Skateboarders in inner Sydney
have had it tough. Skate parks in the city are few and far between, leaving the
eager to brave pedestrian traffic and ignore the signs urging them to move along
as they skate a round the city’s paved malls and plazas.
Last year when the City of Sydney council committed funds to
opening anew stake park in Waterloo, it decided to find out what local riders w
anted and it turns out they wanted what the y had on the streets, only in a park.
Make sense?
Long time skater and skate park designer Chad Ford was hired
by the council to design the 920-square-metre “plaza-style park”, the first of
its kind in Sydney,
in consultation with a committee of local youth, skate boarders and South Sydney
Youth Services.
“We’ve been drastically under resourced as far as skate
parks go and as a result most skate-board riders ride on the streets, just
simply because they have no where else to ride,” he said.
“That means that the focus of skateboarding in Sydney is very street-centric.”
Benches, ledges, stairs and handrails are the “basics” of an
urban skating environment, Mr Ford said. But while the familiar maybe important
“you don’t want to make it bland, so you’ve got to spice it up a bit,” he said.
“[To do that] in the Waterloo Park we’ve done things like
replicate the walls on some water storage tanks that skateboarders have been
riding for several years now in a few locations around the city.”
Mr Ford says skateboard culture in Sydney,
like in Los Angeles and San Diego, grew out of surf culture.
But he said that when he started skating as a young boy, it
was an activity favoured by “outsiders”. However, that isn’t the case anymore.
“Stake boarding is just so popular now, ” he said. “It gets
so much media [attention].
The kids, I’m sure, would be attracted to it for very different
reasons. I didn’t see it on television and get attracted that way.” A skate
competition will be held at Waterloo
Oval Skate
Park, corner of McEvoy and
Elizabeth streets, on July 1. There will be a free barbecue and $6000 in prizes
up for grabs. ■
Alexandra Walker
Skater’s paradise
Taking the street and putting it into a park is no easy
task.
Photo: A skater takes off at the Waterloo Skate
Park.
For more information visit the City of Sydney website at Waterloo Skate Park