?

Thirty, in the last seven years.

How did you get started building this stuff?

Not having anything to skate ourselves. Of course everyone builds ramps, but they don't last very long, so we just started building concrete so it would last. We built swimming pools.

Swimming pools for swimming?

Yeah. That's how we got into the trade, you know.

So you're fully licensed?

Yeah, we're licensed, bonded and insured. In the same league as any general contractor.

How many people are in your crew?

I have 15 guys right now in my crew.

And they all skate?

Every single one or them. And they skate well, and are passionate about building parks and making sure they're good.

What's the average build time from conception and approval to skating?

Oh, probably about three months.

Who's on your crew?

It's Shaggy, Rabbi, Carl, Little John, Jamie, Brute. Turner, Mike Sanders, Hanford, Quiet Keith, Little Eddy, and a couple more. I don't know all their names. I just order them around. Chris Hildebrand is the front man, and myself.

You are?

The Hubbard. After design meetings with kids and the community--after we get their design ideas--we'll create a 3-D conceptual drawing in a program called Rhino, where you can actually walk through the park and look at it all, a bunch of different 360-degree views of the park.

If something doesn't jive while building, can you make changes?

We make changes in the field 'cause that's what skateparks are: making it work, not by going with every little mistake somebody made. We'll spend extra money to make sure it's right. If it's something that nobody could have see on paper, then we'll fix it in the field. We make it right. Were the end-users. Grindline, we are the customers.