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- “Underexposed” in the Public Eye: Amelia Brodka Interview
- 2012 Skateboarding Fatalities
- Replacing Modular Parks with Concrete
- The Skatepark Bid Process
- Sample RFP for a Skatepark Bid (Replacing a Modular Skatepark)
- Stand Up For Skateparks
- Just Say NO To Modular Skateparks
- An Interview with Ty Smith: Drop Into Skateboarding
- Putting Wenatchee on the Map!
- Skateparks $100K and Under
- Art of Board and I Ride I Recycle – The Bruce Boul Interview
- 2011 Skateboarding Fatalities
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DIY Tips & Tricks Archive
Ten DIY Skateparks
The world we live in today is full of many challenges. We ask a lot of our community leaders, and they are forced into difficult decisions every day. Lets explore the opportunity to combine several unique challenges and deliver solutions that work for everyone. We know that skateboarding is popular, and that skateparks are generally the most used areas of entire park systems. There are many...
Concrete Ledge Construction
In 2003, our city installed the first prefabricated modular skatepark in San Antonio. At the time, we were not very familiar with this equipment, but within six months the modular ledge ended up looking like this… The ledge basically crumbled due to heavy skating, and the vendor did not honor the warranty to repair the equipment. I later found out this is very common with modular...
Kingshighway: Building St. Louis Skateboarding
I remember getting the call. It was June of 2009 and my buddy Pat Ritchey called and said, “Come down to the viaduct at Kingshighway and Southwest Avenue.” I am oblivious at this point to what was happening entirely. I rolled down to the bridge that afternoon and straight into the first major pour we ended up doing. It was a flat wall quarter 5 ½’...
The EZ-7 Ditch
EZ-7 is Houston’s oldest skatespot. The best I can tell from researching the construction of White Oak Bayou, is that it was built around 1967-69. I am sure the skaters and surfers found it right after that. The earliest skate photos I have seen are from 1973. There are about 15 of these same type ditches along White Oak Bayou, but none as skateable as EZ-7....
Pour Man’s Pool Coping
Pool coping blocks are hard to find. Most of our modern pools now use bull nose brick instead of the 2 ft pool coping blocks we all love. There are a few places throughout the country that still manufacture big pool coping blocks, but ordering and shipping these blocks can become expensive. Nothing beats the feeling of clacking over pool coping blocks on a grind, but...
Burnside, Portland, Oregon
When most think about renegade skateparks, Burnside is at the top of the list. It’s an improbable tale that continues to write itself to this day. Necessity is the mother of invention and the Burnside project is a perfect example. One cold night 20 years ago – Halloween – a small group of skaters laid their claim to a neglected space which had been abandoned by...
DIY Quarterpipe (Handstacking)
We get asked questions all the time on building concrete quarterpipes, so here it is. A step by step on building a quarter on an existing concrete slab. We did this for a city project four year ago. I am sure there are better ways to do it, but this is what worked for us. In this situation, we hand stacked the concrete as opposed to...
Steel Coping Ledge Repair
A small skatepark in San Pedro Springs Park, in San Antonio, features a popular curb ledge that was looking pretty haggard. Over time the ledge had cracked and the leading edge was crumbling away after thousands and thousands of grinds. Local advocates approached the Parks Department with an easy and inexpensive idea: Refurbish the edge with a long piece of angle iron. The Parks Department approved...
Marginal Way DIY Skatepark
Marginal Way Skatepark was founded in 2004 as a response to the City of Seattle’s neglect to build more skateparks. At that time there were two small parks in town and many more needed. Rather than spend their time and money on building more skateparks they decided that both existing parks needed to be torn down and relocated. We were looking at a lengthy period of...
DIY SeaTac Ledge Repair
How To: Ledge Repair When the skatepark in the City of Seatac, Washington, was opened, the designer didn’t plan for the popularity of a small ledge built into a larger pyramid structure. Over the next five years the ledge was ground down until it was rough and pebbly. With an upcoming contest, Dave Waite and Jake Weger of Tacoma contacted SPS NW Regional Director Brock McNally...