Park plans for the urban planner and recreation staff.



An overview of good design.

Traditionally skate parks were designed with snake runs and bowls. These facilitated smooth fluid movement of participant traffic. They often had one entrance and were built on a slight downhill, encouraging skaters to travel in one direction only, with only one skater 'dropping in' at a time.

The best modern facilities have adopted this concept in many respects. Positive design elements are exemplified in the now defunct Blue Tile Lounge park in Aurora. This 9,000 square foot facility was spacious and made efficient use of the floor space by arranging the obstacles to follow 'lines.' Basically, the 'lines' are parallel corridors that run end to end and are typically 10-20 feet wide. Quarter pipes or flat banks sit at either end. Skaters drop in, gathering enough speed to use a ramp/rail set up in the middle, and continue to the other end where they encounter another quarter pipe or bank set-up. Once skaters are comfortable and adept, they may often fly back and forth along the lane 2-3 times before they pause to collect their breath and allow another to take a turn. Simultaneously, at Blue Tile, 4-5 people were always on the move, each utilizing a free lane, or following another participant from a safe distance, in the same lane. In fact the best arrangements allow for extra space on either side of the obstacles in the center of the floor to veer left or right to avoid collisions if two skaters simultaneously ended up dropping in at the same time.

Mistakes with design.

The flat bank seems to be all the rage in park design. This element does not encourage the development of turning and balance skills the same way a bowl or quarter pipe does. The fluidity of the skating is simply lost. Flat banks have become the domain of the 'flip trick,' whereby skaters roll up, pop and flip the board, attempt to land, and roll away. Go to any park and few younger riders are landing flip tricks or simple ollie airs on these often steep and behemoth banks. If the parks offer shallower inclines, or better yet, actual bowls, young children will become more comfortable with their boards, and learn to ride more quickly. As it is now, young kids who can hardly stand on a board, whose trucks are so tight they can barely lean it into a turn, are forced to use inappropriate obstacles for their development. Wide open spaces are another important and often neglected element. The simple means to get up to speed, to enjoy the feeling of smooth concrete, without fear of being run down by older, much larger skaters, flying at top speed. This can be accomplished by simply building an area or lane, with lower obstacles, that will be used by youngsters and older skaters who wish to learn new tricks on mellower terrain.
It is important to note that flat banks are ideally constructed with a small element of transition rather than being abrupt right angles where bank meets flat ground. Banks don't even need to be truly flat. The early skaters in California, found school yard banks that were often semi concave, and were rounded at the top. This was the predecessor to the snake run, where it was possible to smoothly roll in from any position.

The better parks allow for the possibility of 'transferring' from one lane to another via a jump or obstacle, and this should be explored in early design stages. It allows more experienced riders to be more creative with their riding. Again, ample space will allow these riders to explore these possibilities without running into other participants.

In the interest of encouraging municipalities and cities across Ontario to build the best skate park facilities possible, we offer these comments:

1. Serious flaws in design of parks like Pickering compromise safety

The park must have wide open areas and encourage skaters to move 'in lines.' Participants are less likely to run into each other. In Pickering there are few clear lanes, and to approach some objects it is necessary tro criss cross other skaters paths, creating unnecessary risks of collision and injury.

2. Crowded space and blind areas need to be eliminated

Parks like Bowmanville have really tall walls that don't allow skaters to fully see the terrain in front of them. At one demonstration, visiting pros found the only way to get enough speed to perform their tricks was to push around a blind corner at very high speeds en route to the jump. A sure recipe for disaster. Tall walls should only be located on the very outside of the space, where they are constructed as banks or quarter pipes, or fulfill some function as a retaining wall or other important element of park construction. The best facilities in the world often have made every possible surface skateable, turning the perimiters into long banks that round corners and run all the way around the park.

Do not rush your park. Study from the world's best facilities, and visit the parks to see what works and what doesn't.

We will soon be actively rating the parks and companies that design them. Check back to this site on a regular basis for updates.


Further info:

skatepark.org

spausa.org (skatepark association of USA)





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