Incredible Extreme Sports

Skateboarding

Posted by Dan Wareham on June 23, 2009 in Skateboarding   

The World’s Largest Skateboarding Ramp

The largest skateboard ramp in the world can be found on a 12-acre farm north of San Diego among the green foothills of the San Marcos Mountains. The ramp’s owner is Bob Burnquist, a renowned 30-year-old professional skateboarder from Brazil.

Approximately 360 feet long, the ramp is 75 feet high at its apex. That is where riders begin their run, reaching speeds of up to 55mph down a 180-foot-long roll-in to a ramp that launches them across a 70-foot gap with trapeze netting below. Landing on a 27-foot sloped section, they then boost up to 50 feet above the ground from a 30-foot quarterpipe. A shorter route begins with a 55-foot-tall platform leading to a 50-foot gap, and the 30-foot quarterpipe.

Completed in September 2006 after more than a year of construction, Burnquist’s Mega Ramp cost $280,000, part of which was covered by his apparel sponsors Oakley and Hurley. Although not the first - the X Games builds one each year - it is the world’s only permanent Mega Ramp, and Burnquist said having it at his home allows him to explore all the possibilities of the sport’s most daring discipline.

For Burnquist, who stands out in a crowd of iconoclasts, the ramp has become the latest step in a journey to create what he called an exponential progression in an otherwise street-bound, terrestrial sport.

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