Homemade Skateboard Halfpipe

Back on my old website I had years of content posted but I tore it all down and am now trying to slowly bring some of it back to the new site. One of those is the old skateboard halfpipe I built in my backyard. I built it out of (9) 4X8 sections and bolted them all together. You can see the full build process and picture gallery here. I spent more time researching the project than I did building it. It took about 3 full weekends to build it. We used it for about 3 years and then sold it when we decided to build a retaining wall and pour a cement patio.

The wood

Building the sections we would bolt together

Me trying out the vert'ness

My son trying out the bike

Human Powered Truck

Christopher turns a bunch of old bicycles and other metallic junk into a pedal powered truck.

Remember, safety 3rd..and lose your vision!

My stubbornness to see a doctor cost me a piece of my vision

Lessoned learned, wearing safety equipment is not all there is to being safe while working, you must also be smart. While I was wearing safety goggles when I was grinding some metal, a small piece of debris somehow got into my eye. I did not notice it until later and thought I had flushed it out of my eye. The discomfort I had I associated to the usual "something in my eye" feeling and brushed it off. After a week of eye drops and the pain doing an off/on thing it became clear there was a problem and I needed to see a doctor. This is where my "being smart" failed me in being safe, my stubbornness in seeing a doctor cost me a piece of my vision.

Nine days after the incident I went to an eye specialist and he removed a flea sized piece of metal from my eye. It had started to rust around the pupil by that time and I probably went to the doctor just in time before some serious damage occurred. I guess you can define "serious" for yourself, for me I still have vision in my left eye but it will be scarred for life and my vision will look like that bug splat on the windshield for a long time...if not forever.