Skate Park

A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scooter, wheelchair,and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, quarter pipes, spine transfers, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, pyramids, banked ramps, full pipes, pools, bowls, snake runs, stairsets, and any number of other objects.

The first skatepark in the world, Surf City at 2169 E. Speedway, Tucson, Arizona opened for business on September 3, 1965. Patti McGee, Women’s National Champion, was here for the grand opening. It had concrete ramps and was operated by Arizona Surf City Enterprises, Inc. A skatepark for skateboarders and skaters which had plywood ramps on a half-acre lot in Kelso, Washington, USA opened in April 1966. It was lighted for night use. California's first skatepark, the Carlsbad Skatepark opened on March 3, 1976. The World Skateboard Championships were held here on April 10, 1977. It operated until 1979, when it was buried intact beneath a layer of dirt for more than two decades, before being destroyed in 2005. The current Carlsbad Skatepark is in a different location. The East Coast's first skatepark, Ocean Bowl Skate Park, in Ocean City, Maryland, USA, opened the first week of June, 1976. It is the oldest operating municipal skate park in the United States. Due to time, wear and the current needs of skaters, the old bowl and ramp were torn down in the Fall of 1997 and the new park opened in July 1998. In 1999 the City of Hermosa Beach, California opened a small skatepark at the site of the first skateboard competition. The competition held at the Pier Avenue Junior Hugh School (now a City museum) was organized by Dewey Weber across the street from his surf and skateboard shop. Makaha Skateboards was a sponsor of the competition. In 1987 an all wooden indoor skate park opened in Bristol, CT called CT Bike that is still in business today over 20 years later. CT Bike is where Tony Hawk made his debut when he was just a young boy on his first East Coast tour. The indoor skate park today is still operated by the same family who built the park despite a fire that threatened the park in 1988. In more extreme climates, parks were built indoors, often of wood or metal. By the end of the 1970s, the skateboarding fad had waned, and the original parks of the era began to close. A downturn in the general skateboard market in the 1980s and high liability insurance premiums contributed to the demise of the original skateparks. Some second-generation parks such as Upland, California's Pipeline survived into the 1980s. However, few of the private parks of the 1970s remain, with the notable exception of Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. However, many public parks of that era can still be found throughout Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

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