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Skatepark

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Skatepark designed by Landscape Structures Inc.

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Skatepark in Davis, California, U.S.

A skatepark is a purpose-built recreational environment for skateboarders, roller skaters, rollerbladers, scooterers and BMX riders to ride and develop their technique. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, quarter pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, pyramids, banked ramps, full pipes, pools, bowls, snake runs stairsets, and any number of other objects.

Skateparks were originally designed for skateboarding, but have evolved to support mainly roller bladers and BMX riders. Skateboarding and BMX riding have been known to create safety issues if done at the same time, leading some skateparks to ban BMX riding. There are many skateparks that are an exception to that rule, however, and several exclusively "bikes only" parks have been built (for example, Espee Bike Park in Chandler, AZ).

Skateparks may be privately or publicly owned. Privately owned skateparks usually have admission fees, while publicly owned skateparks are generally free. Many privately owned skateparks are indoors, usually in warehouses, roller rinks or buildings with high ceilings, especially in areas with snowy winters. Public skateparks are usually outdoors.

Concrete parks, now "pretty much the industry standard", according to an editor of Transworld Skateboarding magazine, can cost three times as much to build as parks with ramps and wooden obstacles, but in the long run they require fewer repairs and less maintenance.[1]

History

File:BMX in park.jpg
BMX rider in bat mans cave

The first skatepark in the world was officially opened in February 1976 in Albany, Western Australia with the reigning US skateboard champion Russ Howell as guest of honour and the publicity recorded by Russ Howell's photographs and film was used as a basic concept in the design of the first skateboard tracks in the USA. The 140 metre long track was converted from an old gravel quarry with many open cut excavations. The one way downhill track contains three sharp bends with vertical banked walls and ends in an open circular area surrounded by banked walls between 3 and 4 metres high. The Albany Skatetrack was host to the Skateboarding World Championship competition in 1976.

The first skatepark in the USA was built in March of 1976 in Carlsbad, California. Carlsbad Skatepark was designed and built by inventors Jack Graham and John O'Malley and resided on the grounds of Carlsbad Raceway. http://www.carlsbadskatepark.org/index.html

The first skateparks were primarily private, for-profit endeavors, although several public parks were built globally. Parks then included pools, bowls, snake runs, freestyle areas, banked slalom areas, half-pipes, and full pipes. Most were concrete and were outdoors. In more extreme climates parks were built indoors, often of wood.

None of the private parks of the 1970s remain, with the notable exception of Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Many of that country's public parks remain, such as Derby Park in Santa Cruz, California. Most of that era's parks were poorly designed, being built by business people seeking a quick profit. Better parks, such as Upland, California's Pipeline, designed by skateboarders and carefully built, survived into the 80's, until escalating land values made their sites vulnerable to development. Exorbitant liability insurance premiums also contributed to the demise of the original skateparks.

Modern skatepark design can be traced back to Burnside Skatepark, a DIY "barge build" beneath the Burnside Bridge, in Portland, Oregon. Skateboarders used an area populated primarily by the city's "undesirable elements" to create a skatepark, building one section at a time. The process is called "design/build" (D/B), and is a characteristic of nearly all the best skateparks today. The design/build process ensures that adjacent skatepark features are harmonious and rideable, allowing skateboarders to create endless "lines" to ride among the many features.

The modern public skatepark is relatively new, made possible by legislation such as California's 1998 law stating that skateboarding is an inherently "Hazardous Recreational Activity" (HRA), and therefore municipalities and their employees may not be held liable for claims of negligence resulting in skateboarders' injuries. Parks are usually for persons 14 or over.

Burnside Skatepark in Portland, Oregon

The world's largest skatepark is located in Shanghai.

Common obstacles

  • Quarter pipes – Literally, quarter of a pipe - riders air from it and perform tricks in the air or on a platform above the ramp or drop in on it to gain speed.
  • Spines – Two quarter pipes back to back.
  • Flat banks – These can vary in angle but are simply an angled wall for which to ride on.
  • Wall rides/vert walls – A vertical wall above either quarter pipes or flat banks..
  • Mini ramps– Two small quarter pipes facing one another, like a halfpipe, but with a short flat area between.
  • Hips – Essentially two quarter pipes or flat banks, each with one edge at a right angle or a more aggressive angle to the other.
  • Funboxes – A steep quarter pipe like lip with a deck extending to a landing often less steep than the lip.
  • Pyramids – A four way wedge or transition box.
  • Launches – A curved ramp that launches the rider into the air, like a quarter pipe, but less steep.
  • Roll-ins – A long sloping ramp used to gain speed
  • Euro – A ramp where the platform drops like a step to a flat ramp.
  • Halfpipe - Two Quarter Pipes joined together (half of a pipe).
  • Bowl - A ramp that is the shape of a bowl .
  • Pool - Usually a typical pool used for swimming, only unfilled by water. Pools usually tend to have tiles.
  • Foam Pits - A pile of foam pads to land safely into while learning tricks, usually found after a launch ramp.

Notable skateparks

Pedlow Skate Park, San Fernando Valley, CA
Louisville Extreme Park, Kentucky


Free Public Skateparks

Missoula Skate Park, Missoula, MT

References

  1. ^ Porstner, Donna, "Curve appeal / Area's new skate park opens", news article in The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut, July 13, 2007, pp 1, A6
  2. ^ "Etnies Skatepark Of Lake Forest Aerial". Retrieved 21 August 2010.
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