For over 20 years, Dreamland Skateparks has been designing and creating the most innovative skateparks. From their roots of hand-mixing concrete underneath the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon to now building skateparks around the world, they have made an enormous contribution to the skateboard community. 

Taking a closer look at how these skateparks come to life, Billy Meiners, Leatherman’s social media manager, visited the team in Corvallis, Oregon to check out their latest project.

What’s your name, and what's your role with Dreamland?

My name is Danyel Scott, and I am the co-owner and Project Manager for Dreamland Skateparks. So, I not only managed the projects under current construction, but I do the whole conceptual and fruition parts of the projects. PR, marketing, and all that type of stuff.

Dang, so you wear a lot of different hats?

Yes!

And you have to wrangle the troops?

Yeah, they're my boys, that’s for sure. I think when I talk about them some people think, “Oh wow! You must have a lot of kids,” and I'm like well I do, they're big kids. And occasional wrangling is necessary. *laughs*

But it's awesome that it’s a big family and the most important thing is that everybody's skating together, they're working together, they're designing and building together. And I think it takes a really unique group of people to be able to do that. They're absolute artists, and they still impress me all the time.

Where are we, and what project are you currently work on?

We are in Corvallis, OR and building the long-awaited bowl under the bridge adjacent from the old skate park—after probably 13 or 15 years of planning.

What's the point of building a new section of skatepark next to the old one?

For a long time, there was a vert ramp here, and so historically, transition skating was a big thing in Corvallis. 

They had the vert ramp over at Avery Park, and that was taken down. The bowl in the old park is not a functional bowl, and there's always been this desire for transition in Corvallis. It’s something it lacked and that was the whole reason for building this individual bowl as kind of a competition-level piece.

What kind of history does Dreamland have with making skateparks around Oregon?

Well, Mark [Scott] is born and raised in Oregon, and he started with the Burnside Skatepark in 1990. He didn't have anything to skate when he was younger, and he would go on road trips to the Turf [Wisconsin] or California or whatever. His favorite thing to do is skate transition, so that is what inspired us to start creating parks. All of our employees skate which is great because they want to skate what we've built. I can think of skateparks I've been to that weren't done by skaters, and the difference is noticeable.

So, Dreamland has really strong connection with Oregon skateparks, but have y'all been branching outside the state and outside the country?

We started building in Montana in the early 2000s, so there has been a huge influx of parks. We build primarily on the West side of the state, we’ve also built in the southern part, and then Evergreen [Skateparks] started building a few years ago over in Montana as well. We build anywhere somebody wants to hire us. We’ve built in China, Europe, Israel, and Mark has volunteered in Ethiopia, so it’s been quite a lot of travel.

Do you have a favorite park that you have done? 

Well for me, I'm from Whitefish, MT. You've got the backdrop of not just the ski resort but the Rocky Mountains, too, so it's absolutely beautiful. Lincoln City, OR is home for us as well and that was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And the majority of that park was volunteer work. I'm sure Mark would say Burnside is his favorite, but yeah, I'd say my favorite is Whitefish.

There are so many parks in Montana now. You basically can pull over every 30 minutes and skate something new!

I mean it's a constant from one point in Montana to another. And Montana is a big state, so that's saying a lot! Jeff Ament [Bassist from Pearl Jam] is a huge part of that, and he’s supporting not just the reservations but the smaller communities where there isn't anything for the kids out there. For someone of such a high stature to give back the way he has is huge.

Who usually pays for these parks? I don't imagine the cities are putting up all the money for these parks.

It really depends. We've been really fortunate to have Montana Skatepark Association and other skatepark associations like the Tony Hawk Skatepark Project. So, a lot of them are funded through nonprofits but some of these larger scale ones are either state or federal grants that they receive; that's what made Corvallis a reality. While they fundraised for 13 years, the reality of how this got built was through a state grant. I think after COVID they really tried to put more money into recreational programs and other outlets for kids. Which is nice to see because not everybody's in an organized sport, and this is something that is for all ages.

I know there's a lot of specialized tools for skatepark construction, and it's cool to hear that a multi-tool is still part of this big kit for building skate parks.

Yeah, absolutely. Mark doesn't leave home without it, and when he does, we’ve gone out and bought one. There’s been quite a few buried in concrete over the years. *laughs*  

He's known for having at least one or more Leathermans on or around him at all times.

What's the favorite multi-tool for the Dreamland crew? 

The Surge®. It's got everything we need, and while it's a little bit bigger, it's extremely sturdy, and it's made it through a lot. We've run them over with the skidsteers and excavators and had to pick them up out of the mud, and they’re ready to go.

The Surge has the reputation of being the “King of Multi-tools” since it’s one of the most robust tools we make. And for doing concrete work it seems like it’d be a good choice.

From cutting the tarps to anything that we needed a tool for on the site, the Surge has got everything that we need, and it’s been really helpful.

That’s awesome. Well, thanks for just taking some time to chat about skateparks, and I’m glad that Leatherman can help support you guys and what you’re doing; even if it's resulted in a few multi-tools getting buried in concrete.

Well, we've been using them for decades, and it's been essential as one of our tools on the job site, at home, on the property, and when we're out skating. So, it's a perfect collaboration, and we appreciate the support.