Australia's first longboard park
This is not a thread about a longboard park that is on the way, but about making one happen.
Did you know Australia has a claim to the World's first skateboard park? Many claim to be the first, usually the argument centres on two parks in the USA, California Skateboard City and Carlsbad Park. There was a skatepark created and skated in Albany Western Australia in 1975 (maybe early '76). In fact it still exists, and gets skated every day. So it would definitely have the be the oldest skatepark still in use, and probably was Australia's first skatepark.
Have a quick read of the history of Albany skatepark, and how it was created.
What's this all got to do with Australia's first longboard park?
I read that story, and thought these kids managed to organise themselves to build one of the world's first skateboard parks.
Longboarders number in the tens of thousands in Australia and we still do not have a park designed and built specifically for longboarding. Skate parks do not get created in Australia by some big skateboard association. We can not expect ASRA one day to announce they will build a park. Skateparks get built because skaters of all ages get together and fight old people in council meetings. They hassle the government so much they give in or at least listen.
So I am starting a discussion. The idea is to discuss making Australia's first longboard park or
roads specifically for longboarding. Lets talk about design, size, purpose, lobbying and funding.
Something like this can only be done if a group get together and make it happen.
Maybe we can create a framework/document, to help longboarders all over Australia to approach their local government to get something built in their area.
Did you know Australia has a claim to the World's first skateboard park? Many claim to be the first, usually the argument centres on two parks in the USA, California Skateboard City and Carlsbad Park. There was a skatepark created and skated in Albany Western Australia in 1975 (maybe early '76). In fact it still exists, and gets skated every day. So it would definitely have the be the oldest skatepark still in use, and probably was Australia's first skatepark.
Have a quick read of the history of Albany skatepark, and how it was created.
What's this all got to do with Australia's first longboard park?
I read that story, and thought these kids managed to organise themselves to build one of the world's first skateboard parks.
Longboarders number in the tens of thousands in Australia and we still do not have a park designed and built specifically for longboarding. Skate parks do not get created in Australia by some big skateboard association. We can not expect ASRA one day to announce they will build a park. Skateparks get built because skaters of all ages get together and fight old people in council meetings. They hassle the government so much they give in or at least listen.
So I am starting a discussion. The idea is to discuss making Australia's first longboard park or
roads specifically for longboarding. Lets talk about design, size, purpose, lobbying and funding.
Something like this can only be done if a group get together and make it happen.
Maybe we can create a framework/document, to help longboarders all over Australia to approach their local government to get something built in their area.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Westover on
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ive always thought about why something like this doesnt exist already.
very good idea. id be happy to help make this happen somehow.
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Permalink Reply by Alex Schulze on
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This sounds awesome, I have an idea to contribute to the design. How about large banking/transitional surfaces? or a inbeded ditch system ?
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Matthys on -
not to be a party pooper, but some things to consider.
it would cost a hell of a lot to cordon off a long enough road to make it good for dh, or to build a new one just for longboarders, but the ditch idea is a possibility. plus hop, where would we build it? the 10s of thousands of longboarders dont all live in the same place, and i dont think that many boarders would move from brizzy or melbourne to sydney just for a skate park...
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Permalink Reply by Nick Scott on
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but if the park in sydney is succesful over the years they may build more
Matthys van lille said:not to be a party pooper, but some things to consider.
it would cost a hell of a lot to cordon off a long enough road to make it good for dh, or to build a new one just for longboarders, but the ditch idea is a possibility. plus hop, where would we build it? the 10s of thousands of longboarders dont all live in the same place, and i dont think that many boarders would move from brizzy or melbourne to sydney just for a skate park...
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Permalink Reply by Guff on
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ASRA has around 100 members i would say boost those numbers to 100,000 and you may get a park built. MTB parks are popping up all over australia because they are building a solid network of local clubs. If i was a politician i would not really give a rats about a group that can only boast 100 financial members. Please take this as being constructive.
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Permalink Reply by Taz Charker on
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this park may be already in the pipe work down here in canberra. A closed road has been proposed around mt stromlo for the use for road bikes and skaters alike. Itll be at least a couple of km long down hill. With potentionly 2 seperate run. And in the future a ski lift to the top which you could hire for the day for the downhill mtb track that are in the area. Its all part of the stromlo 10 year plan for the area.
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Permalink Reply by Robbo on
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The reason MTB gets parks is not because MTB has many clubs or even a high participation, its because they have cycling in general behind it. In the same way that not many people DH skateboard but it has a huge base of general longboarding and skating beneath it and the companies associated with that. Thats what creates the lobbying size.
Guff said:ASRA has around 100 members i would say boost those numbers to 100,000 and you may get a park built. MTB parks are popping up all over australia because they are building a solid network of local clubs. If i was a politician i would not really give a rats about a group that can only boast 100 financial members. Please take this as being constructive.
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by sean meaney on -
In NZ they had a like billy cart track setup which looked amazing, now something like that would be perfect, i think in melbourne we have the land to build a park that would consist of a few nice banked turns, even if we where to modify one of edgewaters walking path's which is so steep that people choose to avoid it then we could have a good and comparativly cheap track with a few nice turns perfect for groms to learn on and the better guys to charge down. the current setup is too narrow to be ideal and the surface around it is abit sketchy (really hard clay and rocks) i think if they widened it and did something about the surface next to it, it would be a great setup for us to have
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Permalink Reply by Hop on
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Re: Land
I drive around and see land everywhere. They find land for cycling tracks. They find land for roads for cars.
To Guff
Skateboarders have no members what-so-ever in an association. Nil, Zip, Nada. They get skateparks built for them everywhere. It has nothing to do with ASRA. Nothing to do with members. Everything to do with participation.
re: Where?
I would say Sydney would not get the first park. Who would have thought Albany WA would get the first skatepark? Who gets it is who is prepared to put in the work, who is motivated. There is probably a kid somewhere in Australia reading this thinking, you know what, me and my mates could get this started. Is it you?
To: Matthys: You dont need that much road. Pumpstation is only 800m at the most, and that is frickin awesome to skate. Think of some of the crappy corners we session, and get enjoyment out of. Here is the beauty of the downhill park. It is skinny. You build a skatepark and you need a big square bit of land, just like a house. You are competing with houses, and buildings. Plus we want slope, the steeper the better. Which makes the land even more unusable. Skinny steep bit of land. Sounds like something no one wants.
EVERYONE
This is not technical or hard. This is simply getting everyone to knock on a council/authority door. It is just a numbers game. We ask 100 councils/authorities for a park, I guarantee one will say yes.
If everyone says no, we do a skate day peak hour on the road out the front of every state parliament until they say yes. Hell we should do that anyway.
FACT
Did you know over this website gets over 30,000 visits a month? And that figure grows at least 10% every month. How many longboarders in Australia still have not heard of ASRA? We ARE the sleeping giant of skateboarding. Time to start mobilising the troops.
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Taz is right, there are these big parks in every state, we need to get a downhill road on all of them.
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The sad thing is if we were part of an organisation there would be so much more. There is way too much idiotic politics that bring it down. You are right there is a high level of participation within longboarding and it would be great to see every member contribute to the growth of the sport. My opinion is this can only be done through organised clubs tapping into and allowing individual clubs to promote longboarding/streetluge/gravity to members of its own community. Surely this is of benefit..And would help us link up with all the people who haven't found ASRA..
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