what makes a skatepark achieve FLOW?

[skategeezer]

so, we are putting together a 1 MILLION dollar park here in Thornhill, Ontario (the booming metropolis of Vaughan, the city ABOVE toronto) and we need to ensure that we've got FLOW...

if you had a million dollars what would you put in the park to ensure that it had flow...BE SPECIFIC!

and yes, once it's built, you are welcome to stay at Casa CW - I am a 12-15 minute skate from the house or 5 minute drive

[worldwide]

im no expert, but there should be clean lines between sections.

also, after each feature there should be 2 options of where to go when you come out. if there isnt then you end up just sessioning one piece of the park and not flowing around it

[tyler87]

Michael- Check out any park built by Wally Holiday, and that will give you the exact deffinition of flow in a park. I'm fortunate enough to be 45 minutes away from Sayreville and let me tell you, that park has spoiled me. Whenever I go to another place, I'm always going "This is fun, but not as good as Sayreville"

Also, check out Landsdown skatepark in Maryland.

[worldwide]

tyler, come check out the new westminster skatepark in vancouver.

it has flow coming out of its ass

[anastasi0]

check out some Dreamland and Grindline parks.

www.grindline.com
http://www.dreamlandskateparks.com/

This park has the most flow that i've ever witnessed: http://www.skateoregon.com/WestLinn/WestLinn.html

[sk8rs_dad]

I'd spend 900K on the park and 100K on one of them high-tech fabric roofs to keep the rain off.

I'm no expert on park design so I'm not going to pretend to know how to accomplish FLOW, but I have visited a lot of parks and seen some good and some truly terrible results.

The parks that try to be all things to all skaters seldom work. A camel is a horse designed by committee. Decide what style and level of skater the park is going to be optimized for and design accordingly. Sure there's room in a million dollar budget to put in a variety of features but putting a beginner feature on the run-up or rollaway for an advanced skater's dream obstacle is a recipe for collisions.

Given where you are, think about what's missing from the skating landscape in a 1 hour radius and consider building to fill the void.

[sk8rs_dad]

Oh.. almost forgot. If the city is putting up the million, I'd work with a registered charity like Kiwanis, or Rotary to use it as leverage to access the Trillium fund. You might be able to double your budget.

[rawls]

Flow is speak for a continually rolling piece of terrain that permits all-over skateability and terrain variation with good speed and endless paths. This is not good for a skatepark design unless you are skating alone.

To address the flow of a skatepark, with respect to making a totally usable piece of terrain, you first have to ask what is the true capacity of skaters the terrain can service. If the most awesome park in the world cant realistically service more than 5 skaters at a time, then the park is useless 95% of the time.

The new Sacremento park is an excellent utilization of terrain, while permitting very good "individualized" or divorced skate areas, even smaller flow bowls, making for a very usable park design and capable of servicing a large number of skaters.

Separated terrain is the way to service large populations of skaters, but this violates the current standard of flow circus parks.

I am of the thought that says if you want flow, then build a freakin snake run.

[throbbinnut]

I'm gonna have to agree with Rawls. I'm tired of running into people going every which way at parks. Would love to have individual bowls or runs that keep collisions to a minimum.

And man I'd love a huge snake run.

Chris

[Pinhead]

West Linn flow, My local park.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=F6kn1eudl...elated&search=

Dreamland and Grindline build nice parks.

I like flow parks but it is also a good idea to include a pool/bowl
and street section.

[mexifly]

Rawls has some good points.

If there is that much money being spent, do not leave the design features to non-professionals.HIRE A REPUTABLE SKATEPARK DESIGNER AND BUILDER!

I have helped with a couple skateparks in my area and it is entertaining to listen to the ideas that some think should be in a skatepark (stairs!?!?!?). The City, realizing that they knew nothing about skateparks, here tried to have the skaters design our first skatepark. It is one of the worst and most dangerous skateparks I have ridden.

[JCKoenigs]

If you want flow in your park ban the BMXers, bladers and those goofy kids on razor scooters.

[mc99david]

i'd have to second anastasi0... i'd hire grindline.. i've ridden many of their parks and they all flow great.. and yeah, that one in west lynn is amazing, best park i've ever ridden, and i even realy realy sucked when i rode there, i'd only been riding for a few months and i could even tell back then it was amazing