Seldom seen coping variations

[modern life is war]

What are some uncommon things being used for coping on a ramp that you have seen/skated/heard of/dreamt of? Post pics if you have em and share your thoughts on how they skate.

Something i've never seen before but often dreamt of is skating a ramp that has some rectangular blocks of stone with natural edges used as the coping. I once laid stones like this as coping on a guy's pool and the whole time I was wondering if it was possible to skate. The natural edge would probably get eaten away super quickly and it might chip off easily too, depending on the type of stone used, but it could be cool for a short period. Sandstone is pretty affordable in my area and I get a lot of scrap from work of this kind of stone so I kinda wanna try it out on a little diy spot. The stone would look like this:



I've seen other stones used as pool coping, like a few of the grindline parks have tiny sections of river-rocks used as coping, but this just seems impossible to skate. I saw this at Mammoth Skatepark in California and I believe there is also a section of this at Eugene skatepark in oregon.

[switchfakie]

In Texas, I’ve seen at some parks, the builders used a pipe with a literal 1 inch diameter as coping. That was the weirdest I’ve ever seen

[Prince]

i've skated a few pretty natural wooden copings, like a fair straight arm of a tree just whacked at the top of the quarter. it doesn't feel cooler, but the idea is kind of cool.

[tom]

I'd use granite if I were to make a ramp that had pool coping. I've skated countless skateparks bowls and only a handful of genuine backyard pools. They all had concrete coping, so I'm not sure if granite is a super common thing in the pool skater world. I grew up on the east coast where the curbs and ledges are mostly granite, so imo it's the best material for grinds. Concrete can't even come close to its grindability once it's broken in

[Mean salto]

^had a bunch of random granite offcuts and tried using them on ledges etc it kinda works but you'd want it to be really thick (which would then be crazy heavy) otherwise it will likely break. Not sure how it would hold up to getting bonked off/smashed into as pool coping


Sandstone is crazy easy to break too and can't imagine ever having a nice feeling grind. I can imagine it constantly raining little grains of shit all over the ramp.


Once we made a little quarter with a side of a trampoline so it was a really thick diameter but also flattened on top with drill holes and indentations for where all the springs would go in. It was fun but still not wide enough to get all the benefit

Also used a little step thing that was diamond plate steel. Again tho the quarter was way too narrow to get the benefit

[modern life is war]

^had a bunch of random granite offcuts and tried using them on ledges etc it kinda works but you'd want it to be really thick (which would then be crazy heavy) otherwise it will likely break. Not sure how it would hold up to getting bonked off/smashed into as pool coping


Sandstone is crazy easy to break too and can't imagine ever having a nice feeling grind. I can imagine it constantly raining little grains of shit all over the ramp.


Once we made a little quarter with a side of a trampoline so it was a really thick diameter but also flattened on top with drill holes and indentations for where all the springs would go in. It was fun but still not wide enough to get all the benefit

Also used a little step thing that was diamond plate steel. Again tho the quarter was way too narrow to get the benefit

Not sure if it's just a regional thing but I have seen (and worked with) way harder and more durable varieties of sandstone in the USA than I have seen in Australia so I think if you got the right stuff it would work okay, The pic I posted originally is a type of pink sandstone that comes from Arizona, in the construction industry it's called 'classic oak' and it actually kinda sparkles so I think it must have a higher amount of quartz in it making it much harder... at least way harder than the yellow Sydney sandstone you see in Australia where it's soft enough that you can carve your name into it with just a screwdriver or something.

This new skatepark in Australia I went to last time I was back had this granite pool coping in this small section which tripped me out. The park had opened like a week before I went there and the stone was so smooth that I couldn't even hear my trucks grinding it so I didn't skate it much but I imagine in a few years once it's been worn in it'll be so satisfying to grind.

But yeah I just thought this was crazy because I'm imagining every piece of coping would have taken so much more manpower to produce compared to concrete pool coping. Maybe it would be so durable that it would pay off.

[Mean salto]

Expand Quote

^had a bunch of random granite offcuts and tried using them on ledges etc it kinda works but you'd want it to be really thick (which would then be crazy heavy) otherwise it will likely break. Not sure how it would hold up to getting bonked off/smashed into as pool coping


Sandstone is crazy easy to break too and can't imagine ever having a nice feeling grind. I can imagine it constantly raining little grains of shit all over the ramp.


Once we made a little quarter with a side of a trampoline so it was a really thick diameter but also flattened on top with drill holes and indentations for where all the springs would go in. It was fun but still not wide enough to get all the benefit

Also used a little step thing that was diamond plate steel. Again tho the quarter was way too narrow to get the benefit

[close]

Not sure if it's just a regional thing but I have seen (and worked with) way harder and more durable varieties of sandstone in the USA than I have seen in Australia so I think if you got the right stuff it would work okay, The pic I posted originally is a type of pink sandstone that comes from Arizona, in the construction industry it's called 'classic oak' and it actually kinda sparkles so I think it must have a higher amount of quartz in it making it much harder... at least way harder than the yellow Sydney sandstone you see in Australia where it's soft enough that you can carve your name into it with just a screwdriver or something.

This new skatepark in Australia I went to last time I was back had this granite pool coping in this small section which tripped me out. The park had opened like a week before I went there and the stone was so smooth that I couldn't even hear my trucks grinding it so I didn't skate it much but I imagine in a few years once it's been worn in it'll be so satisfying to grind.

But yeah I just thought this was crazy because I'm imagining every piece of coping would have taken so much more manpower to produce compared to concrete pool coping. Maybe it would be so durable that it would pay off.

Dam that looks pretty nice (altho something completely the opposite of what I like to skate lol) hope people take care of it.

[tom]

That looks almost perfect. Just add a longer straight wall in there at that hip and it’d complete it. I’d still be juiced if that was my local either way. Another fun one could be polished marble coping. Your trucks would glide across it. As long as you can keep scooters and idiots away it wouldn’t get chipped up

[Prostate Exam]

I went to Finland a while back. And all the skateparks there were filled with granite obstacles and one pool had granite coping. Wasn't much fun, would stick a lot on grinds even when going very fast.

[Prince]

This bowl has granite coping

It's in coomera near the theme parks on the gold coast (australia)

When I skated it I absolutely hated it, someone may have been saucing the coping too much or something but it was like it didn't grind - you were just gliding on it.

Unpopular opinion possibly - i have no real love for pool tiles, steel coping is perfect...

[Dopethrone]

This bowl has granite coping

It's in coomera near the theme parks on the gold coast (australia)

When I skated it I absolutely hated it, someone may have been saucing the coping too much or something but it was like it didn't grind - you were just gliding on it.

Unpopular opinion possibly - i have no real love for pool tiles, steel coping is perfect...

I skated that park once or twice sometime in 2018 and thought the same thing the coping was so fast.

There is a park in Melbourne (box park? Maybe) where the coping looked like marble it was it was so incredibly smooth but grinded well didn't feel hella sauce or anything.