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Skater's paradise - Waterloo Skate park

Taking the street and putting it into a park is no easy task writes Alexandra Walker in the Sydney Central Courier of 28 June 2006.

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