Russ Cooks Half Pipe and other ramps Gallery

Russ Cook's Half pipe was a fixture of the Skating and BMX freestyling scene for about 2 years until the neighbors threatened legal action if it wasn't moved. It set behind Cook house out in Clive until it was completely torn down and loaded in the back of my 70 Chevy Pickup truck and haul in to loads to the Darren Stout's house on the South side of Des Moines.  After that it was torn down again and the frame was put back together first at a house in the Southeast Bottoms and a house on MKL Jr Parkway(then Harding Rd). As far as I know the surface was never put on again after being at Darren's and I'm unsure what happened to it after that. 

We rode and skated Russ' ramp in all weathers and often well into the night. Even going as far as using ice scrappers on it and towels to be able to ride it. I've also included Russ' 1/4 pipe and my 1/4 that was made of the same design. It was designed by Russ' dad, who was an engineer and had a machine shop in the basement of their home. In fact I believe Russ still operates the shop. The design was a 2x4 L shaped frame with crossing 2x12 and then the transition was chalked out with a compass and then cut with a saw. Then you added cross wise 2x4s. The Half pipe was 16 feet wide with 8 foot transitions and had a foot of Vert on one side with 3 foot and 4 foot tombstones. It's one weakness was the spacing of the supports. When I built my version, I spaced them a foot apart and added 2 layers of 1/2 plywood making the thing as solid as concert.