I’m Mike, and I can’t stop building ramps. Skateboard ramps!

     From a very young age, I had always wanted a skateboard ramp. Growing up in Portland, Oregon it was always street skating, with an occasional bank in the mix. Once or twice, I managed to snake in at Montey’s vert ramps off 90th and Powell way back in the day, not enough to really build any vert skill.

     At college in Los Angeles in the late 80’s, we skated curbs, ditches, banks, and a harsh wedge wall ride I made. The school funded–then shot down–our project to build a vert ramp.

     During the 90’s, the skatepark scene in Oregon was just starting up: Burnside, Lincoln City, Aumsville, Newberg, and others that followed. Meanwhile, I was in New York City pursuing graduate studies in Fine Art and the History of Art. I skated Brooklyn banks and the Upper West Side Skatepark. Long Subway rides–Is there another kind? I skated the epic Oregon skateparks a few times a year on family visits.

     In the early 2000’s I finally moved back home to Oregon, and hit up the skateparks as much as I could. A couple of dead end jobs later, I decided I needed to get a life and earn more money. I earned a Master’s Degree in teaching. A tiny, crappy micro mini half pipe crammed into my backyard gave me a snake-free place to learn the few moves I had. 

     I was hired after my second interview by a tiny, derelict school district in the Cascade Mountains of central Oregon, in a small town I mockingly refer to as “Rattlesnake Gulch”. I pulled up stakes in Portland and threw myself into the hinterlands. 

     In 2007 I blew out my knee while skating. Newberg Skatepark! I did not know if I would ever skate again–or be able to walk without a painful, nagging limp. Two or three years later, after a second surgery on my knee and plenty of painful physical therapy, I found out I could still skate. Florence, Oregon Skatepark! And snowboarding, too. I’m back, baby!

     Rattlesnake Gulch had an abomination that they called a skatepark. It was a smallish cement pad surrounded and afflicted by super sketchy gravel, with a steel rail, and an extra crappy steel quarter pipe wedge flat top combo. Essentially, it was un-rideable.

     The nearest marginally acceptable skateparks were an hour away in Eugene. Not nearly as conducive as living five minutes away from Burnside.

      About this time, I found DIYskate.com, a treasury of *free* ramp plans. I collected as much free, or cheap, salvaged lumber as I could from craigslist and BRING recycling in Eugene. I’ve made it a point to keep wood out of landfills and recycle it into my ramps as much as possible. I turned my home into a skatepark with small quarter pipes of various sizes; pumps bumps; combos; a super sketchy indoor bank/pipe; rails; wedges; banks; cement skate curbs; a small spine; and even a three foot half pipe. About  twenty in all. Ramps, ramps, RAMPS!

     In 2014 I made it out of the frying pan and into the fire. I landed a new teaching job in Newberg, OR–home to one of our best skateparks. I downsized most of my beloved ramps, and converted some into shelving for my otherwise empty classroom. One or two I flipped on craigslist; some I took apart and/or mothballed. I relied on the snake- and Karen-infested public skateparks on the west side. Working in Newberg did not bring any extra sessions at the skatepark there. Rider Ramps dormant phase was activated.

     By 2018 I was living in a weird little cabin with a big yard in the suburbs of Portland. Newberg had chewed me up and spit me out as a teacher. Later I would read about the bed Newberg had made for itself in the newspaper. I still had a few of my old ramps laying around, so I finally set about selling them off. My first prospect wanted those, and a couple more built-to-order. Things have just snowballed from there. Rider Ramps was reactivated!

     Now five years and a couple dozen ramps since resuscitation, I’m still going strong with Rider Ramps. New (salvaged) supplies, new tools, and new designs are keeping up with repeat customers. My current campaign was inspired by a phat stack of salvaged lumber that I got for free without even leaving home. Sometimes I find materials that are already the right size for each other. 

     I work hard to beat the big competitors on price and quality. Rider Ramps are portable, affordable, ecological, and customize-able. My scope ranges from items around just $20 to multi-thousand dollar mini pipe projects. It’s been 50 years since the start of my journey into skateboarding, and my quest for ramps. From elementary school to middle age, I can now say emphatically, yeah, I have ramps. You can find Rider Ramps here at our website, on craigslist Portland, and Facebook Marketplace.  I have to build ramps, because it keeps me pumped! Stay tuned for my portable miniature skatepark, demo videos, and all the latest.

 Rider Ramps

skateboard ramps

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