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Choice of terrain

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  • 24-04-2003 1:01pm
    #1
    TacT
    Registered Users Posts: 4,400 ✭✭✭


    Well someone was nice enough to forward some plans for a projected park for skateboarders/rollerbladers/bmx'ers to a bunch of us that are interested in having a place to go and I think the response from everyone is - what is this crap :(

    I think that anything built such as this will only piss people off immensely due to the fact that it's a very poor design, the ramps are bland and poorly placed at best. I thought I should throw this out here and see what others make of it. Let's pretend this was going to be built somewhere, would you be happy and content with something like this as your "local" hearsay.....

    For the prices they're going at I think they're downright appauling, whaddya make of em?


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    #2
    SeanPuddin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 751 ✭✭✭SeanPuddin


    Wot a pile of crap. Who is going to use 4 foot of vert, let alone a HUGE halfpipe. I think someone should look at The Quarry, that's a well laid out park.

    Where did you get these pics? For the price I think they're trying to rip us off. Who needs a massive roll-in for a tiny funbox. For the same price I'm sure they could scale it dwon and build more ramps!

    Sean


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    #3
    TacT
    Registered Users Posts: 4,400 ✭✭✭TacT


    yup, this seems to be the general consensus across the board :(


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    #4
    Seaneh
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 18,300 ✭✭✭✭Seaneh


    I wouldn't mind getting my hard tail into that half pipe.
    the lay out is crap but the pieces aint too bad.


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    #5
    shag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭shag


    The council for the accused would like to state....
    I did these plans to give interested councils and public bodies a basic idea of what a skatepark looks like. They are in no way to scale and owe a lot more to my lack of skill in photoshop then in building ramps. Ever try drawing a skatepark using photoshop?
    As regards the prices , I realise that to anyone used to building timber ramps they seem extortionate. These are priced to be built with a steel frame with a skatelite over sheet steel surface to Rospa standards. The same designs in wood would cost a fraction of the price but can you imagine how long a public wood park would last in Ireland before it got burnt down by scumbags or rotted into oblivion.We are in fact highly competitively priced bear in mind the Waterford park built by a UK playground equipment manuafacturer cost €500'000. For a better depiction of what we supply go to our website www.fiveoskateboarding.com and click on park design.
    You are right in being scepticle about people aiming to supply skateramps though theres been too many cases of councils using people with no idea about what actually rides well and ending up with unusable parks. I have 22 years bmx and 17 years skating experience under my belt and have skated a ton of parks in the UK, europe,new zealand and Oz so you can rest assured I do know what makes a good skatepark (NZ has a ton of damn fine skateparks go there if you ever get the chance). I'll send in more photos and links to current projects soon. I'm working on a irish skatepark forum site at the moment to try and pool together information on how best to get facilities.Cheers Shaggy.


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    #6
    SeanPuddin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 751 ✭✭✭SeanPuddin


    How about some of those parks you have on your site. Forget the stupidly big half-pipes, give us more transitions, wallrides, volcano, jump box, grind rails, hand rails.

    Seeing how Ireland has barely any parks, I think people would appreciate a more street style park.

    A bowl would be good though!

    And as long as your putting skatelite over the metal, that's fine because that sheet metal is dangerous.


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    #7
    SeanPuddin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 751 ✭✭✭SeanPuddin


    Are you involved in the skatepark in Shannon, Co.Clare?


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    #8
    shag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭shag


    I am not aware that go ahead has been given for a park in Shannon. Is there any information / contacts you can forward me. I've seen a few press reports on demands and petitions for a park but nothingsubstantial . Other areas which do have the go ahead from local government are Bushy park , Lucan , Newbridge and possibly Galway. I'll investigate a bit more and get back with any news . Does any one have any shots from the Waterford park as I've heard a lot of different reports on it.


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    #9
    the fnj
    Registered Users Posts: 1,398 ✭✭✭the fnj


    Originally posted by shag
    Other areas which do have the go ahead from local government are Bushy park ,

    Do you have any more info on this or know where I could get some?

    I've just taken up skateboarding and a skate park in Bushy would be deadly, I live right beside the park.


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    #10
    shag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭shag


    Yeah well basically one of the local skaters started up a petition and went to the council with it and that got the ball rolling. In december '02 I think it was the south dublin county council gave the go ahead for a skatepark to be built in Bushy park. The proposed site was for it to be built in the under-used tennis courts as this would allow it to be run in a similar way (club basis /gated entry) as the waterford park as this is a pre requisite for gaining insurance coverage. The park would have been built for this summer had government cutbacks not forced the council to cut it from their budget. Hopefully it will be included in next years budget. Personally I'd love to see a skatepark there as some of my earliest skating experiences were bombing that hill on a polyprop. In the meantime try the curbs in the little carpark out the back of hollingsworths bike shop in templeogue village .... nothing amazing but worth a session.Shaggy.


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    #11
    TacT
    Registered Users Posts: 4,400 ✭✭✭TacT


    Cheers for the info shaggy, I was wondering what the hell this was when it arrived in my mailbox and several people were jumping to conclusions about where it was going to be built and all sorts of nonsense, glad it's been cleared up.
    Although I disagree about the wood bit - Ramp 'N' Rail has had their wood skatepark for over 3 years now, making the point a bit moot considering how well it has stood and still stands the test of time.

    Very glad to hear this wasn't a projected plan for any area! The Bushy Park Skatepark seemed to be going ahead then never going ahead and I even had a lovely couple knock around to my door, asking me to sign the petition, then they were asking me about costs etc, it nearly turned into some sort of interview, somebody passed on my details to them and to this day I don't know who it was..

    I think the best shot we have is to form an Irish Skateboarding association/Federation to ease the woe that betides us with insurance and other crap that is forcefully shoved down our throats whenever we try to put forward plans for a skatepark in any given town/area/park/warehouse.

    To date I've received 2 mails asking me to attend a meeting and at the mo it looks like Dublin is the meeting place (half way between north and south, giving everyone a fair chance to turn up and not have to travel some ludicrous distance to attend and discuss the issues plaguing us and what powers we need to achieve our goals over whatever amount of time it takes)

    I'll be letting you all know with plenty of warning when and where this will be happening and what the issues are we need to be addressing as soon as I get more info..


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    #12
    shag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭shag


    Cheers for the info. As regards me frowning on wood as a suitable skatepark material, I am refering strictly to it's use in an outdoor site. Indoors it's probably the best material of all to use, but I can't see any council supplying us with an indoor site in which to build a skatepark. I'd love if they did but it just doesn't seem likely. I'd be very interested in helping to organise any meeting and was actually considering doing just that myself once I had my planned website up and running. Something similar to what I heard that S.O.P.E did in Eniskillen. I was abroad at the time and missed that meeting but some friends attended it and it seems like it was quite constructive . I totally agree on a national association to push for parks in all parts of the country and have been doing some research on the subject. There would be funding available from certain government agencies to help set this up. I will be including all the info I have gathered so far in the website .I'll stick up a posting as soon as I have that finished.
    Other news is that Fingal county council have done a feasability report on providing a park and Dun laoghaire and Rathdown Council are in the process of doing one should be finished soon.

    Any info on Waterford skatepark please post here!!!!


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    #13
    TacT
    Registered Users Posts: 4,400 ✭✭✭TacT


    I'll ask around tomorrow, ahh of course, outdoors :(


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    #14
    accensi0n
    Registered Users Posts: 2,738 ✭✭✭accensi0n


    when is work meant to start on the bushy park skatepark?
    and if it got cut from the budget this year whos to say that won't happen for the next 5 years.


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    #15
    shag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭shag


    There is no date set for work to start on the Bushy park skatepark and yes it could easilly be 5 or more years before they decide that they have enough in their budget to build it especially with their hugely inflated estimates on what it will cost to build. The problem is allthough Waterford got the price down on insurance by organising a club etc they got ripped off bigtime by the company they chose to build the park, EIBE UK. Their main business is building kiddies playgrounds. I've been told they used the same rubber surface used in playgrounds for the surface of the street course. Now I'll admit to be biased but £100,000 is a ridiculous price for a park of this size never mind one which is as un-skatable as I've heard. Half the reason I'm trying to promote Andy's company www.fiveoskateboarding.com is to avoid other councils going down the same route. I know we could supply a hell of a better park for a quarter of that price! Theres a heap of other skater run companies that could supply good parks too but the problem is councils often go with who they know (playgound manufacturers) and thats why fools who know more about building kiddies slides than they do about building ramps end up with the job.Now as I allready admitted I'm biased so to be fair go to www.eibe.co.uk (click on roller moving) and check out their stuff oh and remember it's made out of plastic!! I'd like to see some reports from people in Waterford on it or from anyone who's skated it. Bruce the Ox rekons the mini is skateable but then he'd skate anything! Anyway whether it's as bad as I've heard or not, it is certainly overpriced resulting in other councils overestimating how much it will cost them to install a similar facility. If they think it'll cost €100'000 to build then they're gonna wait untill they have €100'000 spare in their budget to spend on it. So my aim is to convince councils that it doesn't cost this much at all ,that we can build something far better for far less monry and offer them a better maintenance plan which means cheaper insurance. This way we can get stuff built now rather than wait 5 years for a rubber and plastic joke.
    So when your local councillor comes to the door looking for votes keep him there for an hour or two asking why Ireland has one public skatepark in the whole country , and what are they gonna do about it.


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    #16
    Cork Skate
    Registered Users Posts: 884 ✭✭✭Cork Skate


    I think you are listening to people who are moaning a bit too much and to be honest ... people who are just moaning and not doing anything are not really in a position to start giving ****. You will get people whinning all the time, they are never pleased so sod them and dont take any notice.


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    #17
    shag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭shag


    Yeah , we went on a mission there week before last and it's not as bad as everyone makes out .There is no rubber mat surface and the fibreglass surface ain't that bad after all. The banks on the pyramid are a bit too steep though and the street course could be better designed. I did like the mini though the seamless surface makes for a nice smooth ride , if it was twice as wide it'd be deadly. I rekon all minis should be at least 16ft wide 12ft is too cramped. If your going down that way You're much better off going straight to Kiltorcan skatepark in Kilkenny which is on the way to waterford anyway. We stopped there on the way back and it's sick.When you bear in mind that it cost roughly the same to build as Waterford you'll understand why I reckon waterford council were ripped off. I've searched the web for skaters reactions to Eibe built stuff and no one seems very happy with them. I think in general it's best not to trust any company not owned and operated by skaters.If they don't skate they can't relate. Skating is now big business and theres plenty of business people out there who'll be more than happy to rip us off with crap product. Check out the skateboarding sucks site for a laugh at some of the crap out there!!!
    http://www.skateboardingsucks.com/

    Shaggy
    http://www.geocities.com/irishskateparkforum/index.html


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    #18
    shag
    Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭shag


    Oh yeah ...If you're from Cork I guess you've probably skated the reservoir at shanakiel. You should really get a few mates together and sort that place out .If you killed the weeds and stuck a grind box at the top of those banks and a launch half way up it'd be a sick spot. The kicker on a bank thing can be really good if you get the angle/transition right there used to be a great one in london near meanwhile. Check out the spots page on my site for info..
    http://www.geocities.com/irishskateparkforum/spots.html
    and this cork site
    http://www.topadamornin.50megs.com/index.html
    Shaggy.
    http://www.geocities.com/irishskateparkforum/index.html


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