Have you ever shown up at a skate contest, event or party, seen a mini-ramp that seemingly appeared from thin air, and wondered just where in hell it came from? Probably not: you likely just skated it, or watched someone else skate it, and thought nothing more of it. But for those in the events business, there's a hard way and an easy way to transport and set up mini-ramps. The hard way? Assemble and disassemble the same ramp, over and over again, until its beat to shit. The easy way? Do what Ontario's eventSing has done, and fabricate a seemingly magical mini-ramp that can be set up and torn down in less than 60 minutes with minimal wear-and-tear.

A rendering of the Hide-N-Go-Skate.

"The idea came from having too many events too close together, meaning that our wooden ramps were constantly being pulled apart and shipped, shortening the life span and breaking our backs," explains Jimmy Brace from JBR Designs, who co-owns the ramp with eventSing's Andrew Singleton.

The concept of placing the ramp on a trailer wasn't unique - Brace sites Dan Mavry from Axis skate shop in Quebec as someone with a similar trailer-ramp hybrid whom they looked to for advice and input - but eventSing aspired to create a ramp that would be easy to transport, but also skate well. To make the ramp as legit as possible, they surfaced it in Skatelite, gave it smooth transitions, and made it a generous 20-feet wide. And of course, since it's on a trailer, it had to be safe and legal in the eyes of the law.

"The design itself was not too hard as we had experience building both trailers and ramps," Brace acknowledges. "The toughest part was definitely making sure that our final product would be legal on the roads. There are so many regulations with size and weights that we spent more time researching that than actually designing the ramp."

When eventSing arrives on site with the ramp -- fittingly dubbed the "Hide-N-Go-Skate" -- setting it up is a breeze.

"Set-up is fairly simple," says Brace. "There are two hoisting towers that have a winch and cable system that lowers the ramps into place. We designed the ramp to be supported by screw jacks which give us versatility in different locations. As the ramp is lowering, the jacks are set up and levelled. Once the ramp is in place you insert the transition. We usually transport it with my truck or Singleton's truck. They are both 2500 diesels and the trailer is a gooseneck configuration that makes puling it a breeze."

The Hide-N-Go-Skate ramp is in strong demand and has been used at plenty of events, including the Grey Cup, West 49's Go Skateboard Day with Much Music, a Coors Light Maxim golf tournament, the Canada Day festival in Ottawa, Hustler's Beaver Has Landed contest and the Oakville Waterfront Festival. And if you went for a session at the Polson Pier skatepark in Toronto last winter, you may have already skated it - it was actually incorporated into the park, although you'd never know since the trailer was completely hidden.

"It feels like you're skating on a stage because you are raised four feet, which is the height of the flatbed trailer, above the crowd," comments Singleton. "And the general public loves watching the ramp, because you can see it from the back of a crowd. They probably think its solid wood, as we always have the entire ramp skirted so no one can see the frame."

With a seemingly perfect ramp, is there anything eventSing would change to the design?

"Well, an all-aluminum frame would be nice," Brace laughs. "It is a little bit heavy."