The History of Bum Park

April 28, 2021

Words by Eric Manrique

Photos by Eric Manrique, Marcus Waldron, Elias Parise, and Jon Spitzer

Saw it on Myspace

Sometime around 2006, one of my friends showed me this photo on Myspace of someone doing a crooked grind down this perfect DIY marble-top hubba that looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. This mystical hubba on acres of concrete, along with a makeshift handrail, was known by local skaters as “Bum Park.”

I was sixteen at the time, when finding new spots to skate in Fort Lauderdale was exciting. After taking two buses, crossing the railroad-track bridge, a short hike through overgrown vegetation, trash, a few tents, and these towering high-voltage power lines, my friends and I finally arrived at the massive slab of concrete on an abandoned piece of land. Sadly, we found that beautiful hubba in pieces. Some people had recently destroyed it for unknown reasons.

The first builds

Acres of secluded land, three miles from the beach, and a five minute hike to a gas station was not only a good place for a DIY, but also a great place to live if you couldn’t already guess from the name of the park. It was also a great canvas for graffiti artists, with walls surrounding the back end of the slab. After the hubba was destroyed, nobody skated there for years until 2014 when a few friends, Jeff, Anton, and Jordan built an out-ledge where the hubba used to be, and another ledge on the top layer of the slab. They started making a bank-to-curb until everything that was built was destroyed again. There are different stories about who wrecked the spots built, but I don’t think anyone actually knows who was responsible. Two years later, in 2016 our friend Ruben built a solid concrete ledge with a marble top. A few months after that, Tyler Coffman built Bum Park’s first quarter pipe. The first of many spots engineered by Tyler at Bum Park.

An introduction to Tyler Coffman

A Fort Lauderdale native, Tyler Coffman is a carpenter at his family-owned business that builds and repairs boats and vintage automobiles. He has also helped with the construction of a couple of big skatepark projects. Besides his expertise in craftsmanship, he kills bowls, pools, and even street with an effortless style and a handful of circus tricks to wow the spectators. He’s soft-spoken, humble, and nice to everyone he meets, just like his dog and Bum Park mascot, Daisy. Using his skatepark building experience, creativity, drive, and with help and hype from friends, Tyler designed and built the first obstacles at Bum Park, which would soon become South Florida’s best DIY park.

After the first quarter pipe with brick pool coping, Tyler engineered a spine transfer over a fully functional BBQ grill. It even had small tiles below the coping. Then it received a volcano loveseat with a diamond-plate grate on top that made a satisfying “crrrrrr” sound when you rode over the top. Two fully molded perfect slappy curbs, a granite double sided wallie, a smooth boob, quarter pipe extended with a keyhole in the center diamond plate to thread the needle. By 2017, Bum Park had the most unique DIY spots in Florida.

Tyler Coffman, BBQ transfer p- Josh Swicegood

The unfortunate fire

There were never any conflicts between the homeless people, graffiti artists, and skaters at Bum Park. There was enough land for everyone to have their own space. A Chinese-American 82 year-old man named Suzuki lived under a tree close to the skate obstacles. He was very quiet, nice, and lived there for a few years. He had a toilet area, tent, bed, and around ten cute cats.

One night in 2018, a schizophrenic homeless man who lived there poured gasoline everywhere and set a bunch of trees on fire. Firefighters of course had to go put it out, and with those huge power lines and people living there, it became a huge liability. The city (Dania Beach) pressured the landowners to do something about it. Tyler got word from a land surveyor/worker that they would be completely clearing out Bum Park in the coming weeks. Tyler (like a madman) went and salvaged the coping, slappy curbs, and anything else he could all by himself one summer afternoon. Needless to say, we were all BUMmed. I really didn’t need to say that.

Get the team and go big

All of the trees, vegetation, and homeless people at Bum Park had been cleared out, but the DIY spots remained intact for months after so Tyler and friends quickly got back to building spots, especially the missing pocket that would be joining 2 quarter pipes. With close friends like Jason Ranft (Miami OG ripper, big-hearted skatepark and ramp builder, legend) Ben Horan and Chris Greasy (OG rippers with years of skatepark building experience) their crew, and extra muscle from the homies working hours under the Florida sun, drinking Coors Light to hydrate. Professionally crafted spots at Bum Park were quickly sprouting. Conveniently, Tyler had his own lock on the fence right next to the slab so it was easy to bring up the materials needed to build. By 2019, Bum Park had at least six rainbow rails, a pole jam into a bank, a Jewrail inspired hubba called Jewcurb, a spine transfer with a turret sized rail connecting both spines, two 7-8 foot quarter pipes with pool coping. Even Jamie Foy (A Fort Lauderdale native and homie) got his sponsors to contribute some funds that helped pay for cement and materials on the two biggest and best quarter pipes. With so many good obstacles, more and more people started skating at Bum Park.

Tyler Coffman, fs crailslide p- Manrique

Respect the spot!

From 2016-2019, to get to Bum Park you would have to park by a gas station and cross the railroad bridge to a short trail. It was a cool hike there, but not that cool if you were carrying a 24-pack of Coors. Word of mouth/social media helped Bum Park become THE “DIY skatepark” by 2019 and with so many people going, and taking that hike, somebody thought it’d be a good idea to ram through the main gate with their truck. It was kind of a good idea, but the way things were going, Bum Park would get completely blown out and be put in danger if everyone could drive in. Tyler fixed the gate as soon as possible, but the next day someone had rammed it down again. This time it wasn’t fixable. Kids who went to Bum Park to hang out (not skate) were slowly taking over the space. A lot of big trucks on big wheels doing donuts. It was an unmonitored hangout spot by the water which was cool, but it definitely brought some reckless and careless kids into Bum Park.

Tyler Coffman, bs tailslide p- Ryan Young

“Skate or die right?” Coronavirus blows up the spot

A couple of months later, the words “lockdown” and “quarantine” were starting to be heard daily, #stayhome was trending, sports were cancelled, restaurants, parks, skateparks and even beaches were closed. Bum Park however, was open with no restrictions. With so many people skating and hanging out there, I remember pulling up one day and having a thirty minute debate in my car on whether I really wanted to risk getting Covid to skate. Skate or die right? This was March. Coronavirus was really serious. Still is, but at this point we all thought Tom Hanks was going to die. A lot of people were out-of-work or school and tired of being stuck in the house, so some people started doing dumb shit like setting fires, littering and tagging everywhere. A video of a kid jumping off of the bridge and landing on a passing boat went viral on Instagram. Not a good look for Bum Park. So once again, the city of Dania pressured the landowners to get their property under control. Even though the land owners were okay about the DIY being there, they were most likely being threatened with fees and liabilities if they didn’t fix the situation.

A big “fuck you” to the Bum Park skate community

Sunday, June 21st, 2021, Go Skate Day, Father’s Day, hosted by Joel Meinholz, with Special Guest Jamie Foy, at Bum Park! Fuck yeah! These were the details on an Instagram post from Post Modern Skate Shop in West Palm Beach, Florida. BBQ burgers and dogs, Redbulls, bananas, beers, Daisy along with other dogs, skateboarding, good vibes, great weather, and a beautiful sunset to wrap it all up. Three days after the Go Skate Day event, on a Wednesday afternoon, images of a demolished Bum Park circulated on social media. The coping on the quarter pipes and everything else had been torn out. Every single spot was destroyed and left in pieces. It wasn’t professionally done and seemed like a big “fuck you” to the Bum Park skate community. It was heart-shattering to witness. Nobody expected it or knew why it happened. Cops kicked out some people that were skating there that morning and that’s all we knew at the time. After the destruction, cement barricades were put up where the entrance was, and for a few months, cops would patrol the area and threaten people with trespassing if caught inside. Tyler and friends salvaged what they could, but it seemed like that was the end of Bum Park.

“Bum Park was healing”

As months passed, Bum Park went back to being the abandoned lot it once was. Tyler, Chris Greasy, and friends building a skatepark in Miami helped rebuild Bum Park, mostly at night. They fixed and recreated the coping on the quarter pipes and spine making them way gnarlier. Slappy curbs were returning, rainbow rails were being fixed. Bum Park was healing. We weren’t getting kicked out by cops anymore, the barricades blocking the entrance were moved, and the kids with big trucks stopped hanging out there too. We all did our best to keep the Bum Park rebuild on the DL by not posting anything on social media. If you posted a photo or video at Bum Park around this time, you may have gotten a “Heyyy can you take this down?” message. It seemed as if Bum Park was slowly coming back until one evening, some guy in a white work truck pulled up and told us that they had a contract to fully demolish Bum Park in two weeks. After hearing the news that day, the first thing Tyler said was: “At least now I don’t have to fill all those cracks I was gonna fix tomorrow.” It was sad knowing we would soon be losing our DIY park, but the heads up this time was nice.

The final sessions

The last days at Bum Park were bittersweet. We all knew it was going to be completely gone in a few weeks, so we skated there as much as we could. There was a huge skate jam and BBQ on its last Sunday. Even Brian Anderson, Freddy Gall, Stefan Janoski, and the Skate Jawn homies blessed the DIY with a sesh on its final week. It was magical to witness this empty piece of abandoned land that started with a few cool spots in 2006 make it to be seen in skate magazines and videos in 2021. It’s interesting to think about how so many people (including myself) found out about Bum Park in such similar ways. Seeing a picture/video online, thinking it’s the coolest DIY park ever, and asking friends how to get there. There was so much positive energy and a connection that people felt at Bum Park. I think the high-voltage power lines there just added to it.

Bum Park was the longest lasting and most sophisticated DIY park South Florida has ever seen. Tyler Coffman led the charge with help from friends who put work, money, and love into a community DIY park with memories that will last forever. A huge thank you is owed to Tyler and everyone who helped build, and rebuild Bum Park. It would be impossible to recreate Bum Park now, but with so many friends and people who are so willing to help, it only opens doors for more skate projects in the near future. Who knows, maybe someday soon Fort Lauderdale will see its first cement skatepark.