Why is street skating better than park skating?

[ChuckRamone]

I think street skating is better than park skating. Most people here probably think so too. But why is it better? People are saying in the skategoat going pro thread that he's very good but he's mostly a park skater, in a sort of dismissive way. These days there are a lot of skaters who are very good - the type who compete professionally - but many of them mostly skate parks. Why is street skating so much better and why is it considered the proving grounds for someone who's a legit pro?

For me, street skating is a lot harder, because the spots weren't built to be skated. It looks better on film. It's also where street skating was born. There's also something about skating only parks that's very domesticated and boring. Makes me feel like I'm at a sports training facility.

But, it's still impressive when someone can do hard tricks at a park. And someone who can rip up a park could probably make a good street part if they put in the effort. So, why do they have to hit the streets and film a traditional part? I guess I'm looking for a good explanation for what we already believe.

[Hyliannightmare]

For me, street skating is a lot harder, because the spots weren't built to be skated. It looks better on film. It's also where street skating was born. There's also something about skating only parks that's very domesticated and boring. Makes me feel like I'm at a sports training facility.

You already nailed it

[fs1/2cab]

For filming clips in the streets, there are so many factors which make it difficult. Besides the trick/line itself.

Cracks in the ground, security, high bust possibility, cars, pedestrians, bad lightning, those people who will stop to watch you (slam?),  empty camera batteries, dog shit, human shit, junkies, sketchy areas.

Just my 2 cents. Interested to hear other opinions.

[sus]

Every street skater can skate parks, not every park skater can skate the streets

This is often why when Instagram skaters release street parts it is underwhelming because the tricks in their part are not as gnarly as what they post on insta. This is often a result of them posting their hardest tricks on social media paired with the fact that many of the obstacles found at skateparks are not naturally occurring in the real world such as pyramids, bump to ledges, bump to rails, etc.

[Mongoloid]

Parks are training grounds for the streets.

[Christmas Complete]

For filming clips in the streets, there are so many factors which make it difficult. Besides the trick/line itself.

Cracks in the ground, security, high bust possibility, cars, pedestrians, bad lightning, those people who will stop to watch you (slam?),  empty camera batteries, dog shit, human shit, junkies, sketchy areas.

Just my 2 cents. Interested to hear other opinions.

Stay safe out there, fellas

[Frank and Fred]

I love a good park- as long as its not some cute-cutter generic pre-fab deal and has interesting unique features and personality but skateboarding is always most interesting to me on shit that was never intended to skate.

[ndsr]

Every street skater can skate parks, not every park skater can skate the streets

This is often why when Instagram skaters release street parts it is underwhelming because the tricks in their part are not as gnarly as what they post on insta. This is often a result of them posting their hardest tricks on social media paired with the fact that many of the obstacles found at skateparks are not naturally occurring in the real world such as pyramids, bump to ledges, bump to rails, etc.

Let’s agree to disagree. If you bring Chris Roberts,  Carlos ribiero and Tiago to the nw parks I like to skate I don’t think it will pan out so well for them but if they bring me to a ledge that isn’t waist high in the wild I can skate it with them, that includes Ca picnic tables

[TheLurper]

Street skating is a fuck you to the traditional sports world and the corporate/suburban society many of us are all stuck in.

Unlike park skating (which is closer to a traditional sport) we aren't stuck in some cage with rules and adults watching over our activity in order to make sure the activity "builds character." There are no limits to the spaces we can use, we are only limited by our creativity and physical ability. We are free to explore, which is an adventure in and of itself. And, there is fun in flaunting the rules of how things are supposed to be done/how the city spaces are supposed to be used and pissing off those who really want to preserve the "right" way to use the city/suburbs is exciting.

Not to mention, just the excitement of the streets themselves. People bustling around, all sorts of characters that are out on the streets that wouldn't be visible in the sanitized suburbs, and all the places to stop off and hang out during the day.



Park skating is fun because it is a space designed for the activity, but it also keeps us in a tiny box and gets us closer to being any other standardized recreational activity.

However, at my age, the romanticization of the streets and the cat and mouse game is exhausting.

[SatanicPanic]

Every street skater can skate parks, not every park skater can skate the streets

I am a street skater. I was never very good but I’m like a third as good at parks. I think I prefer checking out stuff and finding possibilities vs going to a park and being expected to do certain tricks on certain obstacles.

[DaGOAT]

Both have their benefit in reality. I mean antihero has and will always be one of the funnest teams to watch because of their tranny skating, and too think they don’t skate parks often is silly. GTs pool is built to fucking skate, it’s essentially a park, same thing with Artos pool, etc. they skate legit real pools and shit from time to time too don’t get me wrong, but let’s not act like antihero is screech or some shit fr. None of those cats could hold a flame to him skating a real life pool, not even GT.

As far as from an aesthetic perspective, park footage is dull in comparison, but a lot of street clips miss the bill on that too. GT footage are a Park is almost better than 95% of pro grade clips you could throw at me.

I see parks as pillars of certain communities skate scenes, like outside of big cities where skating is just popular as fuck, like Cali, parks and shops are the only 2 things keeping the culture alive.

Parks also are basically gyms for skaters, they let people work out and practice tricks and learn from other skaters around them.

Street skating is far more isolated, unless u are filming or with other homies, like street skating on your own or at most a filmer kind of fucking sucks, I would rather skate a park anyday if my homies can’t come thru to skate.

Overall street skating sucks ass unless u have a mission and a plan with tricks to go out and film, otherwise it’s a shitshow unless u are exploring a city.

I prefer a solid park to the streets anyways, I’m too fucking old unless I got someone to film or some shit.

[burn_to_live]

Every street skater can skate parks, not every park skater can skate the streets

[layzieyez]

I'd like to argue that crustily built DIY is at the very least equivalent to skating street spots that have been "fixed".

[Eric Dolphy]

Parks are training grounds for the streets.

This. But also, I think of it like, we used to be hunter gatherers, exploring the jungle. Now we live in cities, we walk in designated straight lines, our jungle has been taken from us. Street skating for me is like reclaiming the urban jungle, reclaiming your freedom. Looking at your ugly concrete landscape and using your imagination to make it yours, to make it beautiful and meaningful to you again.
 A skatepark is like a sheeps pen, it goes against everything street skating represents to me.

TL,DR: skateparks are masturbation. Street skating is fuckin.

[FakieFlipCG]

Expand Quote

Every street skater can skate parks, not every park skater can skate the streets

This is often why when Instagram skaters release street parts it is underwhelming because the tricks in their part are not as gnarly as what they post on insta. This is often a result of them posting their hardest tricks on social media paired with the fact that many of the obstacles found at skateparks are not naturally occurring in the real world such as pyramids, bump to ledges, bump to rails, etc.

[close]

Let’s agree to disagree. If you bring Chris Roberts,  Carlos ribiero and Tiago to the nw parks I like to skate I don’t think it will pan out so well for them but if they bring me to a ledge that isn’t waist high in the wild I can skate it with them, that includes Ca picnic tables

That’s true, but transition skating has been the exception to this rule.

[Eric Dolphy]

Expand Quote

Every street skater can skate parks, not every park skater can skate the streets

This is often why when Instagram skaters release street parts it is underwhelming because the tricks in their part are not as gnarly as what they post on insta. This is often a result of them posting their hardest tricks on social media paired with the fact that many of the obstacles found at skateparks are not naturally occurring in the real world such as pyramids, bump to ledges, bump to rails, etc.

[close]

Let’s agree to disagree. If you bring Chris Roberts,  Carlos ribiero and Tiago to the nw parks I like to skate I don’t think it will pan out so well for them but if they bring me to a ledge that isn’t waist high in the wild I can skate it with them, that includes Ca picnic tables

DC team came to my local park and Tiago utterly destroyed it, i think it panned out pretty well for him tbh

[HungUp]

Expand Quote

Every street skater can skate parks, not every park skater can skate the streets

This is often why when Instagram skaters release street parts it is underwhelming because the tricks in their part are not as gnarly as what they post on insta. This is often a result of them posting their hardest tricks on social media paired with the fact that many of the obstacles found at skateparks are not naturally occurring in the real world such as pyramids, bump to ledges, bump to rails, etc.

[close]

Let’s agree to disagree. If you bring Chris Roberts,  Carlos ribiero and Tiago to the nw parks I like to skate I don’t think it will pan out so well for them but if they bring me to a ledge that isn’t waist high in the wild I can skate it with them, that includes Ca picnic tables

You don’t think Tiago can skate a park? Smh

[dudelai]

parks are good to train, meet new people, get tips and see the locals shredding.

i never had a park near home so i mostly skated street and never got good on transition.

but street skating is the shit, dude! the world is yours to skate. fuck urban planning, fuck the capitalist logic of the city. we gonna use the city and its architecture our way. with street skating i get to know places and spots of my city i'd never know if i just got out of the house to buy stuff or to sit on a bench with some friends.

viewing the urban landscape with another eyes, putting your creativity in practice, adapting to the difficulties of the obstacles. thats what makes street better for me.

[loosenuts]

ethos, the other is a sport

[ziggy]

I can’t do a fucking thing at parks

[ndsr]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Every street skater can skate parks, not every park skater can skate the streets

This is often why when Instagram skaters release street parts it is underwhelming because the tricks in their part are not as gnarly as what they post on insta. This is often a result of them posting their hardest tricks on social media paired with the fact that many of the obstacles found at skateparks are not naturally occurring in the real world such as pyramids, bump to ledges, bump to rails, etc.

[close]

Let’s agree to disagree. If you bring Chris Roberts,  Carlos ribiero and Tiago to the nw parks I like to skate I don’t think it will pan out so well for them but if they bring me to a ledge that isn’t waist high in the wild I can skate it with them, that includes Ca picnic tables

[close]

DC team came to my local park and Tiago utterly destroyed it, i think it panned out pretty well for him tbh

Sick, I love it when skaters are known for their street skills then destroy concrete with pool coping.  Ronnie craeger is a tremendous atv as well as many others known for their street/tech prowess

[ndsr]

I think street skating is better than park skating. Most people here probably think so too. But why is it better? People are saying in the skategoat going pro thread that he's very good but he's mostly a park skater, in a sort of dismissive way. These days there are a lot of skaters who are very good - the type who compete professionally - but many of them mostly skate parks. Why is street skating so much better and why is it considered the proving grounds for someone who's a legit pro?

For me, street skating is a lot harder, because the spots weren't built to be skated. It looks better on film. It's also where street skating was born. There's also something about skating only parks that's very domesticated and boring. Makes me feel like I'm at a sports training facility.

But, it's still impressive when someone can do hard tricks at a park. And someone who can rip up a park could probably make a good street part if they put in the effort. So, why do they have to hit the streets and film a traditional part? I guess I'm looking for a good explanation for what we already believe.

Street skating is way better but I was lucky enough to ride vert when I was 12 and it just stuck with me.  Now when I skate street I only jump down what I can jump up, so I love going to skateparks to fly around.  I can’t get much flight in the streets.  I also snowboarded a bunch and still do.  Judge away

[matta]

Spot searching/selection and a creative approach to using said spots is one of the major aspects of skateboarding and especially video parts. It doesnt exist at skateparks.

[deathturd]

Because skateparks dictate your path maaannn..

[SneakySecrets]

It’s just intrinsically way more interesting:

-scoping out spots is kind of an art unto itself

-a spot could be right under everyone’s noses for years until someone comes along with the creativity to see how something could be skated

-every street spot is unique in some way while there are probably hundreds of thousands of the same basic 14” high ledges with an angle iron corner in parks all over the world

-as many have already said, having to deal with cracks, shitty runups and landings, cops and security, cars, pedestrians, skate stoppers, potentially hostile member of the public etc can potentially make getting a clip infinitely more difficult

-The intangible, hard-to-describe feeling of satisfaction from skating something that was never meant to be skated.

-Typically there are far fewer cyclones of scooter kids enveloping you at a street spot.

[VHS ERA]

Someone on here said a skater in a park reminded them of a surfer in a wave pool. Kinda cool I guess but not real.

[Brguy]

I'm not following this thread so nicely, is this a park/street thread or a street/tranny thread? If it's the first, besides the obvious "not meant" and being harder arguments, the whole deal with street skating is that you can do it anywhere and you're on the streets. A good park might even have a bit of life from the people that go there and how they use it, but it still doesn't compare to the ambient of an actual street spot, and even with that bit of life, it's still just one park, if you can skate anywhere, why skate on a constructed place and only there? A great deal of creativity in skateboarding comes just from choosing the right spot, a ramp that goes in a specific way, a specially crusty ground, architecture that makes you think someone was on crack when they build it, you don't get any of that in a park, they're all unique.

[ChuckRamone]

I'm not following this thread so nicely, is this a park/street thread or a street/tranny thread? If it's the first, besides the obvious "not meant" and being harder arguments, the whole deal with street skating is that you can do it anywhere and you're on the streets. A good park might even have a bit of life from the people that go there and how they use it, but it still doesn't compare to the ambient of an actual street spot, and even with that bit of life, it's still just one park, if you can skate anywhere, why skate on a constructed place and only there? A great deal of creativity in skateboarding comes just from choosing the right spot, a ramp that goes in a specific way, a specially crusty ground, architecture that makes you think someone was on crack when they build it, you don't get any of that in a park, they're all unique.

I mean in terms of modern street skating, which includes some transition skating, why is real street skating considered the more legitimate form of skating and why do you need to film a street part to be considered a real pro. There are lots of good skaters these days who mostly stick to parks and they are usually not regarded as genuine pros. They're called YouTube or Instagram or park skaters in a derogatory way.

I guess it's slightly separate from transition skaters who mostly or exclusively skate transition or ramps. They are treated almost like a separate species. You could include them in this question too though. That kind of skating, as gnarly as it is, can be a little boring to watch. It's also domesticated in a way, and makes me think of the X-Games or Olympics. If they went out and filmed street clips, they'd be more interesting to a wider group. They could even do tricks on "street" transition, and it would make their parts more appealing to watch.

[assvogel]

In transition skating in early 2000's, living on the other side of the globe, it was wild looking at something like Drehobls Free Your Mind-part and to see those Dreamland built skateparks and compare them to our plywood ramps.

I'd argue that because skatepark designs have homogenized a lot post-street league and whatnot, which makes them a lot less exciting, because kids want those "training facilities" with the same handrail, small stair, big stair, ledge, gap up designs. And the "street" and "park" sides are usually separated in bigger parks. And in the influx of plaza style parks that emulate street spots aren't that interesting either, because they don't have any of the things that make street spots a lot harder, be it people, cracks, weird design or a local drug addict harassing you.

Of course DIY-parks still stands above these, because they aren't usually perfect, the lines are harder to find and they are always different from each other.

I think skating parks can still look cool (like look at any GT or Ishod footage) and you can get creative in any skatepark, even at the most boring ones.

But seeing that front feeble down the 8-stair skatepark rail doesn't impress that much anymore because there are thousand parks with the same rail with great skateboarders who do that same trick.

[truthislie]

I love to watch street footage and always prefered street when I had the time to do it.

However, I just turned 37, work two jobs, have a kid on the way and I am renovating a house at the moment. I simply don´t have the time to go from spot to spot all day. A week ago I went street skating for the first time in maybe two years with some friends and got kicked out of three spots in a row and after that we ended up having fun at the park. So, yes in my situation I prefer the park. I m lucky to be skating at all to be honest