2023 unpopular opinion thread

[IpathCats]

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.

try to get in contact with those in charge of the park (parks department, whoever) and see what they say. If that doesnt get anywhere, show up the day they plan to start demo with a group of people and a truck capable of moving  the obstacles and try to convince the construction company to do you a solid and help get them into your truck.

they might be assholes about it, or they might be reasonable and like the idea of not wasting perfectly good obstacles.

only one way to find out.

[disclosed]

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.

i feel like it sould be possible. but you probably need some connections somewhere.
i've seen old prefab objects moved to new locations here in the Netherlands. same for playground objects and shit. usually get stored somethere in the meantime. these things are too expensive for them to just throw away. (atleast for us stingy dutch people)

[manysnakes]

I live in the land of Grindline and Evergreen, and I've watched the little groms go from learning flatground kickflips to rolling into the deep end of the pool. Saying "no one uses these things" just has no bearing on my experience.

[IpathCats]

I live in the land of Grindline and Evergreen, and I've watched the little groms go from learning flatground kickflips to rolling into the deep end of the pool. Saying "no one uses these things" just has no bearing on my experience.

yea but thats sort of a case of the environment/culture shaping the youth.

ed benedict is more packed than burnside most of the time, if that says anything.

[Willie]

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?

This might be an unpopular opinion but stuff like this usually sucks. It’s a big expenditure of money, effort, and space for something that for 99.9% of users is going to be a kickturn-only spot. It’s even worse when real bricks are used.

I’ve always wanted to skate the real thing but I’ve been to a few parks with variations on the theme and now I think there is a reason why there are only a few dozen people who have ever done anything noteworthy on the actual banks.

[j....soy.....]

When it comes to parks, spots, design…..if for every ten ideas, a skater actually did something…..we’d be in a way better place…..

It’s like thinking about tricks….you think that counts for anything?  How many times and the hours I’ve thought of a nollie flip…..I’ve landed three…..

[Steely Daniel]

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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]

This might be an unpopular opinion but stuff like this usually sucks. It’s a big expenditure of money, effort, and space for something that for 99.9% of users is going to be a kickturn-only spot. It’s even worse when real bricks are used.

I’ve always wanted to skate the real thing but I’ve been to a few parks with variations on the theme and now I think there is a reason why there are only a few dozen people who have ever done anything noteworthy on the actual banks.

And we're back on track. But I do agree with you so maybe it's not all that unpopular of an opinion. Pier 7 replicas always seem nice though. I know I said no stairs but it's a 2 set or a curb at most...

[SatanicPanic]

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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]

This might be an unpopular opinion but stuff like this usually sucks. It’s a big expenditure of money, effort, and space for something that for 99.9% of users is going to be a kickturn-only spot. It’s even worse when real bricks are used.

I’ve always wanted to skate the real thing but I’ve been to a few parks with variations on the theme and now I think there is a reason why there are only a few dozen people who have ever done anything noteworthy on the actual banks.

Linda Vista has something similar and it’s not a section I see tons of people doing tricks on but I do see lots of people having fun carving them. It just depends on where they’re placed.

[j....soy.....]

Fuck that….give me a euro…..

[IpathCats]

When it comes to parks, spots, design…..if for every ten ideas, a skater actually did something…..we’d be in a way better place…..

It’s like thinking about tricks….you think that counts for anything? How many times and the hours I’ve thought of a nollie flip…..I’ve landed three…..

Fuck that….give me a euro…..

lol you're on a roll, have a gnar

[Willie]

Fuck that….give me a euro…..

Every park should have a euro and a pyramid - but a lot of parks I’ve been to built in the last decade manage to screw them up somehow. Too small, too big, not enough launch, etc.

Also, I hate A-frames.

[switchfakie]

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Fuck that….give me a euro…..

[close]

Every park should have a euro and a pyramid - but a lot of parks I’ve been to built in the last decade manage to screw them up somehow. Too small, too big, not enough launch, etc.

Also, I hate A-frames.

Yeh I don’t understand why so much money goes into making shitty quarterpipes

Just give me a bowl, mini ramp, a ledge, euro, a flatbar, and a pyramid. no need for any other nonsense expensive transition or “unique” design

[SatanicPanic]

Fuck that….give me a euro…..

Sorry I don’t carry cash

[Sizzle]

I’m a street skater but you guys are tripping, transition should get some priority at parks because you can’t get a substitute in the streets. I understand if you live in the middle of literally nowhere and don’t have any decent places to skate but it’s way easier to build a cinderblock ledge or a box than a bowl

[pizzafliptofakie]

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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....

I was on a local committee for a new park and this part was so frustrating. We had people  practically in tears at these meetings over getting a bowl built, and I've yet to see any of those people even show up at the park since it's been built. 

[Dante Bichette]

Random question while on park talk, are any of you guys’ local park in a state park? They’re planning one here which they’re touting as “the largest open wheel facility in the nation” the idea of a skatepark in a state park with farms and water parks and shit is kind of odd to me.

[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....

[close]

I was on a local committee for a new park and this part was so frustrating. We had people  practically in tears at these meetings over getting a bowl built, and I've yet to see any of those people even show up at the park since it's been built.

a single tear slides down a swollen face and lands on an unscratched && board, prompting the man to immediately buy a new one.

[Mean salto]

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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....

[close]

I was on a local committee for a new park and this part was so frustrating. We had people  practically in tears at these meetings over getting a bowl built, and I've yet to see any of those people even show up at the park since it's been built.

[close]

a single tear slides down a swollen face and lands on an unscratched && board, prompting the man to immediately buy a new one.

Weirdly had a similar thing but from the opposite side. it was wanna be baker kids wanting a real set of stairs with handrails. They build a bigger than youd find in streets 10 with tall rails even made out of tiles instead of standard skatepark concrete but I don't think any of the kids even ended up skating the park and if they did they def didn't do shit down the stairs.
I guess at least it's probably nowhere near the amount of space and budget of a bowl

[Bluntmane]

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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?

Happened at my local too. The old heads got an expensive bowl put in that no one uses. Easily could’ve used the money to make obstacles that everyone would enjoy

[cky enthusiast]

Random question while on park talk, are any of you guys’ local park in a state park? They’re planning one here which they’re touting as “the largest open wheel facility in the nation” the idea of a skatepark in a state park with farms and water parks and shit is kind of odd to me.

the lil skate plaza in bar harbor is right next to acadia national park and its actually fucking sick to skate because of the surroundings. you wont feel like ur in a 917 vid tho

[IpathCats]

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Random question while on park talk, are any of you guys’ local park in a state park? They’re planning one here which they’re touting as “the largest open wheel facility in the nation” the idea of a skatepark in a state park with farms and water parks and shit is kind of odd to me.

[close]

the lil skate plaza in bar harbor is right next to acadia national park and its actually fucking sick to skate because of the surroundings. you wont feel like ur in a 917 vid tho

That place was being built the only time i ever visited the area.

Would like to go back and skate there and explore acadia again.

[Billy Bitchcakes]

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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.

This is a big problem in the UK where land is limited and expensive. Parks are never given enough space to do anything substantial, and every design tries to do "something for everyone" leading to the generic hip, ledge with no runup, tiny bowl, zero flat space configuration. 

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.

Been going through this a bit with the redevelopment of our local. Nobody interested in being part of the actual process but just complaining on how long it's all taking. Then once the plans got released everyone was all like "where's the bowl?" "you should make it bigger!" "why is it like this not like this?".

All it basically comes down to is "why haven't you built what I would like rather than what some other people would like" and it's framed under some fake guise of being "better for everybody" Boils my piss.

[PatrickSkateman]

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Random question while on park talk, are any of you guys’ local park in a state park? They’re planning one here which they’re touting as “the largest open wheel facility in the nation” the idea of a skatepark in a state park with farms and water parks and shit is kind of odd to me.

[close]

the lil skate plaza in bar harbor is right next to acadia national park and its actually fucking sick to skate because of the surroundings. you wont feel like ur in a 917 vid tho

[close]

That place was being built the only time i ever visited the area.

Would like to go back and skate there and explore acadia again.

I’ve been to Bar Harbor twice and have never heard of this skate plaza. What a bummer.

[Blueabyssofthisss]

Transition heavy parks always seem to eventually become scooter parks

[metchup]

low and slightly mellow bowls and transition are the best for a fun park. There’s some amazing transition near me.  But just like some groups of friends meet up to skate a curb, my friends and I are like do you wanna drive an hour to skate the mellowest shittiest quarter pipe in town?! And then we do just that.

I wish more parks had full pipes, not massive death traps, but a medium sized full pipe that anyone can pump around in.  The best times I’ve ever had on a skateboard were in full pipes

[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....

[close]

I was on a local committee for a new park and this part was so frustrating. We had people  practically in tears at these meetings over getting a bowl built, and I've yet to see any of those people even show up at the park since it's been built.

[close]

a single tear slides down a swollen face and lands on an unscratched && board, prompting the man to immediately buy a new one.

[close]

Weirdly had a similar thing but from the opposite side. it was wanna be baker kids wanting a real set of stairs with handrails. They build a bigger than youd find in streets 10 with tall rails even made out of tiles instead of standard skatepark concrete but I don't think any of the kids even ended up skating the park and if they did they def didn't do shit down the stairs.
I guess at least it's probably nowhere near the amount of space and budget of a bowl

bowls/pools are the most expensive thing to build in a skatepark by FAR.

[cky enthusiast]

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Random question while on park talk, are any of you guys’ local park in a state park? They’re planning one here which they’re touting as “the largest open wheel facility in the nation” the idea of a skatepark in a state park with farms and water parks and shit is kind of odd to me.

[close]

the lil skate plaza in bar harbor is right next to acadia national park and its actually fucking sick to skate because of the surroundings. you wont feel like ur in a 917 vid tho

[close]

That place was being built the only time i ever visited the area.

Would like to go back and skate there and explore acadia again.

[close]

I’ve been to Bar Harbor twice and have never heard of this skate plaza. What a bummer.

[elegant_fox]

It’s kinda funny juxtaposing this transition talk with the eastern skating thread.

I get why not everyone would be into a 12/8 combi bowl when you live in CA and have a high density of existing classic transition features. We only have one bowl that large for 3-4 states over. There’s also only 3-5 closed loop bowls in the state(NC). Most end up being opened up non-flow quarter pipe sections.

From what I’ve seen, a handrail and most exotic street features might as well be a 12ft bowl in terms of utilization by average park users. Almost everyone here skates a low DIY ledge and that’s the extent of their skating needs.

[Dante Bichette]

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Random question while on park talk, are any of you guys’ local park in a state park? They’re planning one here which they’re touting as “the largest open wheel facility in the nation” the idea of a skatepark in a state park with farms and water parks and shit is kind of odd to me.

[close]

the lil skate plaza in bar harbor is right next to acadia national park and its actually fucking sick to skate because of the surroundings. you wont feel like ur in a 917 vid tho

That might be a dealbreaker 

[Roisto]

I know a bunch of old guys who aren’t super good at skating being one myself. Many of them like to get involved in all things related to skating much more than skating. That’s why you have these guys crying for a bowl. They think they’re gonna rip it like in their wildest 80s dreams and once it’s done they’re reminded that it’s not so easy and they’re busy with life and the bowl sits there unused.

Personally I’d love to have a mellow bowl as the huge ones scare me but I’m fine with whatever the majority wants and usually that’s no bowl at all. I don’t like skating parks much anyway. Sadly living in Finland half of the year I gotta skate the indoor parks almost exclusively.