Nosegrind on a mesa.
In addition to being a pro skateboarder for Jerry Hsu's Sci-Fi Fantasy, Ryan works at Skate After School. Skate After School is a nonprofit group in Phoenix, Arizona that helps teach skateboarding to kids who might not have access to it otherwise. They partnered with the Arizona Lottery to transform an old tennis court into a skatepark. The park they built consists of low impact curbs, ledges, launch ramps, and flat bars. It's not the perfect design for everybody, but it provides an important set of obstacles for beginners, those who are getting back into skateboarding, and skaters who are older.
I think accessibility is being lost in park design. Skateboarding is hard. Period. Parks should be built to include a couple basic obstacles for people to get the hang of tricks and have some success so as to not get discouraged by the difficulty of riding a skateboard. Building a small, wide 2'-3' smooth quarterpipe and working a low 6" tall ledge into a park's layout should be standard. Or depending on the design, other similar mellow obstacles. Perhaps create something as mundane as a curb for slappys somewhere. You get my general idea. Having some simple elements to learn tricks on or warm up on will help a great deal with improving any park and keeping folks interested in skateboarding.
The picture is by Matt Price.
Thrasher - March 2009 Volume 29 Number 3
2 comments:
I wholeheartedly agree. When people at my head office said a few years back "they're building a skatepark one street over - I guess we'll see a lot more of you now" I was stoked. Until they shoehorned a crazy deep and steep bowl, a crazy quarter and somehow a "hubba" with no run up to it into a tiny spot. Apparently some bmxers may use it but there's not even a ledge or manual pad that would keep old, mellow me happy. I really have no who designed the place as it's just so slapdash.
It's really bizarre because we should be well past the point of useless park layouts, but we aren't.
We got a new park nearby that I have some valid criticisms of. I haven't felt like typing anything up. Meh. There are actually a bunch of kids around here who can skate bowls so the next wave of the Creature army is in basic training right now.
Ryan's park is called/located at Perry Park Skate Plaza in Phoenix if anybody wants to look it up.
Post a Comment