Playing With Light In A Skate Park

Skateparks may be privately or publicly owned. Privately owned skateparks usually have admission fees, while publicly owned skateparks are generally free. Many privately owned skateparks are indoors, usually in warehouses, roller rinks or buildings with high ceilings, especially in areas with snowy winters. Public skateparks are usually outdoors. Concrete parks, now "pretty much the industry standard", according to an editor of Transworld Skateboarding magazine, can cost three times as much to build as parks with ramps and wooden obstacles, but in the long run they require fewer repairs and less maintenance.
The first skatepark in the world was officially opened in February 1976 in Albany, Western Australia with the reigning US skateboard champion Russ Howell as guest of honour and the publicity recorded by Russ Howell's photographs and film was used as a basic concept in the design of the first skateboard tracks in the USA. The 140 metre long track was converted from an old gravel quarry with many open cut excavations. The one way downhill track contains three sharp bends with vertical banked walls and ends in an open circular area surrounded by banked walls between 3 and 4 metres high. The Albany Skatetrack was host to the Skateboarding World Championship competition in 1976.