Playing With Light In A Skate Park

The first skatepark in the USA was built in March of 1976 in Carlsbad, California. Carlsbad Skatepark was designed and built by inventors Jack Graham and John O'Malley and resided on the grounds of Carlsbad Raceway. The first skateparks were primarily private, for-profit endeavors, although several public parks were built globally. Parks then included pools, bowls, snake runs, freestyle areas, banked slalom areas, half-pipes, and full pipes. Most were concrete and were outdoors. In more extreme climates parks were built indoors, often of wood. None of the private parks of the 1970s remain, with the notable exception of Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Many of that country's public parks remain, such as Derby Park in Santa Cruz, California. Most of that era's parks were poorly designed, being built by business people seeking a quick profit. Better parks, such as Upland, California's Pipeline, designed by skateboarders and carefully built, survived into the 80's, until escalating land values made their sites vulnerable to development. Exorbitant liability insurance premiums also contributed to the demise of the original skateparks.
Modern skatepark design can be traced back to Burnside Skatepark, a DIY "barge build" beneath the Burnside Bridge, in Portland, Oregon. Skateboarders used an area populated primarily by the city's "undesirable elements" to create a skatepark, building one section at a time. The process is called "design/build" (D/B), and is a characteristic of nearly all the best skateparks today. The design/build process ensures that adjacent skatepark features are harmonious and rideable, allowing skateboarders to create endless "lines" to ride among the many features. The modern public skatepark is relatively new, made possible by legislation such as California's 1998 law stating that skateboarding is an inherently "Hazardous Recreational Activity" (HRA), and therefore municipalities and their employees may not be held liable for claims of negligence resulting in skateboarders' injuries. Parks are usually for persons 14 or over. The world's largest skatepark is located in Shanghai.