Concrete skateparks are now getting built at a fantastic, almost unbelievable rate. If I look back at the skateparks that existed in the south of England in the year I left school, I would barely need the fingers of a second hand. Now they are getting built all over the place. And surely this can only be a good thing. Well, not always.
Back in June of this year, so less than six months ago, some photos appeared on the Caught In The Crossfire site. Take a quick look HERE. The photos were of a new Wheelscape designed, concrete park in Hayes, Hillingdon, West London. This area needed something decent as this is one pocket of Greater London that seems to have been slow in getting anything built for skaters. The photos looks promising, as did the plans. Quite a large area, a good mix of transition and street and even a few bits I've not seen done before.
A visit to this park has been on my list ever since. My friend James had been to check it out and what he said did nothing to move the visit up my list. Even after all this time I couldn't just take James's word for it, I had to go and see for myself.
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| Overview |
Two words. FUCK ME!! I have no idea who built this park, but they need to be outed, blacklisted, sued and given some form of electronic tag that delivers a life threatening electric charge if they go within 5 miles of a skatepark construction site.
I didn't think this shit could still happen. There is so much wrong with this place, coping that wanders all over the shop, riding surfaces that seem to have traffic calming measures built-in, seems in the pours that you could stick your finger in, pockets that should have a transition are kinked beyond belief, the shapes of some of the obstacles are almost avant-garde in their randomness. Some pieces are actually WONKY, fucking on the piss, sloping, not square, twisted...
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| Was it even finished? |
As I was wandering around the park with my brain being hit by travesty after travesty it was hard to believe this place was completed only 6 months ago. It's already falling apart. It's probably going to be too dangerous to skate or derelict in less than 5 years.
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| look at the state of it |
I can't overstate how bad this place is. What makes it so bad is that it's purely down to the construction. It's not a badly designed park, and that just makes it worse. You want to skate it, but there are fucking booby-traps all over the place. So back we come to the question of "How do incompetent contractors get the work?" and "Who signs off on this kind of incompetence?" and what the hell kind of come-back do skaters of Hillingdon have to get it sorted out? They are all questions that I hope to get to the bottom of. If only to try to stop it ever happening again.
So watch this space, and watch yourself of you decide to try to skate this death-trap.
See you out there.
[LIALC]
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| Not exactly curvaceous is it. |
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| I think someone was doing community service |
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| So much wrongness |
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| I have no idea what that is |
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| Wonky as F**K |
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| Street bits |
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| other street bits |
