A few weeks back, Kevin Kelly from BLVD skateshop in Vancouver blasted over a text that read: “Sluggo is taking charge and buying supplies to paint Hastings…” I’m always down for an excuse to post something about the living-legendary Canadian vert roller, and this was a pretty damn good one.

During a recent phone call, Rob Boyce explained what he refers to as “giving the old girl a facelift.”

Sluggo does a pre-paint backside air in the deep end at the August 2010 'Battle At Hastings'. Click the image to see more, and click here for the video. Photo: Adam Cassidy.  

Where did the inspiration to take on this project come from?
Right around Spring Break, I brought my kids down to San Diego and every couple days I went to a different skatepark. I went to Palm Springs and skated their park – a super smooth football field sized one with a replica of the Nude Bowl from the late ‘80s. I went to the Vans park to skate the Combi-Bowl, which they just re-did last year with the most polished cement. When I popped back to Vancouver and dropped in at Hastings and it felt like the oldest, rustiest, beat-down skatepark you’ve ever ridden.

Freshly painted deep end. All photos courtesy of Sluggo’s iPhone.

So you decided to break out the rollers…
I figured the best thing to do is get a layer of paint over the entire thing to make it smoother. The main concern wasn’t so much the main walls, because there was lots of paint on them from kids tagging. But with the amount of rain that happens in Vancouver, it had eroded the cement at the bottom part of the transitions and in the flat.



The bowl has a lot of surface area. Who gave you a hand and how much paint did it take?
The first day, I started painting the bowl with my girlfriend. She was over that real quick [laughs]. Different locals helped along the way, but for the most part it was just me. It took about 2 hours for every 5 gallons, and I used about 45 to 50 gallons. 3 or 4 times I went back and someone had tagged the entire face wall, so I’d have to repaint what I already painted.

How many days did your Hastings paint-project span?
The whole process took about 2 weeks. Now it’s way faster because the paint filled in all the little cracks. I did all the seams with a black roller, and after I finished the entire bowl I took another day and did a white roll all the way around the coping on the deck, so it’s smoother when you do tailslides and crailslides.


Sluggo rolling the seams.

How was the experience overall?
It was cool, really peaceful. That was the most I had ever hung out at a skatepark without actually skateboarding [laughs]. I got pretty burnt rolling that thing because of the reflection from the sun – it was like I was in a tanning machine for hours. But it feels like we’re skating a brand new park now.


View of the final product from the deep end.

Check out Push.ca’s exclusive retrospective video featuring Rob “Sluggo” Boyce by clicking right here.