The Skate Plaza Concept

You’ve been hearing about Rob Dyrdek’s Skate Plaza for a while now. The first one in Kettering, Ohio, should be open this summer (’05).

What makes the Skate Plaza different from any other public skatepark is the concept behind it that creates different results.

The concept is simple. Get the cities to build skateparks that are like the places kids are getting kicked out of.

How many of us have gone to a new skatepark only to be confronted with large, lumpy bowls, rails with no room for pushing or landing, concrete that is too slick, concrete that is too rough, no stairs, no ledges, rails that are three inches off the ground, etc. Most skateparks bear little if any resemblance to what you see kids skating in videos.

Why does this happen? Because the people who work for the city are old and think skateboarding is the same today as it was in the 70s. If they try to get educated they do it by watching a skate video. The trouble is they see things on a video and they can’t tell how big it is, how steep it is, or what the ground feels like. It would seem like the most logical thing for them to go ask some skaters what they should build, but evidently this rarely happens or we would have more skateparks that look like Love Park and less that look like the Pipeline of the early 80s.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with parks that have nice bowls with pool coping. That’s great. But the vast majority of public parks being built cater to pool skaters, while 80% of the skaters out there are street skaters. And of course whether the park caters to pool skaters or street skaters the result is usually that it’s a piece of junk either way. I say keep on building parks with big bowls, but lets build some that have legitimate street terrain as well.

The Skate Plaza has the dual goal of building skateparks that are well-built and building parks that cater to street skaters.

But it doesn’t really stop there. The Skate Plaza concept is for the park to not just be a skatepark but a real park, like Love Park was. Why should a skatepark be a large area of cement? Put some planters in there with trees in them to create some shade and make the place look nicer. Give the place some variety. If you’ve ever skated at Chafey you know what I’m talking about.

If you’re interested in getting a Skate Plaza in your city go to the website at http://www.skateplaza.com and click on “How To Get One” and follow the instructions. It’s not easy, it will take some work, but it can happen if you work hard and do things the right way.