By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
BEWARE of flying skateboards, Noble Park.
Fresh from a safety audit, the suburb’s $1-million-plus cutting edge skate park – with vertical bowl, snake run and street-skating plaza – is open for use at Ross Reserve.
Complete with an extended safety fence and a sign that states: “Beware of flying skateboards”.
“I love it,” co-designer and skate legend Jon McGrath says of the warning sign.
“I’ll make a T-shirt out of that.”
McGrath, 50, was “stoked” with how his skate park – which is also his local facility – has turned out.
And by the international interest and the universally positive feedback pouring in from his peers.
“It’s been so stressful because you’re designing a million dollars of concrete,” he said. “It’s got your name attached to it.
“After skating the whole park, the proof is in the pudding. I think I can live with this.”
McGrath said the vertical bowl was one of only a handful in Australia.
It’s an element that grew from skaters plunging their boards into empty swimming pools in California in the 1970s.
Noble Park’s bowl is the minimum competition depth – 11 feet in the old language. This makes it more user-friendly for the masses, McGrath says.
“For the seasoned skateboarder, it’s a good size. To the novice, it looks huge.”
McGrath’s vision was saved by the intervention of co-designer Darren White of Baseplate skatepark designs.
“I roped him in after a year-and-a-half into the design. I just wasn’t happy with it.
“Darren White really brought it together.”
McGrath has skated for 40 years. He plans to keep riding his park twice a week for many a year.
“There’s a real longevity to this park. It won’t date.
“You’re going to get 20 years out of the design.”
