When Wet Willy's was open, it was a blast. The concrete was covered with a very smooth paint, which was very slippery, at least at first. But you still needed the foam mat to really make it down the run. Safety regulations were indeed minimal. All they seemed to care about was making sure you didn't start at the top until a few seconds after the previous person had gone. That approach seemed to ignore that some people would lose their foam mat and would slow down or stop somewhere down the run. My friends and I quickly figured out how to stop on purpose just after the first bend and then form a train for the rest of the run. We also enjoyed starting on the left-hand track and then pushing the front rider with our feet so they'd do a spine transfer into the right-hand run at the first turn. 😀

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing!

There was one way gnarlier in a south suburb of Chicago, Crestwood, that my crew skated in the late 90's.

There might be footage of Omar Salazar riding these slides in Alien Workshop's Mindfield video... Im not sure

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for the tip, will check it out 🤙

@lookbacklibrary

2 ай бұрын

he definitely had a bsts photo there in a slap.

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

@lookbacklibrary just saw it! Nice little run, thanks for letting me know!

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Just checked it out, super cool. Good quality too, think its shot at the start of the fast slide :)

I used to go to Wet Willy's in Biloxi, Mississippi, from Louisiana every year. The matts then were huge. It was supper fun. I've flew from one slide to the next multiple times. It was fun. No drop-off there.

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Thats cool, thanks for sharing!

@brucebruno842

2 ай бұрын

There was a bigger version with 4 slides down the beach strip. It was called Slippery Sam's, a knock-off of Wet Willy's. Later on in my teens, when they were closed down, we'd go skate parts of the 2 parks.

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Ha! Love the name Slippery Sam's :) These setups were the best, I could imagine they were not only used by kids but adults were probably getting on the beers and hitting them hard.

My friends and I used to skate this place when we were younger I even got a trespassing ticket there. I was lucky enough to film/skate there as much as we did, some of us kept pieces of the concrete from there as keepsakes

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for the comment!

There was a little boom of these concrete waterslide places at the same time as the skatepark boom of 77-78. In fact, Wet Willy's owner Mike Ingram had planned to build a skatepark on that very same site before the company was sued for a few million in 1979. Flowmotion skatepark in Austin Texas had both skatepark and concrete water slides. In the South, these were called "Water Boggans" and there were quite a few neighboring skateparks (most likely poured by the same people who poured the parks): Myrtle Beach, SC park had one next door, so did Carolina Circle Mall skatepark in Greensboro, NC. Lotsa overlap

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for the insight!

This is WILD. We had one similar to this outside of Chicago that you rode a tube down. I only skated it once after it closed, it was gnarly. They've since bulldozed it.

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Sad to see these places go, amazing designs!

@tylerjevaney5271

2 ай бұрын

I don’t live in the area anymore but the graffiti and some slide remnants are still there! They did bulldoze dirt into everything remotely skateable b4 my time but still sick to see. It’s actually under the billboard in the corner of villa park. It’s like in the woods off the interchange. It’s hard to spot the hill but it’s inbetween the two storage facilities by Walmart there’s a dead end with a locked gate which is the access road for that billboard it’s all buried I presume

@SundaysSkateboarding

2 ай бұрын

@@tylerjevaney5271 WILD!!! That sounds about right to me!!!

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Thats cool! Would love to see some new photos of this, let me know if you ever head back to the area :)

@shawnjanet3246

26 күн бұрын

Are you talking about thunder mountain? It was in crestwood, a south suburb of Chicago. My crew used to skate it all the time in the late 90s when it was closed for fall and winter.

I used to slide there as a kid, when I got older I skated there after it was closed. Unique and super fun.

@theskateboardingcrucible

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the comment!

This looks like a sick spot to skate!

@theskateboardingcrucible

Ай бұрын

For sure! 👍

There is actually some great footage of people skating here in a couple videos. Omar Salazar does an insane line here in his Mind Field part. Also Randy Ploesser bluntslides it, but I can't remember which video its in. The Salazar line is worth finding though. Its bananas.

@dudeliferyan

Ай бұрын

m.kzread.info/dash/bejne/qWyJrZVrY9eTZ84.html&pp=ygUVUmFuZHkgcGxvZXNzZXIgcHJldHR5

@dudeliferyan

Ай бұрын

m.kzread.info/dash/bejne/d5qOx6mhnq_KhbA.html&pp=ygUWb21hciBzYWxhemFyIG1pbmRmaWVsZA%3D%3D

@theskateboardingcrucible

Ай бұрын

Yes a few people have mentioned this after we released this clip. The Salazar line is super cool. Looks like its right at the top of the fast slide section.

We used to go there all the time. That place was awsome .people are just soft now.

theres a similar one in PA, I checked out to skate. alot of standing water unfortunately

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Nice, love these old places. Shame there are not many left. Do you have any pics of it? :)

@AF-gg3ce

2 ай бұрын

@@theskateboardingcrucible I do but if you youtube "Allentown’s Abandoned Water Park" you can get a more indepth view

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Great, thanks!

no helmet concrete water slide, i like danger but...

@theskateboardingcrucible

2 ай бұрын

Yeah, don't think they were thinking very safety conscious!

That's why we were all badasses back then cuz we had to navigate the chaos that was life then. Now it's helmets and wokism Same with six flags in St Louis they had rides that you definitely won't find in today's world