What are the oldest skateparks in Canada

[rawbertson.]

I was in Oakville Ontario yesterday which has a pretty old skatepark that I used to go to in High School called Shell Park. It is where Mark Appleyard grew up skating in the mid 90s (i think it was built around that time), and its in this insane area with like $40 million dollar homes and shit just south of Toronto. It got me thinking, the only parks I really know of that are older than this in my province is Beasley Park in Hamilton (1991) and "skatepark" in Sarnia was built at some point in the early 80s.





^ thats the entire runway. and Landing. also, im pretty sure that mountain is entirely solid concrete.

It is really hard to find out about this stuff through googling. 1978 Seylynn skatepark was built in BC and i think they have a bunch of old ones (Im pretty sure Jon West and Colin McKay skate this park in their video parts)

I imagine Quebec had some skateparks along the way. I know they tried to build one downtown Montreal early 2000s though and it sucked really badly and the skaters complained about it so the city ripped it out. I know Montreal was really against skateparks though, I wonder about the rest of the province.

It is wild to me how many are built now. the area I grew up in went from having basically just the 1 outdoor park from 1995-2005. from 2005- 2021 we have i think 9 or 10 within 30 min drive at least, and im talking concrete parks. and hardly anyone skates, its almost all scooters.

[cucktard]

I’ve always heard Seylynn, and then maybe China Creek in Van.

[Jean-Ralphio Zaperstein]

This is the oldest in Montreal I think, from the early 80s

[newguy]

Would be so cool if someone would one day publish a book about worldwide skatepark design history with pictures and schematics. I would instantly buy, but I don’t think its achievable, a lot of skateparks were built in shady ways were I’m from for example, some were ripped apart and no pictures or records exist, etc.

[sometimeperhaps]

You mentioned the ones that first came to mind in Ontario and Vancouver.

There’s an old aluminum mini ramp in Hamilton called “burtwell half pipe”. I can’t find any notes on the age though, but it seems random enough that it might have been put there a long time ago.

I’m curious what the oldest park in the maritimes would be. It wouldn’t surprised me if it’s beyond crusty.

[Mantracker]

China Creek has been in Vancouver since 1979

https://scoutmagazine.ca/2012/02/10/you-should-know-about-the-history-of-east-vancouvers-china-creek-skate-park/

[BugleBites]

Seylynn is the oldest, China Creek next. There was a double snake run in West Vancouver as well but it got buried.

[Hairy Ballsagna]

Cool thread. 1978 for Seylynn makes it the second oldest in North America, I think, behind Kona built in 1977.

[thps4]

The Hamilton park of Beasley itself was made in 1976, first skated in the second half of the 80s, officially made a skatepark in 91 and got a facelift around 2014. Best park west of Toronto for sure. Sorry Shell, but you're starting to show your age and could use a little bondo.

[assvogel]

Cool that Seylonn still exists. I think I first saw that park in the Chalmers part in Sorry and figured why they call the trick Canadian flyout...

This Chris Miller photo is sick too, especially the other shot where he's all bloodied.
 


There's a whole segment in this Expo '86 movie (starting at 50:00), the whole thing is a time capsule to a certain time in skateboarding.

https://youtu.be/kCG9MPLvNTs?t=3005

[MFS]

I took skateboard lessons at China Creek in 1992, theres a mini teacup bowl there thats has literally no flat lol. I know they tried to develop over it a decade or so ago and the whole neighborhood got pissed so they scrapped it. Your definitely right about seylynn being the oldest i think though. Id be interested to know when the first bowl at white rock park went in. I think its sometime around the china creek and seylynn era.

[Hairy Ballsagna]

What other ancient snake runs are still standing in Canada? Whistler and White Rock...