Field Report #1 Truro

This is a new type of post that I hope will help us and those involved with the new skatepark to work out what does and what doesn't work by looking at other parks and their strengths and weaknesses.

Skatepark: Truro "plaza"
Location: Truro, Cornwall.
Construction: Concrete.

The first thing I feel needs to be said is a lack of transition does not make a skatepark a plaza. I say lack of transition, there is a fair sized mini ramp although it certainly looks like it's addition was an afterthought. In general the build quality of the park seems very good but this precast ramp has a inch or so gap between each section which an be slightly unsettling when attempting slides on it's incredibly slippery coping.

There are some interesting obstacles, stair sets of different sizes, a couple of pier 7s and a bank not quite steep enough to do call a wallride but not mellow enough to be enjoyable to do fliptricks on. I did notice a complete lack of rails both sloped and flat.

There is a good variety of obstacles but the layout is abysmal. I wasn't expecting to be able to hit every obstacle one after the other, in fact that type of lines orientated park can often lead to only one person being able to skate a park at a time, whilst having the park so obstacles can be sessioned independently allows more people to have more runs.

A curved ledge marks the frontier of the park on one side, this looked like it could be fun but it had been designated the mum and dad bench the Saturday afternoon I was there. This curved ledge blocks the run up to one of the pier 7s, after landing any trick on the wedge block you then need to drop down about 5 kerb high drops which of you've landed sketchily may well be your down fall.

There was a big issue with lines and some of the obstacles such as the rainbow block, curved hubba and the 25' hubba seemed to be a bit out of reach for everyone at the park, although I think inliners may have had more luck. Like many other parks a lack of landscaping of the surrounding grass left dust and stones to be a hazard.

There is a lot we can learn from this park, there are many things I would certainly like to see in our park, CCTV, a free water fountain, and an area set aside just for flatland, although the dip for drainage in the middle of this area soon made itself known to me. I think the greatest lesson to be learned is that all the build quality and good obstacle design in the world can't make up for a lack flow.

Good Points:

Nice surface not too rough not too slippery,
CCTV,
Water fountain,
Flatland,
Actual stairs.

Bad Points:

Lay out,
Too many little single or two steps,
Precast mini with gaps.

We Need Your Help!

We have been asked if bmxers and inline skaters will be taken into consideration, and the answer is, anyone who helps with the project will have their voice heard. This isn't just for skateboarders, you are all welcome, to suggest ideas, comment on others or just get involved with whatever events we are doing.

There are a lot of things we need help with:

• Petition. We need it to be properly written both online and hard copies, I think there is a special wording but I'm not sure (we the undersigned?) Once someone has done this, we need people to distribute it,  but not until we have something that is written so it has to be listened to.
• T-shirts. We need help with the design, so all you arty folks out there get out your felt tips and get drawing. We have a couple possible printers, but if anyone knows anyone who could do us a deal to keep prices down and increase the money for the fund, that would be peachy.
• Sponsorship. Talking of money for the fund, if anyone is associated with any companies, (preferably in the industry but not necessarily), that would like to sponsor our t-shirts, this would would again help keep costs down. We could also see about advertising on the blog. 
• Knowledge. If you know anything you think could be of use, or you have any ideas, let us know! There are some odd sources of money out there (I think dartford had funding from Barclays)  and we aren't exactly experienced in this process, so if you can, lend a hand.

We aren't trying to take over the project, just give it somewhere to live, so people have a place to bring ideas and somewhere to find out how the project is progressing. If you think you can help with any of these things leave a comment or message me on faceboook throught the group, let us know what you're doing so we can let others know.