After seeing park after park built with designs that catered predominately to bowl busters and ramp riders, top professional and TV personality-come-lately Rob Dyrdek decided to create a park, er, plaza that captures the essence and freedom of modern street skating. No quarter pipes or safety gear needed. Laid out like a downtown square, the plaza has all the elements street skaters crave (rails, blocks, bumps, stairs and hubbas) with perfect take-offs and landings and, most importantly, no hassle from the fuzz. Forget the child-sized rails and cheater ledges of other so-called "street" courses; these are the real thing -- big and burly just like the raw streets. Sidewalks snake around the perimeter, ideal for ledge lines, and stair sets start at three, accommodating any level of kick flipper. There's a mellow seven-stair rail for the tech-stars and a hellacious 11, complete with hubbas, for those ready to go Muska. And unlike a real downtown, the whole place is plopped down in a pleasant city park, lousy with shade trees for lounging and free of that steady urine stink. The flow is a little clunky in spots and mini-ramp champs will be sorely disappointed by the total dearth of transition, but for street purists, the DC Skate Plaza might be the next best thing to a trip to Barcelona.

In short: If you can't skate street, Skate Plaza

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Photos: Courtesy of Shane Cross RIP