Pre-Fab Skateparks

[Casey Jones]

What do you guys think of those pre-fabricated skateparks? Some people are staunchly against them, like they are a kind of defeat or cop-out when cities build public skateparks.

The reason that I'm creating this thread is because my hometown, where I no long live, has been struggling to build a skatepark for the past 20 years. Every generation of skaters has banded together at some point. It's like every 7 or so years there's a new wave of city counsel meetings, fundraisers, and whatever else, but the city never budges.

Now, some of the skaters who first tried to get a park built in the late 90s are basically full adults now. They have the community behind them, a go-fund-me, website, social media and all kinds of video production and stuff. They are attacking this like full blown actual marketing campaign. It's cool to see, but their goal is like $300,000 to build this concrete facility. I just don't see it happening.

The solution 15 years ago, or 10 years ago should have been to propose a pre-fab park I think. Something low cost. The kids have now gone 20 years of trying, without a skatepark.

I see this problem in other towns too. I just don't think you need to spend half a million dollars to have fun skating, at the end of the day.  

Some of my favorite skateparks are pre-fabricated. Even here in Los Angeles, the capital of skateboarding, that little Marsh skatepark is amazing. And it's like 5 metal obstacles and a solid flatbar. All the pros go there in the morning to warm up. It probably cost like $20,000 to put in, if that. Not saying that's ideal though, i'm not a huge fan of metal ramps. But those miniramps with skatelite or whatever that composite material is are fun.

What do you guys think about these?

[stevedave]

pre fab parks are common because municipalities think building a park will cost a lot, so they buy a bunch of pre-fab shit, thinking it's the same, but cheaper.  the thing is, that stuff is SEVERELY overpriced and when you total the cost of a pre-fab park, you could've gotten a concrete park that's a lot more functional.  Also, with no construction, there's no change orders or unforeseen costs from the construction. 

[MintySandwhich]

Tempe3 lol

I have no hate towards pre-fab parks, but it would suck if that was your only park.

[Nelson Muntz]

 I am probably just bias/spoiled due to living in the pacific northwest and having an abundance of amazing concrete parks.  I have never been a fan of pre-fab parks.

I travel to the Midwest to visit my family several times a year and the local park there is honestly pathetic.  One thing I have noticed is that a pre-fab park still has the ability to make a local skate scene thrive.  There are still die hard locals and park rats that any other concrete skatepark has......skateboarders make the best out of the shit they got.

Know it sounds kinda corny but I wonder if they have reached out to the Tony Hawk Foundation.

[StabMasterArson]

If there is a prefab park in your town, it's your fault.

[MexicanSpaniard]

casey you are always terrible but this might be a new low for you

[Deucifer]

If it's all ya got/only option to get something, I don't see anything wrong with it. I think it's safe to say that most prefer concrete but would take pre-fab over nothing.

tangent-
They built a new concrete park about two years ago in the town I live in. The previous park was in the same location, but about 1/4 size and all pre-fab with the exception of one cinderblock ledge. The new park is great but doesn't have a flat bar, manual pad, or just a regular quarterpipe- all of which were key features at the old park. Now I'm not saying I would give up the park we have now for the old stuff, but man do I miss that manual pad and QP some days.

[Jake From State Farm]

Tempe3 lol

This hahaha

I'm cool with metal pre-fab. there is one by my mom's house that I used to go to every day when I still lived at home. But that slick shit like Tempe 3 is not worth it.

[Tracer]

Any skatepark is a bonus, skating them feels surreal we didn't have anything permanent as a kid.

[Main]

A concrete park can be fucked up just as bad if not worse than a prefab park if they don't know what they're doing. This is actually the case for a lot of concrete parks around me. The one I go to most often is right down the road and it's prefab, but the flow is perfect and everything was made right, good blend of stuff for tranny skaters to shred and the street/tech dudes as well.

[MYXGAMES2015]

I honestly prefer prefab parks to a lot of concrete parks. You can always count on a prefab park having some good basic stuff like a good down bar or hubba or flat bar or hip or ledge cause that shit is easy to build. And as far as tranny goes, you can't really have a good bowl or anything crazy, but you can always count on good, uniform transition on a normal quarterpipe.

Lots of concrete parks I go to forget really important basic stuff like this and just go crazy with weird street shit or crazy bowls with a million lines but like one normal flat wall (looking at you, Grindline). And unless its that new fancy slick concrete all the concrete parks use now, concrete claims skin way worse than prefab wood.

Rather skate a good prefab park with all the basics than some wacky concrete bullshit any day, no matter how sick and unique it is.

[sluggers]

If they are good enough for Brandon Westgate they are good enough for anyone.

I have had some fun at pre-fabs as well.

[Nate]

My town went through the same thing.  It took multiple generations of skaters and some really nice people from the town but we eventually got a small concrete park.  Even though I have not been home to skate it yet Im really glad we waited for a concrete one.

[alraunen]

In my town they put a Pre-Fab skatepark 5 years ago and this year they made a concrete one at 200m of the other one because for 120000 population that skatepark was ridiculous. Now the only good pint is that we can send the scooters to the pre-fab!

Anyway sometimes is not spending money is just thinking, one miniramp with some ledges and flatbars are more useful than 1 superbig funbox

[JAesop]

Pre fab generally sucks but there are alternatives now, there are some companies that have precast concrete obstacles that aren't bad. So a blend of the two might be good.

[JB]

it all depends on what kind of obsticles the park has and how well its built. ive been to some garbage prefabs and some garbage concrete parks, so i really dont care what its made of as long as theres something fun to skate. metal prefab parks are by far the worst though.

this was my local park for a while and i loved skating it.

[Willie]

I used to be vehemently anti-prefab but I've since softened on the subject. I do think those ramps and boxes are stupidly overpriced but the newest ones last reasonably well and it can be a lot easier to plop down ramps on an existing tennis court than it can be to design, bid, and build a concrete park.


My change of heart is also based on seeing scenes grow and thrive around a few prefab in my area while there have also been a couple of terrible concrete parks that were total wastes that no one gives a shit about. The prefab parks aren't producing Grant Taylors but there are tons of flat ground/ledge wizard kids that can skate somewhere everyday and that's a good thing.

I'd still prefer an amazing concrete park but knowing how hard to build and easy to fuck up they are you sometimes compromise.

[Andmoreagain]

If they are good enough for Brandon Westgate they are good enough for anyone.

I have had some fun at pre-fabs as well.

O'Dell's shock at the kinked transitions hahaha. This was every New England park up until the last 5 years or so. The worst is when they'd just slap asphalt on the bottom seams. I've seen some parks rendered unusable from day one that way.

These like pre-cast parks get run down and become their own little challenge, though, which is cool.

Westgate is 100% correct on the little 1.5ft qp being the best obstacle.

[Esquivel]

Pre fab generally sucks but there are alternatives now, there are some companies that have precast concrete obstacles that aren't bad. So a blend of the two might be good.

I skated a couple of these parks and got neutral feelings. The good thing was that a few people could move the obstacles around and the set up could be spiced up once in a while. Metal ramps are the worst and close to worst are the ones with that shitty, slippery plastic surface that is similar to the material they make boats from. I'd say concrete pre-fab is the best solution for a low-ish budget and full on concrete if you have millions to spend and can hire California Skateparks or whoever makes all those amazing parks that i drool over on the internet.

[Dontfearthereefer]

Prefab parks sound like shit.

[Pango]

I live in Boston and despite having a new amazing skatepark, my favorite one is still the pre-fab skatepark a town over.  It has a metal box, a quarter, a a pyramid and a bank.  Most importantly it is almost always empty and flatground for day!

[sluggers]

Whoever hoodwinked all of those towns in New England into making those pre-fab parks must have made bank.

I am totally certain none of them ever skated, but something is better than nothing.

[Casey Jones]

casey you are always terrible but this might be a new low for you

haha, thanks MexicanSpaniard. I just have to come in here and ruin everyone's day once in awhile.

[Casey Jones]

In my town they put a Pre-Fab skatepark 5 years ago and this year they made a concrete one at 200m of the other one because for 120000 population that skatepark was ridiculous. Now the only good pint is that we can send the scooters to the pre-fab!

Anyway sometimes is not spending money is just thinking, one miniramp with some ledges and flatbars are more useful than 1 superbig funbox

Good point. It's really how you design the park. It's amazing how many skateparks forget the basic stuff like a good miniramp and some ledges that never really get old.

[TEMP-GNAR]

No seriously...you post like a pre fab park

[Casey Jones]

No seriously...you post like a pre fab park

I am probably the worst poster on here. you are right.

[Andmoreagain]

Whoever hoodwinked all of those towns in New England into making those pre-fab parks must have made bank.

I am totally certain none of them ever skated, but something is better than nothing.

It was a pre-cast concrete company specializing in sewer pipes, can't remember the name.

No experience in skateboarding at all, which explains obstacles like this haha:

[childhood]

haha pictures of sad, shitty, tragically misguided skateparks are always funny. "Certified Piece of Suck" was great.

My local park growing up was a metal pre-fab park. It was fun enough, but mostly just a meetup point before trying to street skate.

This is some footage of Kyle Nicholson killing it there. In an interview he said it's his favorite park.

[Iceman]

i wish they made real granite plazas as skateparks in the vein of love and pulaski and the like.

[Tracer]

i wish they made real granite plazas as skateparks in the vein of love and pulaski and the like.