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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp3tyX-uWDI&t=369s

Reference
Vernier Science Education. (2021, Feb 12). Getting Started with Vernier Video Analysis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp3tyX-uWDI&t=369s

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Getting Started with Vernier Video Analysis®

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Basics version to compare to latest version

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Basics version to compare to latest version

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Energy Skate Park: Basics - Conservation of Energy | Kinetic Energy | Potential Energy - PhET Interactive Simulations (colorado.edu)

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Learn about conservation of energy with a skater gal! Explore different tracks and view the kinetic energy, potential energy and friction as she moves. Build your own tracks, ramps, and jumps for the skater.

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Physics Teaching Activities that involve Skateboards

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Physics Teaching Activities that involve Skateboards

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https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/teaching-stem-skateboard-design/

Practical activity suggestions to understand physics concepts.

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If you really want to understand what a skateboard is, you could say it's just a plank of wood with some roller skate wheels attached to it via a chunk of metal. Of course, that's a major simplification of what is essentially a highly engineered means of transport.

The simple design of a skateboard might not seem like it's a precisely engineered creation - put wheels on it, and it'll roll, right? Wrong! Skateboards can be used to pull off some amazing feats - take this 12-year-old spinning a full 1080 degrees in the air with his skateboard at his feet and landing it, for example. The best skateboarding experience is a result of physics, engineering, math, and design coming together in unison to create the smoothest, sleekest board possible.

There's a lot that you can teach by simply employing the humble skateboard as a tool in your lessons. Just look at Dr. Skateboard - a long-time skater with a myriad of degrees who has educated thousands of students at elementary, middle, and high school levels throughout the United States, all with the help of his trusty skateboard.

What can students learn from skateboarding?

Skating can teach students a whole range of scientific principles in a manner that's fun and engaging, regardless of their age. Some of these key principles include:

Potential energy and kinetic energy: You can teach this by using the example of a skateboarder on a half-pipe. At the top of the half-pipe, the skateboarder has a lot of potential energy, but no kinetic energy. As they make their way down the half-pipe, they pick up speed, which indicates their potential energy has converted to kinetic energy.

Conservation of angular momentum: This principle can be used to explain how a skater can jump higher on the opposite side of the half-pipe than where they started from.

Gravity: It may seem like good skaters can defy gravity, but the force is constantly acting on them - what goes up, must come down!

Friction: Skating can also teach about how friction can impact energy. It's the loss of energy via friction that means skateboards can't carry on forever and eventually lose momentum on the half-pipe.

Newton's third law of motion can be applied to skating and help students to understand that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For example, when the skateboarder pushes their foot against the ground to propel their skateboard forward.

Skateboards can help students learn about inertia by showing them how it keeps an object moving until an external force changes it.

Five skateboard-related classroom projects

1. The skateboard rocket car can help teach students about the transfer of potential energy into kinetic energy. Students can also learn about how friction helps the skateboard to slow down.

For this project, teachers will need a skateboard, a bottle of Diet Coke, a packet of Mentos mints, some tape, and an open space. It's a simple project that can help to teach students about the transfer of energy.

2. The skateboard collision experiment teaches students to examine what happens during collisions between two skateboards with different masses. This helps them to learn about the conservation of momentum in collisions, as well as Newton's third law of motion. To perform this experiment, teachers need two skateboards, weights (textbooks will do the job), planks to create a runway for the skateboards, and a scale (optional, but could be beneficial).

3. Friction on a ramp can be made simple with this experiment. Simply rolling something heavy and something light down a ramp on a skateboard can help you to teach students about how friction impacts speed.

For this experiment, you can use a skateboard, or even a mini finger skateboard, and a few things to weigh them down. Also, you'll need a ramp to roll them down.

With one person on the skateboard, one person pulling, and one person timing the experiment, students can measure how far inertia carries the skateboard when the force is removed.

For this experiment, you just need a skateboard and a little bit of floor space.
5. Understanding geometry through skateboarding.
A skateboard can make the language of geometry so much easier to understand. With this experiment, the student will learn to describe positions and angles with relative ease.

To conduct this experiment, you'll need a skateboard, tape measure, protractor, a sturdy piece of string, and some chalk.

There are so many ways that you can make learning fun by bringing in something that kids can relate to - in this instance, a skateboard.

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Teaching Math and Physics Using Skateboard Design | Resilient Educator

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If you really want to understand what a skateboard is, you could say it's just a plank of wood with some roller skate wheels attached to it via a chunk of

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https://skatepark.org/

Read about grants for funding skateparks in the US.

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Previous Next $13M Nearly $13-million has been awarded by The Skatepark Project to help create public skateparks. 661 661 skatepark projects in all 50 states have received funding from the The Skatepark Project. 8M+ More than eight million visitors annually enjoy skateparks that the The Skatepark Project helped fund.

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Skate Park Development Guide: Factors of Skate Park Design

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Skate Park Development Guide: Factors of Skate Park Design

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https://publicskateparkguide.org/design-and-construction/factors-of-skatepark-design/

Read the factors of skate park design.

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Skatepark design as a whole can be broken into two main categories. There is usability, how the park is used by skaters, and functionality, how the park is used by the broader public and skaters when they're not physically rolling around the facility.
Usability concerns:

Flow

Traffic

Speed

Difficulty

Visibility (within the skating area)

Stylistic discipline

Functional concerns:

Capacity

Seating/resting

Access

Visibility (into and around the park)

Safety and Drainage

Aesthetic Appeal, Landscaping

Spatial and budgetary constraints/opportunities

Security, Operations, and Maintenance

When these two considerations are addressed professionally and work together, the facility succeeds. Flaws and shortcomings emerge in almost every skatepark design. Sometimes it takes a few weeks after a skatepark's Grand Opening before the missed opportunities are fully understood. Few skateparks, if any, are absolutely perfect...and the world's best ones combine the most appeal with the fewest flaws. By comparison, the poorest skateparks exhibit the highest number of flaws.

Not Your Average Tennis Court
A skatepark should be designed using the same approach as other active recreational spaces. The facility will attract a lot of people and will, particularly during peak hours (after school and on nice summer days), be at or over capacity. This is a design challenge that must be taken seriously if the skatepark hopes to succeed.

Many parks administrators claim that their skateparks are their most popular recreational facilities. Skaters will use the skatepark every day, often for hours at a time. The skatepark will have lots of people in it for long periods of time. This is very important to consider, as most recreational attractions don't need to consider this. Sports fields, by comparison, enjoy periods of activity and are typically empty between games. The skatepark, even during non-peak hours, might have a handful of people using it. In regions with warmer climates, popular skateparks are used from dawn until dusk.

Because skaters' needs are unlike those of other athletes'-as far as the frequency and duration of their visits to their facility-special usability demands must be considered. Remember: usability concerns exist above and beyond the arrangement of skateboarding obstacles in the space.

Parts of the Skatepark
Skateparks can be considered like houses. A house is divided into different rooms, each with a particular purpose. The capacity of the different rooms varies according to how many people are expected to use it at once. Bathrooms and closets are smallest because only one person needs them at a time, while dining and living rooms are the largest. Kitchens, patios, and bedrooms fall somewhere in between. Rooms are usually connected by hallways, but sometimes they're not (garages and tool sheds).

Skateparks have rooms, too. Some skateparks have one big room that everyone shares. Other skateparks have rooms that skaters can use when the others are full. In general, the more rooms a skatepark has, the more simultaneous users it can accommodate. Skateparks with too few rooms for the number of users it attracts are sometimes called "crash-up derbies."

Consider a 4,000 square foot skatepark with two big rooms. One person can use each room at a time, so the capacity of simultaneous users is two, though the skatepark capacity may be up to 30 users. While two people skate, each in their separate area, the other 28 wait their turn or are relaxing nearby.

"Simultaneous users" refers to the number of people skating through the space at the same time. There may be loads of skaters sharing the skatepark, but a majority of them won't be moving at any given moment. Most will be preparing to take their turn. They are waiting until the person that is currently skating is done so that they can go without risking a collision, or waiting for their turn to go.

You might conclude that a skatepark should have lots of rooms to support the greatest number of simultaneous skaters. There is a cost to dividing the skating space into rooms. It can make the space feel like a set of terrain attractions offered "a la carte" rather than a single cohesive space. Skaters tend to enjoy rooms that are linked in some way so that they can easily travel from one obstacle or attraction to the next. Among skaters, this quality is known as "flow." A skatepark has good flow when the elements within it are spaced in a way that makes traversing them easy and rewarding. While skaters have their own individual preferences on what defines good flow, all skaters agree that being able to get to several structural features within one run is a sign of good flow.

So, on one hand you have a skatepark with lots of rooms and high capacity, but little flow. On the other, you have a skatepark with lots of flow and everything's connected, but it's a crash-up derby. This is a principle challenge for the professional skatepark designer.

Skatepark Aesthetics
There are two primary skateboarding disciplines when it comes to skateparks. Each requires a different style of terrain. To this day there remains friction between aficionados of each style. With limited skateboarding terrain being developed each year, champions from each discipline sometimes bicker over what terrain style should be dominant at the facility. As skatepark advocacy matures and skateboarders' preferences become accustomed to skateparks, collaboration between the advocates from each camp is improving.

Street terrain, also known as "street plaza," features the geometric, institutional-style architecture typically found around a city. Most modern skateboarders prefer plazas because they reflect the kind of terrain they are accustomed to skating.

Transition terrain, or simply "tranny," features curvilinear forms reflective of empty swimming pools, bowls, and halfpipes. Transition-style terrain scales well and attracts a wider spectrum of skill levels-from novice to professional. Transition terrain affords the kinds of tricks that non-skateboarders are familiar with...airs, grinds, and so on.

While it was once popular for younger skaters to proudly declare their allegiance exclusively to one discipline or the other, today it's fashionable to be considered a well-rounded skater that can skate anything...an "all-terrain vehicle." While skateparks were once exclusively transition-style, modern skateparks reflect the changing generational preferences and typically include a mix of street and transition. With few exceptions, modern skatepark design features a mix of street and transition elements together without stylistic distinction or separation.

History of Skatepark Design
The oldest parks, some nearing their 40 th birthday, were designed like swimming pools and ditches, as this was the terrain they were determined to recreate. Most skateparks of this era were commercial facilities and were demolished when they went out of business (typically as a result of stricter liability insurance requirements). A small handful of public skateparks from this era are still operational today.

Those first-generation skateparks that survived exist in the public eye as artifacts of a bygone era. Few skaters were interested in making the pilgrimage to enjoy these facilities. They took to the streets and found structures "in the wild" that tricks could be done on. During the 1980s and early '90s, skateboarding's technical innovations exploded in ways that opened opportunities to interact with the built space. Skaters didn't need skateparks after all; they had the whole city.

This style of skating incorporated the terrain available: stairs, ledges, loading docks, ditches, curbs, and parking garages. In the absence of skateparks, street skating quickly became the dominant style of skateboarding. This was not a countercultural response to some perceived community rejection of skateboarding, but rather a simple response to having no other place to skate.

The public was slow to respond, but anti-skateboarding ordinances and deterrents were eventually introduced in an effort to curb the explosion of street skating. A handful of communities correctly diagnosed the reason so many handrails and ledges around town were being pulverized by skaters, but most saw (and perhaps continue to see) street skaters as vandals and delinquents.

In those communities that saw street skating as a symptom of a complete lack of sanctioned places to skate, a new generation of skateparks were born. Granted, it took enterprising skaters to demonstrate what they were looking for. The skater-built facility under the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon, is widely credited as being the first modern skatepark, but other cities quickly followed.

These modern skateparks, unlike their predecessors from the 1970s and early '80s, were free to the public but the design style was similar to those first-generation parks. They generally featured large, flowing transition forms and appealed to a generation of skateboarders fond of backyard ramps and the skateparks of yesteryear.

Companies were quick to capitalize on this emerging market and began mass-merchandising prefabricated structures that could be easily installed on an existing slab for a fraction of the cost. Business boomed as municipalities largely viewed skateboarding as a passing fad. When the fad died, the skatepark could be easily dismantled. Fortunately (but unfortunately for those towns that bought prefabricated skateparks), skateboarding wasn't a fad and these skateparks proved inferior, unpopular, and unable to withstand the rigors of daily use. Most of the companies responsible for these products went out of business within a few years. One can find occasional skateparks still in existence that are made from wood, Skatelite, and steel, but they are frequently renovated using concrete.

The latest significant development for skateparks is the advent of effective advocacy. Within the last ten years, street skaters have developed their generational voice and become effective advocates. Initially, public skateparks began to feature street terrain. Eventually, skateparks were introduced that were exclusively plaza-style (i.e., all street terrain with no transitional forms). Nearly all skateparks today find a compromise by offering a mix of street and tranny.

Street terrain is still under-represented in modern skateparks. A majority of advocates will push for plaza-style skateparks even today. This underscores the sustained effort by many communities to mitigate unwanted street-skating through code enforcement. Most advocates that launch their effort with a commitment to a street-only plaza park realize the advantages of a facility that offers diverse terrain (a mix of both street and transition). Similarly, many advocates argue the need for bowls because they are not found "in the wild." Bowls can only be found in skateparks, so many advocates with a preference for transition claim that street skaters already have a whole city of "real street" while bowl-skaters have nothing. While a residue of conflict between street and transition skaters remain, the conversation is more tempered and reasonable today than ever before.

Skatepark Capacity
Facility size is the easiest way to manage capacity. A large facility can simply handle more skaters. As we covered in Step 6 of the Skatepark Adoption Model, ten skateboarders can share 1,500 square feet. Only one will be skating at any given moment in time, but the others will be queued up and ready to go, or will be nearby taking a break.

Therefore, 15,000 square feet can theoretically serve 100 skaters simultaneously. The nature of the design, i.e., how many rooms the skatepark has, will have an impact on this number.

Size will also be the primary driver of your skatepark cost. In general, for a world-class skatepark, you should estimate $40 per square foot. Later you will adjust that estimate to more accurately reflect the location, style, size, and other cost-influencing factors.

Many people think that size is the main aspect of a skatepark's quality. It's not true. The quality of the design is what makes a skatepark well-known. A smaller skatepark that has lots of interesting and challenging things to skate will be much more popular than a larger skatepark that doesn't capture the skater's imagination. It's not the size of the skatepark, it's how well it's designed.

Many of the world's most well-known skateparks aren't very large (by skatepark standards). And, similarly, many of the world's largest skateparks are generally considered duds from the skateboarding community's standpoint.

When planning your skatepark, you should always prioritize quality over size.

Beware of skatepark equipment salespeople contacting you, your group, or your city officials with promises to deliver "more bang for your buck." They are basically offering a mediocre set of prefabricated skate structures that are pieced together to resemble a skatepark. Inexperienced skaters will find these facilities interesting, but they don't stay inexperienced very long. As soon as they are ready for greater challenges, they'll leave the skatepark and return to the streets. A professionally designed skatepark that meets the needs of your community, and not an "off the shelf" solution, is the best way to ensure your skatepark meets the growing needs of your local skateboarding community.

Construction Materials
This cannot be emphasized strongly enough: a steel, wood, or polymer-surfaced material is not an adequate material for a municipal skatepark. These skateparks are heralded by their sales teams as an inexpensive option to "expensive" cast-in-place concrete skateparks. Prefabricated skatepark companies have been dabbling in municipal skatepark design for about a decade. Thankfully, most of these companies are no longer in business. Those that remain have developed bold new tactics for swooping into unsuspecting communities that are considering a new skatepark and selling them their product based on bold promises. When you hear these phrases, you should be on alert that what you're being sold is a shoddy imitation of a permanent, sustainable skatepark:

"For a fraction of the cost of custom concrete..."
This is a phrase that many companies will use to posture their product as an inexpensive solution for an equitable product. The fact is that their ramps and above-grade structures are not sustainable. The skateboarders' skills quickly outpace the limited design characteristics of these "back and forth" designs. Furthermore, the cost of creating the facility is a mere fraction of the cost of operating and maintaining that facility over 10 years. Above-ground ramps and prefabricated structures, particularly polymer, wood, and steel materials, have a long, ugly record of escalating maintenance concerns. Many of these skateparks are closed after a few years due to safety concerns. Consider your total cost of ownership when you find yourself attracted to a low up-front cost.

"Generous 20-year warranty..."
None of the structures these companies are providing this incredible warranty for have been in existence for 20 years. They simply don't know how long their products last, but they're apparently cheap enough to create that they can afford to come in every few years and replace elements. Overly long warranties are a good sign that something is amiss.

"Free design..." (or "free consultation...")
For permanent skateparks, design includes a full public workshop, geotech surveys, and construction documents. If a company is offering "free" designs, they're probably pulling something off their shelf, moving a few things around, then supplying you a drawing of a skatepark. This is not a design; this is a concept drawing. What the company hopes to do is to develop a relationship with your city decision-makers and become the front-runner for the construction bid. The "free designs" offered by these companies will have specifications that only that company can meet. In business terms, this is known as a "loss leader." In other words, they take a bit of a loss on the front end and recoup those costs in the high profits made on the back end. If someone contacts your community with the offer of a "free design," ask them if that design can be built by anyone. Better yet, shop around and talk to lots of different designers. This is an important community investment, so take your time and do your homework.

"What the pros prefer..."
You may have some professional skaters in your community, but your public skatepark is going to attract ordinary, non-professional skateboarders. While pro skaters like Aaron Homoki are jumping down 18-foot drops, most skaters are happy with a nice 18-inch ledge and a few banks. In other words, you're not designing a skatepark for professionals. What the pros prefer does not mean it is appropriate for the local skaters. Pro skateboarders have access to some of the best skateparks in the world and what they prefer is top-quality skateparks that don't skimp on care and attention to detail. So what kind of skateparks do Bucky Lasek and Tony Hawk have in their back yards? Custom concrete.

"...can be rearranged..."
Most modular, prefabricated skatepark structures are like cheap, build-it-yourself bookshelves. They go together easy, they look pretty good when they're done, but as soon as you try to move them they fall apart. For years, prefabricated ramp companies have used the "rearrange" sales pitch for their product, yet in the history of skateparks we are unaware of a single skatepark to ever literally try to rearrange the facility. Here's a better direction: design a skatepark that doesn't need to be rearranged in order to retain the public's interest.

"...tamper-resistant..."
If they need to tell you that it's tamper-resistant, there's a good chance that it's not worth considering for your public facility. One prefabricated ramp company famously used 3/8ths-inch lag bolts for all its railings. The skatepark didn't feature any tall drops for skaters to go off, so the skaters began routinely removing the railings from the elevated decks. The Parks Department was perplexed. The ramp company had used the same size bolts as a skateboard truck's kingpin. So if a kid was likely to have any tool at all, it would have fit the railing fixtures perfectly. That company is no longer in the skatepark business. Concrete is always "tamper-resistant."

"9,000 PSI concrete..."
This is a favored sales pitch from prefabricated concrete companies, sometimes called "precast." While precast companies boast that their concrete is stronger than ordinary concrete, few cast-in-place skateparks suffer from issues resulting in low-grade concrete. In other words, this claim solves a problem that doesn't exist. It sounds important but it isn't.

Any skatepark is only as strong as its weakest element. Whenever a structure uses a steel transition plate to bridge the surface of the slab with the surface of the ramp, it doesn't matter how strong the ramp is. The transition plate will be the point of failure. No skatepark should ever feature transition plates.

Prefabricated ramps are ideal for temporary, private or residential applications, such as a backyard ramp, but have demonstrated a pattern of failure when used as municipal facilities.

Concrete is unequivocally the only material you should be considering for your public municipal skatepark.

Skateable Amenities
Skateparks are more like public parks than sports facilities. Sports facilities are consistent so that the environment's impact on the athletic performance is minimized. Baseball fields are designed according to very specific guidelines, as are most sports facilities.

Skateparks are more like golf courses. They become known for their design characteristics. Some are challenging and attract golfers from around the world. Municipal golf courses are generally less well-known, but are known throughout the region for their characteristics. Skateparks are known among skaters in the same way. An area might have a dozen skateparks, but some of them will be more popular than others. Why?

Popular skateparks are easy to talk about. They offer characteristics that are easy to describe, and they're in locations that are easy to find, but most importantly, they are fun places to interact with. Here are some ways that skateparks improve on their comfort and aesthetic value.

Signature Element
Every skatepark should have a unique, "signature" element. It's the one defining characteristic that skaters and, more importantly, non-skaters can use to identify the facility as a unique, one-of-a-kind facility. The signature element has practical value that pays for itself over time. It establishes that facility as place that belongs exclusively to that community and exists nowhere else. This will encourage pride from the skate community and will manifest in stronger stewardship principles.

Visual Clarity
Skateparks, like any other designed space meant to attract the public, should consider the visual aspects of the space. The skatepark will be seen by most people from a small number of directions, such as the walkway to the park, or an adjacent pedestrian path. What the skatepark looks like from these vantage points will reveal a lot about the activity happening there. If a large structure prevents most of the action from being seen, the park will seem mysterious to most non-skaters. On the other hand, a park that can be easily surveyed from a distance will feel inviting and non-threatening.

Facility Character
Although some skaters are critical of the use of dyed concrete and "beautification" techniques at skateparks, the impact on the general public is worth it. The use of boulders, green spaces, concrete stamps, and dyes can all help the skatepark seem less like "acres of concrete" and more like a fun space that celebrates skateboarding. Dyed concrete may not have any impact on the skateboarding experience, but it will go a long way in helping the public appreciate the skatepark.

Your skatepark aesthetics are not only an issue of visual appeal but of long-term sustainability. A beautiful skatepark will help instill pride in that facility across the whole community and will ultimately underscore to everyone involved that it was the right decision.

Comfort Amenities
The skatepark, being a public space, should have those amenities that make spaces comfortable. Comfort is the result of a person's physical and mental needs being met. Physical needs are the easiest to manage, and include things like hydration, a place to sit, and a nearby restroom.

Mental needs are a bit more elusive. A space that is designed to easily keep clean will encourage park visitors to use the trash bins. A dirty park with litter all over sends a message to the park patrons that nobody cares if they throw their empty bottles on the ground. (Why should they use the trash can? Nobody else does.)

Human-scale "Rooms"
Skateparks can seem like sprawling acres of undulating concrete to non-skaters. Skatepark designs that break up large facilities into non-rectangular spaces are more attractive and help diffuse the activity into different areas of the park. This can reduce the perception of the park being overrun with skaters when it's busy, but also helps the facility look active when there are just a few people there. Perceptional management is an aspect of skatepark design many people don't immediately consider. A thoughtful approach to how the park looks with few, or lots, of people in it will help that park's long-term success and acceptance among the broader public.

Seating
Seating is a clear consideration. Your skatepark should have seating for the park users that is within the perimeter of the skating area, but it should also have seating that is outside of the active area but close enough to see the action. Skaters won't want to leave the area whenever they need a short break. Friends and family arriving at the skatepark with skaters will want to be close enough to feel like they are a part of the action, but not so close that they are at risk of being hit by a wayward board.

Set-down Areas
Many skaters will show up directly from school or will stop by the skatepark on their way to other destinations. They will have backpacks and, particularly if there's no water fountain at the skatepark, bottled drinks. When they arrive at the skatepark, they'll need a place to put down their stuff and, as they warm up, leave their jacket. Lots of the material they set down will be valuable...music players, cell phones, and so on. The place where they put this stuff should be close and within the skating area, and away from where people are walking by the facility. It needs to feel secure and accessible and be visible from all parts of the skatepark. In skateparks that don't afford a place to leave belongings, skaters will often unofficially designate a particular ledge for backpacks. This renders that structure unskateable, of course.

Shade
Shade is important, particularly in warmer regions. In cooler environments, the skatepark should be designed to get lots of sun so that it dries quickly during the wetter seasons. Shade will help alleviate the need for bottled refreshments, and that will reduce the amount of trash at the skatepark. (Empty bottles can fill up a trash can very quickly.) A water fountain will help reduce the need for skaters to bring their own refreshments. Shade is often introduced to skateparks through trees, but some skateparks feature purpose-built shade structures.

Restroom
Restrooms are the most difficult amenity to reconcile. A restroom can easily be as expensive as the skatepark. The best solution is to identify a site that currently has an appropriate restroom nearby. Another solution is to rely on a nearby fast-food restaurant or gas station with public restrooms. The business may or may not be pleased with this arrangement, depending on if the business is patronized by skateboarders. Many skateparks use portable toilets and this tends to be an adequate solution, although it also introduces an ongoing expense to the facility.

Emergency Phone
Most skateparks don't have permanent emergency phones installed. With the broad use of cell phones by youth, it's unlikely to find a skatepark anywhere without a phone in it, but it's still worth a discussion.

Fences
Skatepark policy will influence how the skatepark is secured, but most skateparks-regardless of policy-do very well with little security amenities when the location is right. Architects, particularly landscape architects, routinely use design principles that discourage unwanted behavior. This design consideration is known as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED (pronounced "SEP-ted"). If the nearest restrooms are far away, people will be tempted to urinate in the bushes. CPTED principles discourage this by not including bushes in the landscape. Visibility and adjacent activity are the two main factors in determining if a facility is going to need tall fences and security cameras. The more visible and active the area is, the fewer problems that facility will have.

Sometimes a fence is absolutely mandatory. Professional risk assessors may feel that the skatepark presents a public risk to toddlers, pets, and sight-impaired pedestrians. Although most skateparks do just fine with clear delineation between the skating area and non-skating areas, others are required to fence the skatepark perimeter.

A 4-foot gate-style fence (as opposed to a cyclone fence) is best. A lower barrier like this allows skaters to have conversations with people nearby without having to talk through a fence. This improves the opportunity for social interaction. Spectators can approach the facility and know that they're not in anyone's way or likely to get run into, but can still see clearly. A low fence will also prevent stray animals and toddlers from accidentally entering the skating area.

The arguments in favor of fences represent deeper fears about skateboarders and "skateboarding culture." You would never see these claims made about basketball courts or playgrounds:

"The fence is necessary for closing the park if things get out of hand."
"The fence is needed to prevent after-hours skating."
"The fence will allow us to close the park for cleaning and maintenance."
"The fence will keep toddlers from accidentally stumbling into the space."
"The fence is necessary to keep prohibited users, like BMX, out."
"The fence delineates where skaters are allowed to skate (and where they're not)."
"The fence will prevent skateboards from flying out of the area."

An open facility sends an important signal to all of the park patrons that the skaters don't need to be "quarantined" in a recreational pen. Skateparks with high cyclone or iron fences are often referred to as "exercise yards" by skaters. High fences around ball fields and tennis courts are designed to keep wayward balls and pop-flies in the field, but for skateparks the subtext is clear. Some Parks administrators accept security fences as unavoidable circumstances. High security fences tell the whole community that the skaters cannot be trusted to use the facility responsibly. This is the wrong message to send to your community about your new facility.
Safety and "Skatepark Etiquette"
Skateboarding is an activity that rewards taking chances and trying new things. Every skateboarder falls, and sometimes they fall hard. There's a saying within skateboarding that goes, "if you're not falling, you're not trying."

Routine falls are the result of the skater trying something challenging and not making it, but most skateboarding mistakes don't end in a hard fall; the skateboarder simply jumps off the board or rolls out. Vert skaters slide out of abandoned tricks on their knees; their kneepads are not to protect their knees as much as devices that enable them to fall easily. Falling is so routine that experienced skaters expect it.

Many non-skaters don't understand this. People concerned that the skatepark will encourage dangerous, risky behavior imagine every failed trick ending with chipped teeth and dislocated shoulders. The reality is, of course, that making a difficult trick is the exception, not the norm.

Injuries are caused by falls that the skater is not expecting and cannot prepare for. Designing a safe skatepark means creating an environment where the skater can prepare for what they're about to encounter. Unexpected obstacles, such as uneven surfaces and collisions with other park users, are the main cause of unexpected falls.

Unexpected falls can be partially managed through design. Experienced professional skatepark designers are aware of this concern and will always seek to create an environment where there is high visibility within the skating area.

A skatepark with rooms of activity are often distinguished by the amount of speed the user is expected to generate. High-speed areas, such as deep bowls, are typically considered one-at-a-time features. Control in these areas is monitored and corrected by experienced skatepark patrons. Non-skaters can witness this at any skatepark where someone is using a bowl and another skater, usually someone unaware that they're encroaching on the comfort and safety of the person skating, will dangle their feet over the edge of the bowl, or position their board on the coping as if they're prepared to drop in. This is considered disrespectful and vaguely dangerous, so the experienced skater will let the "poacher" know that they're in the wrong. This is an example of how skatepark etiquette is applied and learned from generation to generation.

Mixing high-speed and low-speed users in common areas is a major cause of collisions. This is the main concern for emerging skatepark users like BMX and scooters. BMX travel much faster and can jump areas that are too wide for skaters. This creates traffic lines for BMX that skaters may not expect. It should be made clear to the skatepark designer that BMX will be an anticipated user group for your new skatepark. (Most skatepark designers presume so unless they are explicitly told that BMX will not be allowed.)

The Web supplies lots of helpful tips on things not to do at a skatepark. Experienced skateboarders are familiar with these guidelines, but non-skaters will find these "cardinal sins" revealing:

1. Wait your turn. Nobody likes the guy that goes after every other person. "Don't be a snake" always makes the top of skatepark etiquette lists.

2. Keep your run reasonably short (especially if it's crowded). If you can do lots of tricks, that's great. Don't have marathon runs. Nobody is impressed by your incredible stamina.

3. Keep the chatter down. Talking about all the tricks you used to know, or what professional skaters you are on a first-name basis with is fine for a cocktail party, but not at the skatepark. People are there to skate.

4. Skate where it's appropriate for what you're trying to learn. Don't use the bottom of the miniramp for your kickflip clinic, for example.

5. Be friendly to the groms (and everyone else). Nobody likes sharing their recreational time with a jerk. If you're a skateboarding veteran, don't use your age to "command respect."

6. Don't be competitive. When the mood is positive and upbeat, the best way to ruin it is to do every trick that other people are doing but just a little bit better. One-upmanship is poor sportsmanship. These "session-killers" aren't often welcome at the park.

7. Don't post-up in someone's line. If there's a ledge that someone is skating, it's poor form to stand in front of it or, worse, sit down on it and pull out your phone.

8. Cheer 'em on. If someone does something big, give them some recognition. This is especially true for secondary users like bikes and scooters. Sharing the love is a great way of creating a good vibe. A common way of showing praise for someone's effort is to tap your board on the ground. On a similar note, if you were in the wrong and accidentally cut someone off, go ahead and offer a simple apology.

9. Manage your anger. Getting pissed off is one thing, but throwing your board around and swearing as loud as your lungs will let you makes you look like a baby. Man-up and accept the fact that skateboarding isn't always easy.

10. Parents okay; coaches not okay. There are no coaches in skateboarding, and your helicopter-parenting behavior won't fly at the skatepark.

11. Bikes: Keep the mud out. Your awesome line through the mud pit into the bowl is leaving a trail of your thoughtlessness.

12. Lurkers: Don't mess up the place. You're there to hang out with your skater friends. That's great. But as soon as you are spitting and smoking like a chimney, (or defying The Man by smoking pot), and drawing genitalia all over the picnic table, it's time for you to go. In fact, that goes for skaters too.

Traffic and Capacity
When skaters share an obstacle, as they usually do, one skater will be actively using the space while the others watch and wait their turn. In general, a 1,500 square foot area can be shared by up to 10 individual skaters.

Poor etiquette can decrease the capacity of the skating space. When several people are sharing a single space, people should yield to the person that has been waiting the longest. When someone jumps ahead in line, especially if they recently went, it's known as "snaking." It's considered poor form and most skaters will be quick to correct the offender.

It is considered impolite to skate in front of another skater... just as it's impolite to cut someone off in traffic. Each skater is surrounded by a "personal space" that enlarges as they go faster. In fast areas of the skatepark, more room and visibility should be afforded by the design, while slower areas aren't as demanding. Mixing low-speed and high-speed areas, or having them adjacent so that they bleed into each other, is a recipe for disaster.

Accommodating the skaters that are patiently waiting their turn is and important function of skatepark design. They will stand in an appropriate area near the structure they intend to use. Skaters using a miniramp will stand on the two decks while waiting for their turn. There are signals skaters send to each other to indicate they are going next. Some are subtle, like eye contact and small nods, while others are overt, like positioning the skateboard on the edge of the coping. Areas of the skatepark will attract small groups of skaters. Each group will be communicating among themselves about whose turn it is to use the structure they're drawn to. Having enough space for them to gather is important. When there's not enough space, these groups can clog areas of the park and make other structures within the space unusable. Professional skatepark designers understand how skaters use skateparks and, more importantly, how to manage these "staging" areas.

A skatepark has traffic lanes. Better skateparks have many lanes that present varying degrees of difficulty. Sometimes they split, intersect, and join. These lanes are bunched into areas of activity, grouped by room, and that room is shared by the group staged near it.

It's not required that everyone involved with skatepark development understand skatepark traffic and capacity. It's valuable to respect that this is an important aspect of professional skatepark design.

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Skatepark design as a whole can be broken into two main categories. There is usability, how the park is used by skaters, and functionality, how the park is used by the broader public and skaters when they're not physically rolling around the facility.

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https://www.utep.edu/technologysupport/_Files/docs/CS_Comic_Skate.pdf

Comic written by Bill Robertson, main character Dr Skateboard exploring the physics of skateboarding.

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(Optional)
Read the Interview of Dr. Jonathan Trinastic by Kate Stone.

Reference
Science Connected Inc. (2021). Science of Skateboarding: Half-Pipe Physics. https://magazine.scienceconnected.org/2021/05/science-skateboarding-half-pipe-physics/

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Skateboarding is physics! Find out what principles of physics a skateboarder uses to appear to defy gravity on the half-pipe.
By Kate Stone and Dr. Jonathan Trinastic

People skateboarding might seem to defy gravity as they soar high above a half-pipe, but they are actually taking advantage of specific physics principles that help them reach such heights. Physicist Dr. Jonathan Trinastic explains.

Kate: As a physicist, what do you see happening in these photos?

Jonathan: People skateboarding on a half-pipe take advantage of two primary physics conservation principles: conservation of energy and angular momentum. Let's start with conservation of energy. Energy can be broken down into two main categories: kinetic energy and potential energy. Kinetic energy is associated with movement and is proportional to the square of the velocity of an object-in this case the skateboarder. Potential energy is different depending on what force the skateboarder is feeling, but in this case that force is gravity. With gravity, the potential energy is proportional to how high from ground level the skateboarder is: the higher the skateboarder, the more potential energy she has. The key idea behind conservation of energy is that the total amount of kinetic plus potential energy can never change, but each can be transformed into the other.

Jonathan: Usually, a person skateboarding will start from a high platform near the top of the half-pipe. This gives her a large amount of potential energy since she is high up, but no kinetic energy since she starts at rest. This also means her total amount of energy is equal to her potential energy. Now, the skateboarder jumps down on her board and begins rolling down the half-pipe. She loses potential energy but picks up speed-this indicates that her potential energy has converted to kinetic energy. When she reaches the bottom of the half-pipe, she has lost all her potential energy but has a lot of kinetic energy in the form of a high speed. The skateboarder can then use this speed to zoom up the other side of the half-pipe and launch into the air to do tricks.

The answer lies in the second physics principle: conservation of angular momentum. Just like traditional momentum being equal to Jonathan: mass times velocity, angular momentum is a rotational analogue, equal to an object's moment of inertia times its angular velocity. Moment of inertia can be thought of as a "rotational mass" and depends on the mass of an object and its distance from its axis of rotation. The farther an object is from its axis of rotation, the larger its moment of inertia, and therefore the larger its angular momentum. Angular momentum must always be conserved, so if the object's angular velocity increases, then its moment of inertia must decrease, or vice versa.

Jonathan: A skater can take advantage of angular momentum conservation to get especially high on her half-pipe jump. First, consider her axis of rotation as she's curving up the half-pipe. If we consider the half-pipe as one-quarter of a circle, then the skateboarder is rotating in a circular motion as she moves along the half-pipe, with an axis of rotation somewhere in space far from the half-pipe itself. Now, remember that the moment of inertia increases with distance from the axis of rotation. Therefore, if the skateboarder crouches during her approach to the half-pipe, her center of mass moves farther away from the axis of rotation, increasing her moment of inertia. Now, just as she's flying up the half-pipe, she extends her body straight as far as she can and shoots her hands in the air. This moves her center of mass up and closer to the axis of rotation, decreasing her moment of inertia. Since angular momentum must be conserved, her angular velocity must increase, giving her even more speed as she hits the top of the half-pipe and flies into the air, doing as many tricks as she can. Thus, she has used the principles of momentum conservation to get extra "air" above the half-pipe.
RELATED: Waves of Physics: The Science of Surfing
Jonathan: The short answer is that skateboarders can change their speed coming off the half-pipe by first crouching and then shooting straight up.

Jonathan: Centrifugal force is actually a "fictitious force," in that it's actually not a physical force such as gravity or electromagnetism that is affecting you. Instead, the centrifugal force arises when considering dynamics from a rotating reference frame. All motion must be considered from some reference frame. If you are standing at your window watching a rabbit run across your lawn, then your frame of reference measuring the rabbit motion would be stationary-you at the window. The rabbit motion would look different if you were running away from it, for example, which would be a moving reference frame.

In the same way, as a skateboarder moves in a circular motion up the half-pipe, she is now in an accelerating reference frame, with a centripetal ( centrifugal) force pulling her toward her axis of rotation. A stationary observer would observe this force acting on the skateboarder. However, from the

skateboarder's frame of reference, she feels a fictitious centrifugal force pulling her against the half-pipe wall, due to her inertia taking her in a direction tangential to her circular motion.

This centrifugal fictitious force is felt by anyone moving in circular motion. A common example is on spinning amusement park rides, which plaster us against the walls with nothing supporting us below. Although it feels like a force is pushing us into the wall, it's really just the inertial motion from the circular path we take.

Jonathan: Gravity is the force between any two objects with mass. Normally, we think of gravity between us and the Earth, but we actually have a gravitational attraction between us and any other thing around us: a tree, a water glass, a friend.

That gravitational force is just so weak that we don't notice it. The only reason we feel the gravitational attraction to the Earth is because the planet is so massive!

It can seem like skateboarders defy gravity, but the force is always acting on them. Skateboarders can just take advantage of other physics principles-principles of energy conservation and angular momentum to help fly through the air and seemingly defy gravity. But gravity is always acting on them and is the only reason that skateboarders come back to earth after a good jump. So no, skateboarding doesn't actually defy gravity.

Jonathan: In addition to potential and kinetic energy, some energy is lost due to friction between the wheels and the ground during a skateboarder's run. For this reason, she can't go up and down the half-pipe forever skateboarding; over time, she will lose energy to friction, so she can't maintain the same amount of kinetic energy, which in turn can't be converted to the same amount of potential energy to reach such high heights on her jumps.
Photography of Lisa Fahncke, Justin Philip Nash, and others skateboarding by Kate Stone, SOMA Skatepark in San Francisco, May 2017.

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Science of Skateboarding: Half-Pipe Physics

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Skateboarding is physics! Find out what principles of physics a skateboarder uses to appear to defy gravity on the half-pipe. By Kate Stone and Dr. Jonathan Trinastic People skateboarding might seem to defy gravity as they soar high above a half-pipe, but they are actually taking advantage of specific physics principles that help them reach such heights.

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https://annex.exploratorium.edu/skateboarding/index.html

Click on the Trick Science Button on the Top Right to explore the physics behind the Ollie, mid-air manoeuvres & pumping for speed.

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Exploratorium: the museum of science, art and human perception

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Find out how this extreme sport is governed by the principles
of momentum, gravity, friction, and centripetal force.
Learn skateboarding history, technology, and more!

In the beginning, skateboarding was simple...

With nothing more than a two-by-four on roller-skate wheels, the sidewalk
surfers of the 30s, 40s, and 50s had a straightforward mission: Start at the top
of a hill and ride down.

The basic elements of the skateboard seem pretty straightforward.
A board has three parts: the board or deck, the wheels, and the trucks,
which connect the wheels to the board, and allow the board to turn.

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Find out how this extreme sport is governed by the principles of momentum, gravity, friction, and centripetal force. Learn skateboarding history, technology, and more! In the beginning, skateboarding was simple... With nothing more than a two-by-four on roller-skate wheels, the sidewalk surfers of the 30s, 40s, and 50s had a straightforward mission: Start at the top of a hill and ride down.

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Practice sketching these on grid paper.

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Explore different simulations, alternate your character, & change the variables (friction, gravity, mass). Record data with a tape measure and stopwatch.

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Topics (PhET Interactive Simulations, 2023)

Conservation of Energy

Kinetic Energy

Potential Energy

Thermal Energy

Friction

Energy

Reference
PhET Interactive Simulations. (2023). Energy Skate Park. https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/energy-skate-park

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Skate to learn Physics or learn Physics to learn to Skate

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Skate to learn Physics or learn Physics to learn to Skate

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Watch YouTube clip (7 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bu_9sI7QTI

Reference
Edutopia. (2014, June 18). Learning the Physics of Skateboarding Engages Kids in Science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bu_9sI7QTI

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Learning the Physics of Skateboarding Engages Kids in Science

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Public Skate Park Development Guide: Project Preparation

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Public Skate Park Development Guide: Project Preparation

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https://publicskateparkguide.org/

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This is a free, non-commercial resource for advocates and planners seeking information about public skateparks. If you're working on a public skatepark project - or interested in starting one - you're in the right place.
All public skateparks launch and finish with community engagement. From the first conversation all the way to the grand opening, and beyond, every public skatepark is made by and for the volunteers that are present and ready to get it done. For years after it opens, the park serves the community and is the place where powerful changes happen.

Practically all public skateparks we see today are the result of sustained, volunteer-led advocacy and fundraising campaigns. The Public Skatepark Development Guide is a resource for those volunteers. We know that your community has what it takes to produce a public skatepark, and we expect that after it's built your community will enjoy the benefits of that facility for decades.

The material provided on this site is the collected advice and instruction provided by skatepark advocates from all types of community projects. This site, and its companion book, Public Skatepark Development Guide, were made possible with the support of The Skatepark Project (formerly known as the Tony Hawk Foundation).
Strategic support from The Skatepark Project Check out The Skatepark Project's new landing page for all things skatepark advocacy, including short answers, videos and our new Skatepark Best Practices Guide, at Skatepark.org/Start.
Skatepark.org content is provided as a collection of articles detailing various aspects of skatepark function, development, and operations. Here's what you'll find.

Two Steps to Start a Skatepark
Two actions you can take right now to get your skatepark project underway.

Skatepark Development Overview
Considerations for your next skatepark project.

The Challenges Ahead
The broad strokes on your new skatepark advocacy mission.

The Skateboarding Problem
Why do communities need skateparks?

Troublemaker to Community Catalyst
The personal benefits of skatepark advocacy last a lifetime.

Advocacy Misconceptions
Many people enter into skatepark advocacy thinking things will run differently.

Who Are Skateboarders?
Knowing who skateboarders are is the first step in talking about skateparks.

Brief History of Skateparks
There are valuable lessons to be learned in the history of skateboarding and skateparks.

Community Concerns and the Skatepark
Your community has unique characteristics that will influence what kind of skatepark will best meet its needs. Some of the biggest community concerns relate in some way to skateboarding and the new skatepark.

Essential Skatepark Characteristics
How you talk about the new skatepark will reflect how you think about it.

Skatepark Service Area
How many people will the new skatepark directly serve? Find out here.

City Planning Overview
A quick look at how your community is organized by local decision-makers.

Youth and Local Transportation
How younger people get around town is a major consideration for where the skatepark goes.

Physical Barriers in the Built Environment
Obstacles in town can have a major impact on the skatepark's attendance.

Types of Skateparks
The skatepark typology offers different skateparks for different needs.

Skatepark Adoption Model
Your formula for calculating how much total skatepark terrain your community needs.

Four Simple Rules
Effective skatepark advocacy is guided by four principles.

Maintaining Your Sanity
Advocacy is difficult, lonely, and can become an obsession. Use these techniques for keeping your balance.

Running an Organization
Tools, skills and resources you'll find useful in your skatepark effort.

The Core Group
Your tightest core of advocates are the best of the best.

Recruiting Skateboarders
Getting local skaters involved is not as easy as it sounds.

City Council Meetings
Getting to your first City Council meeting is your first major act as a skatepark advocate.

Resolution Supporting the Skatepark
The goal of your City Council interaction is to earn their endorsement.

Skatepark Advisory Committee
Your working committee has members from different agencies all working toward a solution everyone can support.

Agency-led Skatepark Efforts
Skatepark projects orchestrated by governmental or civic agencies have special considerations.

Awareness and Support
No skatepark was ever created without a good show of local awareness and support.

Working with the Local Press
Tips and tricks for managing your press opportunities.

Direct Advocacy ("Reaching Your Community")
Organizing your outreach program into achievable goals is the easiest way to raise awareness.

Online Presence
One of the first things groups usually do is build a Facebook page, but what can you do to maximize its impact?

Awareness Events
A great way to reach a lot of people at once is through public events.

Skatepark Platform
The key messages delivered by your group should be consistent, factual, and compelling.

All About Meetings
Poor communication holds many groups back. Learn what you can do to ensure your meeting time is used efficiently and effectively.

Public Voting Methods
Whenever there is an option available, the public is often asked to declare their preference. Knowing how these practices work can prepare your group for contested issues.

Site Selection
One of the most controversial aspects of skatepark development should be handled with care.

Military Base Locations
Military bases have special needs and constraints.

Meet the Opposition
Most projects have no shortage of opponents. Learn how to manage them and prevent their obstructions.

Common Issues and Answers
Throughout your advocacy you will hear the same questions and concerns over and over. Here are some sample responses that have shown to be effective.

BMX and Scooters
For many skaters, these secondary users are non-starters. Excluding these groups from consideration may do more harm than good.

THF Police Study
A 2009 study conducted by Tony Hawk Foundation explores law enforcement's observations on skateparks.

Capital Improvements Overview
It is valuable to understand how parks are typically funded. The skatepark process mirrors that of other types of parks.

Parks Revenue
Learn how parks generate money for their departments and the hosting community.

How Much Do Skateparks Cost?
Before you can ask for any money, you should know how much you need.

Skatepark Budget
Breaking down your total funding goal into smaller chunks will provide smaller, easier goals.

Comparative Costs
It can be difficult to discuss costs that seem uncomfortably large. Understanding the cost of other public facilities will help keep things in perspective.

Fundraising Strategy
Putting together a funding plan will help you organize a larger body of volunteers and events that meet achievable goals.

Grassroots Fundraising
A collection of things you can do to increase awareness, raise a few bucks, and keep excitement high.

Using Concept Designs
A picture is worth a thousand words. Using skatepark concept illustrations can help whet your audience's appetite.

Formal and Informal Agreements
Throughout the skatepark project you may want to "get it in writing."

Nonprofits and Fiscal Sponsors
Learn how to keep your books in order legally and securely.

Protecting the Skatepark Funds
It's everyone's worst nightmare. Here's what you can do to prevent your funds from disappearing.

Wrapping Up Fundraising
When all your work is done, you'll need to close your accounts.

Design Disasters
This is the last critical stage where all your hard work can be wasted. Protect yourself by being aware of the last and most-important risks.

Factors of Skatepark Design
There's much more to skatepark design than meets the eye.

Design and Construction Process
The development process for design and construction is elaborate.

Developmental Scenarios
There is more than one way to build a skatepark.

Ensuring Quality
You have several tools available to ensure your skatepark turns out perfect.

Danger of Community Designs
Save a few bucks by having local skaters design the park? Think again.

Hiring the Designer
How to hire your preferred skatepark designer.

Public Bid Process
Many capital projects must adhere to a public bid process. Learn what this is and how to make it work for you.

Request for Proposal
This is the tool you can use to invite companies to participate in your project.

Bid Specifications
Don't let hidden specs prevent the most qualified companies from bidding on your project.

Design Stages
Most public skatepark designs are the result of a public-input process.

Designing for Policy
Certain policies will require special design considerations. Learn what policies should be determined before design begins.

Policy Overview
A general look at skatepark policy and compliance factors.

Helmet Policy
One of the most popular questions from park administrators: Should the skatepark require visitors to wear helmets?

BMX and Scooters
Allowing other types of park users introduces challenges, but there are also some terrific benefits. Included here is special information for BMX advocates.

Why "Skate At Your Own Risk" Matters
Your most important skatepark rule.

Problematic Rules
Well-intentioned rules can often to more harm than good.

Limited Hours of Operation
Reducing skatepark hours in response to non-skateboarding matters undermines the facility's service.

Traffic Policy
Rules designed to direct skatepark traffic undermine other more important rules.

Best Policies
Our recommendation for your skatepark's rules.

Operations Overview
The broad strokes on what skaters expect from their skatepark and the operational challenges that can try their patience.

Skate Classes
A quick look at skate classes and their positive impact on the skatepark.

Criminal Behavior
Crime occurs wherever people congregate. Take a look at how you can reduce the opportunity for criminal activity at your skateboarding facility.

Supervision, Fees, and Waivers
There's value in policies that reduce liability, but at what cost?

Inactivity or Crowding
Skateparks routinely under- and over-perform. Here are some factors that may increase or decrease usage at your park.

Noise
Skatepark noise is a hot topic during advocacy and site-selection, but what is the reality, and what can be done about it if it proves to be a problem?

Restrooms
Restroom availability is essential for public health and comfort but can also torpedo a developmental budget. What are your options?

Lights and Evening Use
Skateboarding in the early evening may or may not be desired. Here are the factors that contribute to evening skating at the park.

Special Events
Activating the skatepark through special events is a terrific way of continuing support.

Maintenance Overview
What kinds of routine maintenance demands can you expect of your new skatepark?

Trash and Litter
Factors that contribute to trash.

Organic Debris
Tripping hazards can come in many shapes and sizes.

Graffiti
Enter into your graffiti tolerance policy knowing what to expect.

Inspections
What to look for while inspecting your concrete skatepark.

Volunteer Stewardship
How to establish a stewardship program. Includes a sample Maintenance MOU.

Temporary Closures
How to temporarily close your skatepark for maintenance purposes.

Congratulations!
Our last words to you while you enjoy your success.

See you at the skatepark!

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This is a free, non-commercial resource for advocates and planners seeking information about public skateparks. If you're working on a public skatepark project - or interested in starting one - you're in the right place. All public skateparks launch and finish with community engagement.

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Watch YouTube clip (6 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BFjHJTs4q0

Reference
MathsPOWER. (2007, May 10). Maths POWER Learning Tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BFjHJTs4q0

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Watch YouTube clip (7 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24ng0kNt4d8

Reference
Mrs Munn's Science. (n.d.). Problem-based Learning Design a Skate Park. http://munnscience.weebly.com/pbl---design-a-skate-park.html

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https://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/

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Save yourself money and a trip to the store! Print graph paper free from your computer. This site is perfect for science and math homework, craft projects and other graph paper needs. All graph paper files are optimized PDF documents requiring Adobe Reader for viewing.

Take advantage of your printing flexibility; print on transparency film for sharp graph paper overheads, or waterproof paper for field data-collecting.

Cartesian graph paper is the most popular form of graph paper in use. This type of graph paper is identified by its two perpendicular sets of lines forming a square grid. This graph paper's grid is used when graphing two-dimensional equations, and this versatile graph paper is useful for sketches, craft projects, layouts and other non-math activities.

Engineering graph paper lines are similar to Cartesian graph paper's two perpendicular sets of lines forming a square grid. However, through the use of contrasting line-weights, engineering graph paper groups the squares into clusters to show distance. Our imperial graph papers are in one square-inch clusters and our metric graph papers are in one square-centimeter clusters.

Polar graph paper is used when graphing polar coordinates. Our polar graph paper has lines radiating from a point to divide the field into 360 unmarked sections that can be labeled as degrees or radians, while concentric circles intersect the lines by a selected interval.

Isometric graph paper is used when creating isometric images or when graphing three-dimensional functions. Isometric graph paper has three sets of parallel lines representing length, width and height forming a grid of equilateral triangles.

Logarithmic graph paper is used for graphing rapidly increasing or decreasing quantities spread over a wide expanse. This type of graph paper uses a logarithmic scale that compresses certain sections of the graph to accommodate a wide data set. Logarithmic graph paper is available in two classes. Semi-logarithmic graph paper, also called semi-log, uses a logarithmic and a linear scale to compose its axes; full-logarithmic graph paper, also called log-log, uses logarithmic scales for both axes.

Hexagonal graph paper, also called hex paper, is a network of tiled hexagons that form a grid. This type of graph paper can be used when studying tessellations, but is more often used by quilt makers and computer gamers. Quilt makers use the hexagonal graph paper to design intricate piece-work patterns; gamers use it in the creation of maps to aid game navigation. Our hexagonal graph paper is measured by a regular hexagon inscribing a circle of a user specified diameter.

Probability graph paper is used when graphing variables along a normal distribution. This type of graph paper uses a probability scale along one axis and a linear scale along the other. This paper is mostly used in Statistics.

Smith chart is a type of graph paper used in electrical engineering to plot variances of complex transmission impedance along its length. Smith charts also simplify the matching of the line to its load. Smith charts are copyrighted by Analog Instruments Company and are offered on this site with permission.

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Print Cartesian, engineering, polar, isometric, hexagonal, probability, Smith chart and logarithmic graph paper free from your computer.

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https://blog.thepocketlab.com/physics-class-at-the-skate-park-with-pocketlab

They collected data with the PocketLab to create the Interactive Media: Energy Skate Park by PhET.

Learning goals and activities for this simulation can be found at https://app.thepocketlab.com/lab-report/lgikKbA_0001bG4c?ro=1&ref=%2Fresources

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NGSS standards: (Physical Sciences), (Forces and Motion)

The PocketLab team knows that our products can be used for some very cool experiments. But we LOVE when we get videos like this from our fans using our sensors to help students understand that the world around them is full of science.

Teachers around the world have faced this problem: What do you when your students are more interested in the skate park than your physics class? You take citizen science to them using PocketLab!

Skating is all about physics, so when Assistant Research Professor at Oklahoma State University, Center for Research on STEM Teaching and Learning, Nicole Colston noticed that the local skate park was filled with "flying physicists" she took the first opportunity to get them involved.

Nicole and her team attached PocketLab Voyagers to their skateboard decks and recorded data in real-time. They were able to measure angular velocity, acceleration, and even track the complete skateboard rotation in three dimensions when the students perform tricks!

Being able to share this data with the students while they are doing what they are passionate about, allowed Nicole and her team to get through to them in a way not possible in a stale classroom setting.

Using the PocketLab system, teachers around the globe can bridge the gap between the classroom and the outside world. When students can "see" science everywhere, they get excited. And the world needs more excited STEM students.

Using PhET Interactive Simulations: Energy Skate Park tool, we created a lesson you can use with your students today in PocketLab Notebook.

Your students can simulate the physics of skateboarding to understand the principles involved.
Access the lesson for free by clicking here.
The OSU College of Arts and Sciences in partnership with the city are helping fund renovations to the local skate park to maintain it as a place where athletes can train and with the help of PocketLabs learn more about the physics of their sport.

Watch this video below to see students getting excited about the science of skating.

You can learn about OSU and their STEM program here:
https://education.okstate.edu/research/center-research-stem-teaching-learning/https://pushforward.okstate.edu/
We want to hear from you! If you are doing something interesting, fun, exciting, or unique with the PocketLab system, reach out to us! We LOVE hearing from our PocketLab fans about all the amazing things they have measured or experimented with. Drop us a line using this form.

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Energy Skate Park and Physics of Skateboarding with PocketLab

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NGSS standards: (Physical Sciences), (Forces and Motion) The PocketLab team knows that our products can be used for some very cool experiments. But we LOVE when we get videos like this from our fans using our sensors to help students understand that the world around them is full of science.

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http://www.skateparkguide.com/design_basics.html

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Watch YouTube clip (7 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcGzrzgssr0

Reference
Mrs Munn's Science. (n.d.). Problem-based Learning Design a Skate Park. http://munnscience.weebly.com/pbl---design-a-skate-park.html

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https://publicskateparkguide.org/vision/us-skatepark-overview/

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The following information is drawn from data supplied by Tony Hawk Foundation grant awards. This data does not represent the full spectrum of skateparks in the nation. Unless otherwise noted, average costs only include concrete skateparks. Patterns represented here are concluded from 556 skatepark projects.

FISCAL SPONSORS, NATION
These are the organization types leading skatepark fundraising efforts. Nonprofit organizations include non-skateboarding-specific fiscal sponsors, (e.g., Rotary), and skateboarding-specific organizations, (e.g., Skaters for New York Skateparks). Municipalities include city governments, Parks Departments or Districts, and School Districts.

COST
Actual cost is the final cost of the facility after construction. The actual cost of the skatepark is, on average, 12% less than what the community originally estimated. This can be due to a reduction in the project scope, through a savings found in donated items and services, or a combination of both.

National Average Skatepark Cost: $262,481

SIZE
Skatepark size is the final skateable square footage of the facility after construction. Skatepark size is not calculated by the size of the facility but rather by the active, purpose-built skating area.

The actual cost of the skatepark is, on average, 12% less than what the community originally estimated. This can be due to a reduction in the project scope, through a savings found in donated items and services, or a combination of both.

National Average Skatepark Size: 11,876 sq ft

COST PER FOOT
Skatepark cost-per-foot is calculated by dividing the average size by the average cost. Per-foot costs vary from region to region due to a number of factors including availability of skilled tradesmen, materials, site conditions, economies of scale, and so on.
Caution! These figures should not be used to estimate the costs of your local skatepark project. You should use $40-45 per square foot for new projects. The cost averages below represent all kinds of skateparks - including those employing volunteer labor, donated materials, and so on. Furthermore, the money used to calculate these results are drawn from 15 years of data and is not adjusted for inflation.
National Average Skatepark Cost per square foot: $22.10

SKATEPARK DISTRIBUTION / (POPULATION DISTRIBUTION)
S katepark distribution calculates the total skatepark terrain per region against the national average. The results show each region's contribution to the national skatepark terrain total. The parenthetical figure indicates that region's percentage of the national population. For example, more than one-third of the nation's skateparks are in the Pacific region, yet that region only contains 16% of the nation's population. Less than a quarter (23%) of the population-yet more than half (53%) of the nation's skateparks-are west of the Rockies.

National Skatepark Distribution: 100% (Pop. 100%)

*Regions are in accordance to US Census categories.

Pacific: AK, CA, HI, OR, WA
Mountain: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY
West North Central: IA, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, SD
West South Central: AR, LA, OK, TX
East North Central: IL, IN, MI, OH, WI
East South Central: AL, KY, MS, TN
New England: CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT
Mid Atlantic: NJ, NY, PA
South Atlantic: DC, DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV

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The following information is drawn from data supplied by Tony Hawk Foundation grant awards. This data does not represent the full spectrum of skateparks in the nation. Unless otherwise noted, average costs only include concrete skateparks. Patterns represented here are concluded from 556 skatepark projects.

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Watch YouTube clip (8 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vcqfn1S_Gw&t=1s

Reference
Mrs Munn's Science. (n.d.). Problem-based Learning Design a Skate Park. http://munnscience.weebly.com/pbl---design-a-skate-park.html

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https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/forces-and-motion-basics/latest/forces-and-motion-basics_all.html

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SDQMF-fK7c&t=3s
Rocket Powered Skateboard (with Coke & Mentos)

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Rocket Powered Skateboard - Sick Science! #090

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmRAgBNZ0es