Westport Skatepark

roguey

thats the design of the park, gonna be buillt by Spraoilinn. I just got it from one of the people involved. They hope to start in mid November and complete it in 6 weeks, but i'd say it'll take longer than that if the weathers crap, which it most likely will be.

I think its a pretty good design, nice little park like. All in all its good for the west, first proper concrete park, and only about 15 mins from me in Castlebar, closest concrete park to us used to be Athlone!

shagman

Spraoi Linn are agents for Skatestone who mainly do pre-cast modular concrete. Is this going to be pre-cast or an in-situ pour? Hopefully the latter.

roguey

i dont know cause im not involved in it, but i will try and find out n the next few days. I hope to god its in situ pour though, so much better than modular! although, from the picture it looks like it will be pour? doesnt really look like is could be modular?

wreckless

spraoi linn just do pre-cast. now, id love to be proven wrong. but , 6 weeks work, yep, thats pre-cast.

is there a fence going around the outside? if so how high, where are the gates etc? is there floodlighting?

roguey

Spraoilinn also built Donaghmede, i dont think that is pre-cast is it?

But 6 weeks does sound awful short for it to be built, so this one may well be pre cast

Oh well, at least now there will be a skatepark in Mayo at all! and concrete at that, so not half bad really!

Dont know about the fencing or anything yet, but i just sent an email to Spraoilinn requesting the dimensions so hopefully that will shed more light on this

shagman

Donaghmeade is precast AFAIK.

Herb Powell

Precast crete really isn't that bad. In situ is better, certainly, but it's concrete.

roguey

yeah atleast its concrete, and atleast its not just a flat concrete ground with concrete ramps and crap bunged on top of it ( i.e. not modular) like Monkstown for instance, which basically like rhino ramps, but concrete (although i'd say still alot better than Rhino ramps!) this design has some depth and flow to it, which is definitely a plus

shagman

On that drawing if you look half way down on the right hand side, I'm not sure about the wall /elevation drop there.
See if they can change the wall between the bowl and euro-gap to a steep bank. That would make wall rides down the side of the euro-gap a possability and it would also make it less sketchy where the wall comes close to the bowl. Steep to mellow bank woul be ideal, then you could tranfer out of the bowl at that spot.
And coping all the way round would make the wall/bank a lot more usefull too.

red_ice

its great that theres another skatepark going in, but jesus could they put a little more effort into the design of things and put more stuff to skate in the space instead of filling it with a bowl?

Bushy is a sick park, but its wasted space really, not enough stuff to skate if you dont like transition.

shagman

Thats down to personal taste really the opposite could be said of Monkstown for instance.
If you don't like transition maybe try a different park. In places where theres more than one park within travelling distance then it's cool to have specialist mainly street or mainly bowl park. But somewhere like Westport it's better to have a mix I reckon.

roguey

yeah i agree with you Shaggy, all down to personal taste, but with no other concrete park near Westport, its good to have a mix, in Dublin, ther is a great mix, if you want to skate transition, go to Bushy, if ya want more street, ya got Donaghmede( or actually skate the streets in Dublin). And personally, thing im most looking forward to skating is the bowl!!

Herb Powell

red_ice wrote: »

its great that theres another skatepark going in, but jesus could they put a little more effort into the design of things and put more stuff to skate in the space instead of filling it with a bowl?

Bushy is a sick park, but its wasted space really, not enough stuff to skate if you dont like transition.

Blasphemy!!!!!:D
Bowls aren't a waste of space at all. They take more space to build, sure, but they're great to skate. Sure what are you complaining for, you live in Dublin, get yourself down to one of the other parks:pac:

shagman

Bowls approximate empty US swimming pools - something which I've failed to find in my 25 years of skating .
Street plazas approximate street which you can find in the em streets!
If bowls weren't included in parks over here it would just narrow the skateable terrain available to Irish skaters. Variety is important. It'd be great to see an Irish park/vert pro one day.

Herb Powell

shagman wrote: »

Bowls approximate empty US swimming pools - something which I've failed to find in my 25 years of skating .
Street plazas approximate street which you can find in the em streets!
If bowls weren't included in parks over here it would just narrow the skateable terrain available to Irish skaters. Variety is important. It'd be great to see an Irish park/vert pro one day.

Yeah to be honest I'm quite sick of people saying a certain park sucks if it has tranny in it. The more to skate the better, and tranny is just so fun anyway. It's a shame when people don't appreciate it, and infuriating when people dismiss it (has happened to me). I'd love to find a pool, but that's not going to happen in this country

shortys94

Skated in a pool before, was hard to find one with rounded edges etc in new york

red_ice

Herb Powell wrote: »

Blasphemy!!!!!:D
Bowls aren't a waste of space at all. They take more space to build, sure, but they're great to skate. Sure what are you complaining for, you live in Dublin, get yourself down to one of the other parks:pac:

I live 2 mins from bushy park. The bowl is the best in dublin, but only 2 people can really skate it at a time, and thats if they let each other skate. A BMX in that thing will go around for 10 mins if you let em, and it slows down the movement of the session and it ges boring! The bowl is fantastic tho, perfect transition and coping. Very creative lines aswell, however, that skatepark is litterally just a bowl.

shagman wrote: »

Bowls approximate empty US swimming pools - something which I've failed to find in my 25 years of skating .
Street plazas approximate street which you can find in the em streets!
If bowls weren't included in parks over here it would just narrow the skateable terrain available to Irish skaters. Variety is important. It'd be great to see an Irish park/vert pro one day.

I just made a post about rollerblading at 30 on another topic, but look at the skatepark the lads are skating here. Imagine something like that here? Yea, its more rollerblading than skateboarding, but im sure with something that size or layout/flow to it, you can compremise for all sports in there.

Herb Powell wrote: »

Yeah to be honest I'm quite sick of people saying a certain park sucks if it has tranny in it. The more to skate the better, and tranny is just so fun anyway. It's a shame when people don't appreciate it, and infuriating when people dismiss it (has happened to me). I'd love to find a pool, but that's not going to happen in this country

Its not that certain people dont like tranny, its that thats all there is to skate. Theres nothing to skate in the skateparks other than 1 foot high ledges that are (to be blunt) absolutly ****.

These parks are ment to be built to accomidate everyone, not just people who like transition. Now, dont get me wrong, there are parks that have a nice mix, but variety is the spice of life etc

red_ice

BOOM! There you go, the two parks in the video are
Gilbert Skatepark and
Tempe Skatepark.

google maps included. Either of those parks(yes even without the bowl) would be a rollerblader/bmx/skateboarders wet dream - no denying it!

Herb Powell

I get your point about Bushy, it's generally infested with bmx'rs who hog the **** out of the bowls. But there are loads more things in parks than wanky one foot high ledges (which can be great fun in their own right). I spose I just like to skate anything. Go to Monkstown, Lucan, Donaghmede, GTF, if you're looking for more street oriented parks. If they're no good, skate steet! Seriously, Dublin skaters (not ranting haha) sometimes don't realise how much better it is to skate than the rest of the country. Parks like the ones you posted would be amazing, but we just don't have any of their size, and I doubt we will for years. Skating is much more established in the USA

NotExactly

roguey wrote: »

Is that definitely the plan? It looks like it was made in Solidworks in about ten minutes.

shortys94

any update on the progress?

roguey

went over today to check out the progress:

shortys94

Any more progress on this?

thatlukeboy

Everything but the bowl is in now. It seems to be open too. Well, there was a bunch of people skating there at any rate.

roguey

im dont think its fully open yet, but ya can go in and bother no problem. been twice last week. fun park

shortys94

could you post more pics?

red_ice

imagine living in that small gaff in the bottom picture.... grand.

red_ice

whats the dealeo with the progress on this park? Any updates? Photos?

wreckless

so is this opening this weekend?

any word, anyone know?

shortys94

Yea Id really like to see some pics of it finished!

wreckless

best i could find!!! :rolleyes:

shortys94

Thanks wrecless, some recent ones would be great if anyone has been down there

shagman

there's some videos up on youtube

shortys94

Are they gonna finish the bowl in the middle?

wreckless

think its a funding issue. id reckon they will in the first year, will ask on friday

heading over there for the opening and to meet some of the locals and customers

see you there

Just Like Heaven

Bowl still in't btw. Dunno if it's going to go in either.

852mr258

I know I'm six years late but did the bowl ever get built into the park