Chapter 4: Design

3. Comfort
Skateboarders are human and have human needs. While exercising, skaters periodically need to rest. Regardless of the climate, water is essential for healthy athletic activity. It’s unrealistic to expect that all the park users will bring refreshments to the park with them. A prospective site that has easy access to potable water is good. This will rarely be an issue in urban parks, but in county or state parks, installing water fountains might be a prohibitively expensive component.

Site amenities, such as these shade
structures and ample seating, provide a
level of comfort to all park visitors...
not just the skaters.

The skatepark environment should be attractive and attract other non-skating users to the vicinity. Skate spots near popular walking paths are great for all users as the skaters are invited to recreate with the rest of the community while walkers can see skateboarders perform the tricks they’ve been practicing.

Comfort is difficult to quantify but may be measured using indicative factors such as reports of criminal activity (and the area’s “reputation”), environmental data, and sanitary facilities.