2023 unpopular opinion thread

[jorge]

I'd rather have something random in a park like a full pipe or some super weird obstacle I've never seen than a ledge that I can skate outside in any city whenever I want.  Skateparks should be fun not merely training facilities.

[backside_frontside]

bowls and transitions usually eat most of the budget......it' sucks when a bunch of old heads insist on a big coping bowl and they just skate it the first year the park is in, then it sits empty.....nice legacy....vs. a flat open area with a bunch of mellow stuff to skate.

I agree 1000% This is exactly what happened to my local. A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl into a park smaller than a tennis court. Now the bowl is a cesspool of little kids who don't skate running around like its a playground and the old bowl heads are nowhere to be found. But yeah, fuck the street skaters who've been skating in this tiny ass town their whole lives. And don't tell me to "just go skate the city if you wanna skate street, man". That's a bullshit urbanite attitude. There ain't no city where I live man and there are no street spots worth a damn in my tiny ass town. A skatepark is all some people have. Make more parks like the ones Ryan Lay is building. Rant over.

[manysnakes]

I grew up never skating a legit bowl, and only saw emptied backyard pools in videos. When we got our first all concrete skate park, you bet your ass I learned how to skate the big bowl as opposed to skating another ledge that I can find anywhere in the streets.

Same. I had a rich friend whose parents once let us skate his pool before they had it refinished, but otherwise I didn’t skate an actual bowl or pool until I was in my 20s, and I didn’t have regular access to one until I was in my 30s. Hell, now that I think about it, my hometown still doesn’t have a bowl or pool to skate in any of the public parks.

Now I love skating bowls and pools, and the little rippers at my local park are all excellent all-terrain skaters.

[skatebruh]

Parks should have the beginner version of whatever's in the park.

The 9 foot deep bowl shouldn't be there unless there's 4 foot transition somewhere. With the giant bowl, you can carve below coping and still have a good time, so it's still way better than big street features.

The 6 stair hubba shouldn't be there unless there's already a straight ledge.

The handrail shouldn't be there unless there's a flatbar.

Most parks shouldn't have stairs. Nearly every set of stairs would be better as a bank. Stairs are the easiest thing to find outside of skateparks and kids will huck themselves down over a bank or into a bowl if there are no stairs.

Too many parks have a big handrail or hubba that no one skates, but still have no straight ledge.

[rusty knees]

if you live in canadas most western province, you know we have too many bowls and not enough street parks.

(park building companies make more money from bowls being built. there's your answer)

[cky enthusiast]

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I know you guys are tired of my incessant Reynolds hate but the man filmed an amazing magnum opus borderline retirement part for Stay Gold and picked a fucking Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes song. This is your GOAT?

[close]

You're 100% entitled to your unpopular opinion in this thread but I'm starting to see a pattern in your opinions in that they're lacking context. First Muska, now this Reynolds take.

That song, on its own, is fucking so ass, but in the context of the Stay Gold era and how anticipated that part was it totally worked. Sidenote I'm pretty sure Andrew originally wanted to use the Nick Cave song Dustin used in Let's Live. Wonder if that would've changed any perception at all.

[close]

If that’s a polite way of saying I don’t actually shit about skating you’re 100% right, just like to poke a little fun at tHe bOsS that part was magical when it came out, I think I actually cried a bit

Longboarding may be corny but i long boarded at night on three tabs of acid once when I was 17 and it was probably the best feeling I’ve ever had on a skateboard, can’t highly recommend enough

who are you mad at

[fs1/2cab]

If skateparks are too perfect, it attracts all kinds of people, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Scooter kids and their parents, BMX crews, Unicycle gangsters, Rollerbladers, Junkies, lost teenagers with their first drug experiences, ...

If skateparks are kinda okay, only a few people will be there, ideally mostly Skaters. And they are able to learn new stuff since the skatepark isn't so crowded.

When a skatepark is shitty, you leave that behind and explore the streets and witness real adventures.

It really feels nice to have a good skatepark for you alone, but that usually isn't realistic. But you can have the parking lot on sundays for your homies and yourself.

Just my 2 cents.

[cosmicgypsies]

The whole doing ledge trick into manual off curb/trick on flat/etc got old fast, obviously people had been doing similar stuff prior to Casper Brookers part but after that dropped there was definitely an increase in that kinda shit and it lost its appeal quickly

[Acid Drop]

My local has too much transition in a crowded, small park. When guys want to play a game of skate they have to take up the whole flat bottom of the park and block people from actually being able to skate around. Otherwise, they use the tiny bit of fatground on the top corner but you have to skate slow and there's not much time to set-up for your trick. I find myself skating past the park most days and sticking to street which is more fun anyway. Then when I finally decide to hit the park it becomes more fun because it feels like a novelty.

[cky enthusiast]

aiden and ben k have cool styles that i want to emulate

[Tommy G]

My opinion: skate whatever you feel like that day. There's times when I want to just skate some curbs and manual pads, so I hit up the parking garage downtown. If I want a decent ledge or plenty of space to skate around I'll go to the local university. If I want to skate some banks or transition I'll go to the local park. It's a small town park with some shithead kids that vandalize the place and ruin it for the older guys but I have a lot of friends that go there on a normal basis. I like going there when I'm trying to get some real practice in or want something I can't skate normally in the streets.

[Arto!Arto!WakeUp!]

My local has too much transition in a crowded, small park. When guys want to play a game of skate they have to take up the whole flat bottom of the park and block people from actually being able to skate around. Otherwise, they use the tiny bit of fatground on the top corner but you have to skate slow and there's not much time to set-up for your trick. I find myself skating past the park most days and sticking to street which is more fun anyway. Then when I finally decide to hit the park it becomes more fun because it feels like a novelty.

at my local the bowl is about 8ft deep, the single biggest obstacle and the least used by a huge margin.

it only takes up 20% or so of the floor space - and it's not like nobody ever uses it at all - but it does seem like a weird disparity.

oh actually, there is a random handrail in the middle of the big bank that - having skated there roughly 4 times a week for a year and a half - i've never seen touched except once by a roller blader...

[IpathCats]

aiden and ben k have cool styles that i want to emulate

You crazy for dis one wane

[SneakySecrets]

If skateparks are too perfect, it attracts all kinds of people, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Scooter kids and their parents, BMX crews, Unicycle gangsters, Rollerbladers, Junkies, lost teenagers with their first drug experiences, ...

Just my 2 cents.

Sounds like my family reunion!

[switchfakie]

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Skating is more about your pants than your setup.

[close]

I agree with this. I don't feel on on with out my short shorts.

i dont feel confident until the whole park have seen my cheeks in passing

[Sizzle]

That guy who only skated in timbs was actually insane but he didn’t get industry cred because it was a gimmick, is he on a real board company? Gimmick or not doing a switch flip trick down santa monica triple is truly mind blowing

[Steely Daniel]

That guy who only skated in timbs was actually insane but he didn’t get industry cred because it was a gimmick, is he on a real board company? Gimmick or not doing a switch flip trick down santa monica triple is truly mind blowing

Anthony Ferguson or Antiferg? I don't think he has a board sponsor no but pretty sure he is hooked up by Timberland at least.

I had always thought this classic Real ad of Drake Jones varial heelflip SF library gap was in timbs but I read a chrome ball interview a few months back and he says they were actually Nike hiking boots.

[Southernmost]

That guy who only skated in timbs was actually insane but he didn’t get industry cred because it was a gimmick, is he on a real board company? Gimmick or not doing a switch flip trick down santa monica triple is truly mind blowing

What switch flip trick did he do down Santa Monica triple in Timbs? I just looked up AntiFerg on YouTube, looks like he’s been rapping and dropping music videos.

[Steely Daniel]

I dunno if he did anything switch but he did a regular hardflip

[lurker_and_poster]

My local has too much transition in a crowded, small park. When guys want to play a game of skate they have to take up the whole flat bottom of the park and block people from actually being able to skate around. Otherwise, they use the tiny bit of fatground on the top corner but you have to skate slow and there's not much time to set-up for your trick. I find myself skating past the park most days and sticking to street which is more fun anyway. Then when I finally decide to hit the park it becomes more fun because it feels like a novelty.

small park. the problem is not the transition - the problem is the size. instead of contradict to the city - and telling this space is not good enough / big enough - they decide to build a weak compromiss which is satisfying nobody. And they take the money. people who want to skate transition are not happy - people who want to skate street are not happy, people who want to flow around and make linear are not happy, people who want o play a game of skate are not happy.
Dienst make sense to build a park like this... its like building a tennis court which is just onequarter of  the needed size...
Doesnt make sense. You never can properly play tennis on it.

[lurker_and_poster]

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bowls and transitions usually eat most of the budget......it' sucks when a bunch of old heads insist on a big coping bowl and they just skate it the first year the park is in, then it sits empty.....nice legacy....vs. a flat open area with a bunch of mellow stuff to skate.

[close]

I agree 1000% This is exactly what happened to my local. A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl into a park smaller than a tennis court. Now the bowl is a cesspool of little kids who don't skate running around like its a playground and the old bowl heads are nowhere to be found. But yeah, fuck the street skaters who've been skating in this tiny ass town their whole lives. And don't tell me to "just go skate the city if you wanna skate street, man". That's a bullshit urbanite attitude. There ain't no city where I live man and there are no street spots worth a damn in my tiny ass town. A skatepark is all some people have. Make more parks like the ones Ryan Lay is building. Rant over.

A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl

you ever visited a participation planing workshop for a skatepark.
The active skateboarders never show up - I invited them hundred times call them send whatapp - hey show up
next Friday in the youthclub. ... may at the first meeting - but latest at the second meeting they are out.
you always end with the old guys >30 years and the kids with 6 month and a horizont of 20km skateboarding know-how. That the way it is....

Last meeting half of the kids ask for a chill flat rail and a mellow hip - exactly like in the skatepark next town.
the other half - for as much transitions /bowl as possible - as big as deep as possible.

After I told them the process of building a skatepark from the first workshop in the youthcenter till the finished park
is something in-between 2 -5 years.... there soul have left there body.
Second meeting I was alone with 4 old guys.

You can sell them what you want if you are smart...
What you get is in the hand of the skateboard park designer / builder.
Some prefer to build bowls - some street..

But none of them have the balls to tell the city there concept idea is not working.

This is what I have done last meeting - they have 800m2 area of the old park.
Half the kids ask for real street super mellow stuff - the other half for transition bowl - you cant make them happy
on 800m2 - you need to gave minimum 800m2 just for street - better 1200m2 - 800m2 is crowded super fast because you only can integrate 2 -3 seperated lines on this space.
1200m2 is equivalent to 2 tennis courts - you can use max. with 8 people, the Streetpark you can use easily with 30-40 people - if they acting not stupid.
Then additional you need min. 300-400m2 for a Bowl - so you have enough space to have 3 different hight in-between 5-10 feet - depending on the level and the surroundings of other parks in the area.

[switchfakie]

I dunno if he did anything switch but he did a regular hardflip

forgot he existed

i couldnt even begin to imagine how skating timbs would feel. homie def does not want any board feel at all

[Steely Daniel]

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My local has too much transition in a crowded, small park. When guys want to play a game of skate they have to take up the whole flat bottom of the park and block people from actually being able to skate around. Otherwise, they use the tiny bit of fatground on the top corner but you have to skate slow and there's not much time to set-up for your trick. I find myself skating past the park most days and sticking to street which is more fun anyway. Then when I finally decide to hit the park it becomes more fun because it feels like a novelty.

[close]

small park. the problem is not the transition - the problem is the size. instead of contradict to the city - and telling this space is not good enough / big enough - they decide to build a weak compromiss which is satisfying nobody. And they take the money. people who want to skate transition are not happy - people who want to skate street are not happy, people who want to flow around and make linear are not happy, people who want o play a game of skate are not happy.
Dienst make sense to build a park like this... its like building a tennis court which is just onequarter of  the needed size...
Doesnt make sense. You never can properly play tennis on it.

I've seen a few of those types of parks pop up in other places and they seem really frustrating. I also really despise parks where everything is a bump/bank to or from something and you can't even find a flat ledge or flat bar let alone a couple of them near each other to do lines. Stairs also have no place in skateparks. I like parks to have a variety of obstacles though and I enjoy skating transition as much as I do ledges but not every park needs a huge bowl no one is going to skate. Especially if it's sacrificing too much space for other stuff. Quarterpipes and bowl corners on the edges of the park are usually sufficient if designed properly. It is hard to please everyone though. I think having obstacles more on the mellow and intermediate side that at least everyone can enjoy is better than a bunch of huge hubbas/handrails and deep bowls all the kids or older dudes are gonna get broke off on or just ignore.

This is what I'm afraid is going to happen if we ever get a new park here. The owner of our local is really pushing for transition-focused stuff or a bowl but he doesn't even skate really and I doubt that's what the majority of people here would want. There's more BMX/scooter kids than skaters here too and I'm guessing they want as many jump ramp, tabletop/pyramid or fly out type obstacles as they can get. Too many cooks in the kitchen but I'm guessing all the meetings will play out like the post above me. At least I will be the one old guy still there in the end trying to get a nice all-around park that all ages and skill levels can enjoy.

And yes I know you people who live in actual cities with perfect ledges and fun little spots everywhere probably think some of my complaints are stupid but this is coming from small town perspective where the park basically is the entire skate scene and maybe if you're young you go out and huck down some local gaps every now and then.

[cucktard]

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bowls and transitions usually eat most of the budget......it' sucks when a bunch of old heads insist on a big coping bowl and they just skate it the first year the park is in, then it sits empty.....nice legacy....vs. a flat open area with a bunch of mellow stuff to skate.

[close]

I agree 1000% This is exactly what happened to my local. A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl into a park smaller than a tennis court. Now the bowl is a cesspool of little kids who don't skate running around like its a playground and the old bowl heads are nowhere to be found. But yeah, fuck the street skaters who've been skating in this tiny ass town their whole lives. And don't tell me to "just go skate the city if you wanna skate street, man". That's a bullshit urbanite attitude. There ain't no city where I live man and there are no street spots worth a damn in my tiny ass town. A skatepark is all some people have. Make more parks like the ones Ryan Lay is building. Rant over.

[close]

A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl

you ever visited a participation planing workshop for a skatepark.
The active skateboarders never show up - I invited them hundred times call them send whatapp - hey show up
next Friday in the youthclub. ... may at the first meeting - but latest at the second meeting they are out.
you always end with the old guys >30 years and the kids with 6 month and a horizont of 20km skateboarding know-how. That the way it is....

Last meeting half of the kids ask for a chill flat rail and a mellow hip - exactly like in the skatepark next town.
the other half - for as much transitions /bowl as possible - as big as deep as possible.

After I told them the process of building a skatepark from the first workshop in the youthcenter till the finished park
is something in-between 2 -5 years.... there soul have left there body.
Second meeting I was alone with 4 old guys.

You can sell them what you want if you are smart...
What you get is in the hand of the skateboard park designer / builder.
Some prefer to build bowls - some street..

But none of them have the balls to tell the city there concept idea is not working.

This is what I have done last meeting - they have 800m2 area of the old park.
Half the kids ask for real street super mellow stuff - the other half for transition bowl - you cant make them happy
on 800m2 - you need to gave minimum 800m2 just for street - better 1200m2 - 800m2 is crowded super fast because you only can integrate 2 -3 seperated lines on this space.
1200m2 is equivalent to 2 tennis courts - you can use max. with 8 people, the Streetpark you can use easily with 30-40 people - if they acting not stupid.
Then additional you need min. 300-400m2 for a Bowl - so you have enough space to have 3 different hight in-between 5-10 feet - depending on the level and the surroundings of other parks in the area.

Thank you.

I’m currently dealing with this.

The town I live in made a small gesture and built a fenced-in concrete triangle for skaters when the built a sports arena.

Of course nobody uses it, so I petitioned the city to budget and build some small, entry-level stuff for the mainly beginners they will be using it.

My petition was accepted, went to a few meetings with a few other older skaters, we were kind of all in the same page for what we want for the youth, a few mellow transitions, manny pad, rails, and small spine. A smallish budget was proposed and it looked  like we’d get a mellow park in a shitty triangle.

I just got word that the proposed park budget is almost 20X what we were talking about.

If that goes through, we can seriously expand, but then we have to deal with all sorts of things and balancing more ideas.

Pump track across the field to access the park?
Super-long mini ramp with 3s sections of varying size  walls? A bowl? And my dream, a replica of a China Bank wall?

[IpathCats]

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bowls and transitions usually eat most of the budget......it' sucks when a bunch of old heads insist on a big coping bowl and they just skate it the first year the park is in, then it sits empty.....nice legacy....vs. a flat open area with a bunch of mellow stuff to skate.

[close]

I agree 1000% This is exactly what happened to my local. A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl into a park smaller than a tennis court. Now the bowl is a cesspool of little kids who don't skate running around like its a playground and the old bowl heads are nowhere to be found. But yeah, fuck the street skaters who've been skating in this tiny ass town their whole lives. And don't tell me to "just go skate the city if you wanna skate street, man". That's a bullshit urbanite attitude. There ain't no city where I live man and there are no street spots worth a damn in my tiny ass town. A skatepark is all some people have. Make more parks like the ones Ryan Lay is building. Rant over.

[close]

A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl

you ever visited a participation planing workshop for a skatepark.
The active skateboarders never show up - I invited them hundred times call them send whatapp - hey show up
next Friday in the youthclub. ... may at the first meeting - but latest at the second meeting they are out.
you always end with the old guys >30 years and the kids with 6 month and a horizont of 20km skateboarding know-how. That the way it is....

Last meeting half of the kids ask for a chill flat rail and a mellow hip - exactly like in the skatepark next town.
the other half - for as much transitions /bowl as possible - as big as deep as possible.

After I told them the process of building a skatepark from the first workshop in the youthcenter till the finished park
is something in-between 2 -5 years.... there soul have left there body.
Second meeting I was alone with 4 old guys.

You can sell them what you want if you are smart...
What you get is in the hand of the skateboard park designer / builder.
Some prefer to build bowls - some street..

But none of them have the balls to tell the city there concept idea is not working.

This is what I have done last meeting - they have 800m2 area of the old park.
Half the kids ask for real street super mellow stuff - the other half for transition bowl - you cant make them happy
on 800m2 - you need to gave minimum 800m2 just for street - better 1200m2 - 800m2 is crowded super fast because you only can integrate 2 -3 seperated lines on this space.
1200m2 is equivalent to 2 tennis courts - you can use max. with 8 people, the Streetpark you can use easily with 30-40 people - if they acting not stupid.
Then additional you need min. 300-400m2 for a Bowl - so you have enough space to have 3 different hight in-between 5-10 feet - depending on the level and the surroundings of other parks in the area.

[close]

Thank you.

I’m currently dealing with this.

The town I live in made a small gesture and built a fenced-in concrete triangle for skaters when the built a sports arena.

Of course nobody uses it, so I petitioned the city to budget and build some small, entry-level stuff for the mainly beginners they will be using it.

My petition was accepted, went to a few meetings with a few other older skaters, we were kind of all in the same page for what we want for the youth, a few mellow transitions, manny pad, rails, and small spine. A smallish budget was proposed and it looked  like we’d get a mellow park in a shitty triangle.

I just got word that the proposed park budget is almost 20X what we were talking about.

If that goes through, we can seriously expand, but then we have to deal with all sorts of things and balancing more ideas.

Pump track across the field to access the park?
Super-long mini ramp with 3s sections of varying size  walls? A bowl? And my dream, a replica of a China Bank wall?

Congrats man, that's awesome.

Dealing with State/county officials and the whole budget/planning process is so annoying. We've made some good progress in my area, working towards refurbishing some parks and building new ones, but everything is such a damn grind.

I def share some experiences with @lurker_and_poster skaters have shown to be a pretty flaky bunch when it comes to community organization.

[cucktard]

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bowls and transitions usually eat most of the budget......it' sucks when a bunch of old heads insist on a big coping bowl and they just skate it the first year the park is in, then it sits empty.....nice legacy....vs. a flat open area with a bunch of mellow stuff to skate.

[close]

I agree 1000% This is exactly what happened to my local. A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl into a park smaller than a tennis court. Now the bowl is a cesspool of little kids who don't skate running around like its a playground and the old bowl heads are nowhere to be found. But yeah, fuck the street skaters who've been skating in this tiny ass town their whole lives. And don't tell me to "just go skate the city if you wanna skate street, man". That's a bullshit urbanite attitude. There ain't no city where I live man and there are no street spots worth a damn in my tiny ass town. A skatepark is all some people have. Make more parks like the ones Ryan Lay is building. Rant over.

[close]

A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl

you ever visited a participation planing workshop for a skatepark.
The active skateboarders never show up - I invited them hundred times call them send whatapp - hey show up
next Friday in the youthclub. ... may at the first meeting - but latest at the second meeting they are out.
you always end with the old guys >30 years and the kids with 6 month and a horizont of 20km skateboarding know-how. That the way it is....

Last meeting half of the kids ask for a chill flat rail and a mellow hip - exactly like in the skatepark next town.
the other half - for as much transitions /bowl as possible - as big as deep as possible.

After I told them the process of building a skatepark from the first workshop in the youthcenter till the finished park
is something in-between 2 -5 years.... there soul have left there body.
Second meeting I was alone with 4 old guys.

You can sell them what you want if you are smart...
What you get is in the hand of the skateboard park designer / builder.
Some prefer to build bowls - some street..

But none of them have the balls to tell the city there concept idea is not working.

This is what I have done last meeting - they have 800m2 area of the old park.
Half the kids ask for real street super mellow stuff - the other half for transition bowl - you cant make them happy
on 800m2 - you need to gave minimum 800m2 just for street - better 1200m2 - 800m2 is crowded super fast because you only can integrate 2 -3 seperated lines on this space.
1200m2 is equivalent to 2 tennis courts - you can use max. with 8 people, the Streetpark you can use easily with 30-40 people - if they acting not stupid.
Then additional you need min. 300-400m2 for a Bowl - so you have enough space to have 3 different hight in-between 5-10 feet - depending on the level and the surroundings of other parks in the area.

[close]

Thank you.

I’m currently dealing with this.

The town I live in made a small gesture and built a fenced-in concrete triangle for skaters when the built a sports arena.

Of course nobody uses it, so I petitioned the city to budget and build some small, entry-level stuff for the mainly beginners they will be using it.

My petition was accepted, went to a few meetings with a few other older skaters, we were kind of all in the same page for what we want for the youth, a few mellow transitions, manny pad, rails, and small spine. A smallish budget was proposed and it looked  like we’d get a mellow park in a shitty triangle.

I just got word that the proposed park budget is almost 20X what we were talking about.

If that goes through, we can seriously expand, but then we have to deal with all sorts of things and balancing more ideas.

Pump track across the field to access the park?
Super-long mini ramp with 3s sections of varying size  walls? A bowl? And my dream, a replica of a China Bank wall?

[close]

Congrats man, that's awesome.

Dealing with State/county officials and the whole budget/planning process is so annoying. We've made some good progress in my area, working towards refurbishing some parks and building new ones, but everything is such a damn grind.

I def share some experiences with @lurker_and_poster skaters have shown to be a pretty flaky bunch when it comes to community organization.

Oh, same here. I couldn’t get any help for the petition application process.
I’m in Japan, and while my Japanese is passable, I would have preferred that someone fluent did the presentation in front of the city council (I had COVID at the time and had to give it over the phone which was broadcast to the council).

It happy it worked, but yeah, (young) skaters are  flakey.
And it’s too bad, because it’s not really that big of a commitment, just some fucking input and a bit of support is all you need to give, and the potential outcome is a rad park.

[IpathCats]

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bowls and transitions usually eat most of the budget......it' sucks when a bunch of old heads insist on a big coping bowl and they just skate it the first year the park is in, then it sits empty.....nice legacy....vs. a flat open area with a bunch of mellow stuff to skate.

[close]

I agree 1000% This is exactly what happened to my local. A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl into a park smaller than a tennis court. Now the bowl is a cesspool of little kids who don't skate running around like its a playground and the old bowl heads are nowhere to be found. But yeah, fuck the street skaters who've been skating in this tiny ass town their whole lives. And don't tell me to "just go skate the city if you wanna skate street, man". That's a bullshit urbanite attitude. There ain't no city where I live man and there are no street spots worth a damn in my tiny ass town. A skatepark is all some people have. Make more parks like the ones Ryan Lay is building. Rant over.

[close]

A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl

you ever visited a participation planing workshop for a skatepark.
The active skateboarders never show up - I invited them hundred times call them send whatapp - hey show up
next Friday in the youthclub. ... may at the first meeting - but latest at the second meeting they are out.
you always end with the old guys >30 years and the kids with 6 month and a horizont of 20km skateboarding know-how. That the way it is....

Last meeting half of the kids ask for a chill flat rail and a mellow hip - exactly like in the skatepark next town.
the other half - for as much transitions /bowl as possible - as big as deep as possible.

After I told them the process of building a skatepark from the first workshop in the youthcenter till the finished park
is something in-between 2 -5 years.... there soul have left there body.
Second meeting I was alone with 4 old guys.

You can sell them what you want if you are smart...
What you get is in the hand of the skateboard park designer / builder.
Some prefer to build bowls - some street..

But none of them have the balls to tell the city there concept idea is not working.

This is what I have done last meeting - they have 800m2 area of the old park.
Half the kids ask for real street super mellow stuff - the other half for transition bowl - you cant make them happy
on 800m2 - you need to gave minimum 800m2 just for street - better 1200m2 - 800m2 is crowded super fast because you only can integrate 2 -3 seperated lines on this space.
1200m2 is equivalent to 2 tennis courts - you can use max. with 8 people, the Streetpark you can use easily with 30-40 people - if they acting not stupid.
Then additional you need min. 300-400m2 for a Bowl - so you have enough space to have 3 different hight in-between 5-10 feet - depending on the level and the surroundings of other parks in the area.

[close]

Thank you.

I’m currently dealing with this.

The town I live in made a small gesture and built a fenced-in concrete triangle for skaters when the built a sports arena.

Of course nobody uses it, so I petitioned the city to budget and build some small, entry-level stuff for the mainly beginners they will be using it.

My petition was accepted, went to a few meetings with a few other older skaters, we were kind of all in the same page for what we want for the youth, a few mellow transitions, manny pad, rails, and small spine. A smallish budget was proposed and it looked  like we’d get a mellow park in a shitty triangle.

I just got word that the proposed park budget is almost 20X what we were talking about.

If that goes through, we can seriously expand, but then we have to deal with all sorts of things and balancing more ideas.

Pump track across the field to access the park?
Super-long mini ramp with 3s sections of varying size  walls? A bowl? And my dream, a replica of a China Bank wall?

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Congrats man, that's awesome.

Dealing with State/county officials and the whole budget/planning process is so annoying. We've made some good progress in my area, working towards refurbishing some parks and building new ones, but everything is such a damn grind.

I def share some experiences with @lurker_and_poster skaters have shown to be a pretty flaky bunch when it comes to community organization.

[close]

Oh, same here. I couldn’t get any help for the petition application process.
I’m in Japan, and while my Japanese is passable, I would have preferred that someone fluent did the presentation in front of the city council (I had COVID at the time and had to give it over the phone which was broadcast to the council).

It happy it worked, but yeah, (young) skaters are  flakey.
And it’s too bad, because it’s not really that big of a commitment, just some fucking input and a bit of support is all you need to give, and the potential outcome is a rad park.

Yea I'm sure having someone fluent in Japanese would've made things easier for sure.

I tried to explain how little of a commitment it was too, people just don't wanna put in any effort.

Like you said, all you really need to do is show up and be a part of a group of people advocating for something. Bigger the group, bigger the impact. Really doesn't take much.

I've had some of those people thank me afterwards, which is nice. But I'd rather them show up to the meetings than thanks me afterwards. Would make bigger difference overall.

[backside_frontside]

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bowls and transitions usually eat most of the budget......it' sucks when a bunch of old heads insist on a big coping bowl and they just skate it the first year the park is in, then it sits empty.....nice legacy....vs. a flat open area with a bunch of mellow stuff to skate.

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I agree 1000% This is exactly what happened to my local. A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl into a park smaller than a tennis court. Now the bowl is a cesspool of little kids who don't skate running around like its a playground and the old bowl heads are nowhere to be found. But yeah, fuck the street skaters who've been skating in this tiny ass town their whole lives. And don't tell me to "just go skate the city if you wanna skate street, man". That's a bullshit urbanite attitude. There ain't no city where I live man and there are no street spots worth a damn in my tiny ass town. A skatepark is all some people have. Make more parks like the ones Ryan Lay is building. Rant over.

[close]

A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl

you ever visited a participation planing workshop for a skatepark.
The active skateboarders never show up - I invited them hundred times call them send whatapp - hey show up
next Friday in the youthclub. ... may at the first meeting - but latest at the second meeting they are out.
you always end with the old guys >30 years and the kids with 6 month and a horizont of 20km skateboarding know-how. That the way it is....

Last meeting half of the kids ask for a chill flat rail and a mellow hip - exactly like in the skatepark next town.
the other half - for as much transitions /bowl as possible - as big as deep as possible.

After I told them the process of building a skatepark from the first workshop in the youthcenter till the finished park
is something in-between 2 -5 years.... there soul have left there body.
Second meeting I was alone with 4 old guys.

You can sell them what you want if you are smart...
What you get is in the hand of the skateboard park designer / builder.
Some prefer to build bowls - some street..

But none of them have the balls to tell the city there concept idea is not working.

This is what I have done last meeting - they have 800m2 area of the old park.
Half the kids ask for real street super mellow stuff - the other half for transition bowl - you cant make them happy
on 800m2 - you need to gave minimum 800m2 just for street - better 1200m2 - 800m2 is crowded super fast because you only can integrate 2 -3 seperated lines on this space.
1200m2 is equivalent to 2 tennis courts - you can use max. with 8 people, the Streetpark you can use easily with 30-40 people - if they acting not stupid.
Then additional you need min. 300-400m2 for a Bowl - so you have enough space to have 3 different hight in-between 5-10 feet - depending on the level and the surroundings of other parks in the area.

I agree about the apathy on the skaters part to get involved. I went to every single meeting about the skate park design (I was the only one at the first one!) and they didn’t get one single shit about what I wanted. The designer (a 40 year old bowl troll) literally told the parks and rec board “I want a bowl” and he got his fucking bowl. But no one skates it because everyone is trying to skate the street obstacles. But nope, that fucker had to shoe horn his bowl in there when people just want a good fucking ledge and some space. Too much to ask for I guess when you’re dealing with the stubborn old heads. They get their way

[lurker_and_poster]

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bowls and transitions usually eat most of the budget......it' sucks when a bunch of old heads insist on a big coping bowl and they just skate it the first year the park is in, then it sits empty.....nice legacy....vs. a flat open area with a bunch of mellow stuff to skate.

[close]

I agree 1000% This is exactly what happened to my local. A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl into a park smaller than a tennis court. Now the bowl is a cesspool of little kids who don't skate running around like its a playground and the old bowl heads are nowhere to be found. But yeah, fuck the street skaters who've been skating in this tiny ass town their whole lives. And don't tell me to "just go skate the city if you wanna skate street, man". That's a bullshit urbanite attitude. There ain't no city where I live man and there are no street spots worth a damn in my tiny ass town. A skatepark is all some people have. Make more parks like the ones Ryan Lay is building. Rant over.

[close]

A bunch of 40 year old dads who can barely drop-in decided to shoe-horn a bowl

you ever visited a participation planing workshop for a skatepark.
The active skateboarders never show up - I invited them hundred times call them send whatapp - hey show up
next Friday in the youthclub. ... may at the first meeting - but latest at the second meeting they are out.
you always end with the old guys >30 years and the kids with 6 month and a horizont of 20km skateboarding know-how. That the way it is....

Last meeting half of the kids ask for a chill flat rail and a mellow hip - exactly like in the skatepark next town.
the other half - for as much transitions /bowl as possible - as big as deep as possible.

After I told them the process of building a skatepark from the first workshop in the youthcenter till the finished park
is something in-between 2 -5 years.... there soul have left there body.
Second meeting I was alone with 4 old guys.

You can sell them what you want if you are smart...
What you get is in the hand of the skateboard park designer / builder.
Some prefer to build bowls - some street..

But none of them have the balls to tell the city there concept idea is not working.

This is what I have done last meeting - they have 800m2 area of the old park.
Half the kids ask for real street super mellow stuff - the other half for transition bowl - you cant make them happy
on 800m2 - you need to gave minimum 800m2 just for street - better 1200m2 - 800m2 is crowded super fast because you only can integrate 2 -3 seperated lines on this space.
1200m2 is equivalent to 2 tennis courts - you can use max. with 8 people, the Streetpark you can use easily with 30-40 people - if they acting not stupid.
Then additional you need min. 300-400m2 for a Bowl - so you have enough space to have 3 different hight in-between 5-10 feet - depending on the level and the surroundings of other parks in the area.

[close]

I agree about the apathy on the skaters part to get involved. I went to every single meeting about the skate park design (I was the only one at the first one!) and they didn’t get one single shit about what I wanted. The designer (a 40 year old bowl troll) literally told the parks and rec board “I want a bowl” and he got his fucking bowl. But no one skates it because everyone is trying to skate the street obstacles. But nope, that fucker had to shoe horn his bowl in there when people just want a good fucking ledge and some space. Too much to ask for I guess when you’re dealing with the stubborn old heads. They get their way

they have worked 30years forward to receive this unpopular opinion...  😂

To be honest I push for a bowl too... we have some nice Street / flow park - and the next park is in the design process.
Next proper bowl is 1h drive - I would like to skate one frequently.
But I push also for a nice granite curb line 3 different curbs out of granite in one line.
2up and down stairs with some Pier 7 style manual Pad.

this features I coud skate 4ever

[fs1/2cab]

Okay I know this is the unpopular opinion thread but since we are all here and talk about skateparks.

We get a new park build in a few months. The old park will be demolished by then. I have my eyes on a few obstacles from the old park and I would love to bring these obstacles to another older skatepark nearby. Before I rent a van and steal these things, I wonder if I can contact someone in charge somewhere and friendly ask, if it will be possible to move these obstacles to another skatepark instead of demolishing them. The obstacles I am eying are a wheeliepad and a ledge. So obviously very big and heavy.
This is in Germany, so I imagine I need to fill out some papers or something.