Charmette Bonpua Skate Plaza

Rob Dyrdek's Charmette Bonpua Skate Plaza

Jimmy Briggs Front Nose

California skate parks usually consist of about seventy percent bowls and pools that somehow continue to linger around long past the era of dogtown. Rob Dyrdek is an Ohio-born street skater who saw the need to change this trend. Thank god for that, because through his success and philanthropy, he is bringing real street skating to safe areas around Los Angeles. He now has four Safe Spot Skate Spots littered about the city of angels, the newest being the Charmette Bonpua Skate Plaza.

Half-Cab Flip on the bank

This 15,000-square-foot plaza is located within the confines of the giant Rancho Cienega Park sports facility, which is sure to assuage any parent’s worries about their kids being on the streets or in unsafe areas. The stuff he and California Skateparks designed for the plaza is sure to stoke out anyone who wanders their way into the area, as well as the solid crew of locals.

Aimed at pleasing street skaters, the plaza has two huge banks, flat ledges, down ledges, rails and stair sets. Everything in this place is so perfectly finished that you probably won’t even need to bring your own wax. The details are perfectly constructed, like the iron-edged ledges and smooth-as-a-Senator concrete everywhere. Start out on the curb to get warm, take it to the flat ledge over the stairs, and then see if you can hunker down on the hubba. There’s no cover charge to get in or hoodlums lurking in the shadows, the only thing you ought to be wary of are errant soccer balls coming off the nearby field. Stop by on a weekend and there will be plenty of food and drink vendors around the fields so you can comfortably spend the day here.

The plaza is located at 5001 Rodeo Rd, Los Angeles, CA — and on this side of town don’t you dare pronounce it roh-day-oh.

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