Hundreds of skaters and spectators converged upon the Etnies Skatepark of Lake Forest grand opening celebration on Saturday, December 13, 2003. Streets were barricaded, punk music was pumped, and Southern California’s insatiable hunger for cast concrete was curbed.

At 40,000 square feet the new park is one of the largest in the nation, but that didn’t keep crowds from exceeding capacity—hundreds of the region’s best skaters stopped by to session it. Park officials had to rally hard to clear the plaza of enough bodies so that the best-trick contest could get underway. Ryan Sheckler was nosegrinding the 11-stair rail and Jim Gagne dislocated a finger trying a nollie-flip noseslide, but ultimately it was newcomer Tony Tave who took home the $1,000 check for his switch 180 heelflip down the double set.

When the pros weren’t perpetrating the park, they could be found in their respective company booths signing autographs and broing down with their fans. Other happenings included a high-flying BMX demo, an avenue-rocking performance by Nitro recording artists Rufio, and a time-capsule drop down the manhole cover in the plaza area of the park.

Thanks to a generous $125,000 donation from Etnies and Sole Technology CEO and owner Pierre Andre Senizergues, the $3 million, three-acre skatepark will be free to the public. The former pro skater coughed up the cash himself when he learned that the park would have to charge an admission fee to offset maintenance costs.

Because it’s huge, diverse, free, and designed by some of Etnies’ top pros—Arto Saari, Ryan Sheckler, Fabrizio Santos, and Mike Valley, among others—it’s no secret that the new Etnies Skatepark of Lake Forest promises to see plenty of play.

Here’s the breakdown on the park’s features, courtesy of Timothy Nickloff of Etnies:

The Plaza

The plaza features a huge area of open space with ledges and flat rails of various sizes scattered throughout it. In the center of the plaza sits a small, trannied manhole cover that sits about eight inches from the ground, but offers up some serious snap. Underneath the manhole lies a time capsule that Sole Crew dropped the day of the grand opening—very cool.

The Plaza features a double set with a nice-size Hubba ledge, as well as a hearty round rail down a huge 11-stair with a smaller flat rail down the same set that leads into the street course. The plaza is the street skater’s dream!

The Street Course

The street course is perfectly designed for any tech skater. It was designed to be very linear (back and forth) and features perfect-size funboxes (Tampa Skatepark-size) with manual blocks, flatbars, ledges, and a concrete picnic table perfectly centered on one of the funboxes. The street course also features a bank-to-curb with a true to street bank-to-wall on the opposite side that dumps into a nine-foot trannied vert wall and into huge six-foot rollers that lead into the flow course.

The Flow Course

The flow course is designed for high-speed runs that will lead you in and around fast corners and perfect hips. There are three rollers throughout the flow course, one of which is eight-feet tall and is in the shape of Darth Vader’s helmet. This thing is huge and will catapult you anywhere in the course. This includes up to a three sized pyramid that was designed to be hit from anywhere in the flow area. Last, but definitely not least, the flow area features a nine-foot cornered vert wall that has been recently and affectionately named by pool-skating legend Jimmy “The Greek” Marcus as the “Pro’s Nest.”

Combi Bowl

The Combi Bowl is a six-foot to eight-foot off T-shape bowl that features some good hips and some fast lines. The Combi also sits next to the “skull” bowl for some hefty transfers.

The Skull Bowl

The Skull Bowl was partially designed by skate legend Garry Scott Davis (GSD)—yep, the same legendary individual who invented the-all time classic skate trick, the boneless. The Bowl was designed to replicate the swimming pools of the late 70’s and early 80’s and rolls from 6ft to 91/2ft. The bowl is in a round skull shape and features perfectly sized pool coping and tile.