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.

Fundraising.

The cost of a new skatepark may seem huge to us but in comparison to the total spending of the local government it really isn't that much. They have money they need to distribute however we must show why our cause is the most worthy, there are lots of other groups out there fighting for a piece of the action.

The aim of fund raising is not only to accumulate funds to pay for the design and construction of the park, but also to increase publicity and display the level of support for the project.

At the moment there are a few ideas about how to go about this;
A sponsored skate, say from Chelmsford to the park in Brentwood. This would show we are prepared to work for what we want. By asking people to sponsor us, just as marathon runners do, we get the opportunity to tell them about the idea. I'm sure the local media would be interested in why there are dozens of skaters making a trip like this en massé.

T-shirt sales. The sale would raise money, but by wearing your t-shirt you would be publicising the cause wherever you went. These t-shirts could have the logo's of companies sponsoring the project, their contributions could cover the costs so that more of the final price went into the fund.

Let's make a video! The Chelmsford scene seems better than it has been for ages. A promo video would raise the profile of our town and our plight. If it was any good we could even sell it!

Before we do any of this however we need to look into getting charity status, so the money we raise actually has somewhere to go. If you have anymore ideas, feel free to let us know below.

In the beginning...

there were 567. That's how many members our facebook group has as I am writing this. That is a huge demand! This blog will be the hub for all our ideas, proposals and developments over the coming months, as we work towards our final aim: A NEW QUALITY SKATEPARK IN CHELMSFORD.

Check back soon for new posts!