Skateboarding
Skateboarding
How to build a skate park in your backyard
Co-founder of the HolyStoked crew Abhishek breaks down a build up.
Shake builds a skate park with the crew
© HolyStoked for BigRush
He’s built about 11 skate parks in all, four out of India. He’s been at it for three years but has shown no sign of stopping. Abhishek, or Shake as he’s called, is one of India’s DIY skate build masters.
Shake started skating six years ago with a few buddies at the National Games Village in Bangalore, although his first tryst with the board when he was 14 turned out to be a bit of damp squib. “My folks travelled to Singapore and brought me a board because I had seen it in 'Back To The Future' and wanted it. But I gave it up after less than a year because I had no friends to skate with and couldn’t progress further,” Shake recalled.
Sound familiar? Having good company to skate with can do a lot to motivate beginners and skateparks are the ideal places for these. But what happens when there’s none close to your home? Well, now you can just build one.
“It isn’t rocket science to build ramps to skate. It just takes a little experience and anybody can do it. If they stay interested, they can do it well,” said Shake. He points out that it’s like any other construction, except when it comes to knowing how and where to place obstacles so they work for a skater. So if you are one, or you know someone who is, it’s easy to design your own park.
“First, you need to come up with a general idea depending on what shape the space available is in and then start adding dirt and mud to shape out the park. Then you cut wood forms to the shape of the ramps you want, add steel reinforcement and fill it with concrete. With a little practice, you learn the timing of how concrete works and you can make really smooth ramps,” said Shake, who is one of the co-founders of the skate crew and store HolyStoked.
The crew themselves – Poornabodh, Gautham Nettar, Somanna and Shake - came together over a skate park built at Play Arena in Bangalore. Joining forces with Nick Smith, who’s been on a board for decades, they started skating the bowl in 2011. They were soon joined by Amit Subba and Prannoy Jacob and called themselves HolyStoked.
“The crew is now huge and has just grown organically because people wanted to be part of something special, and HolyStoked is an inclusive organisation,” said Shake. And this is exactly how the crew plans builds. They put the word out through their Facebook page and send messages to people from previous builds. To volunteer at a HolyStoked build, all you have to do is “be a nice person and have the desire to learn”.
There’s apparently no rocket science involved in a skate build from start to finish. The first thing you need (in India) – is the permission of the person whose land the build is on. If the land is private, the neighbors need to have no objection to the build. “An ideal space would be one where it is easy to bring in construction material, and have water and power on site,” notes Shake, although he has done builds in conditions far from ideal, without road access, power or water. In such cases, extra volunteers can make things happen.
“A mini ramp is pretty standard and can be built anywhere which is 200 square feet and larger. Depending on the space available, you can make it bigger or smaller,” he said. Before you start, put together a bunch of tools to help you out – regular power tools to cut wood and metal, concrete floats, power trowels for the hard scraping, tools for ground work such as shovels, rakes and pick axes. You will also need lumber, plywood, steel rebar and concrete of course.
“It’s always nice to have a cement mixing machine and a JCB digger, but it is possible to do without as well,” said Shake.
Over the years, he’s faced different problems with builds, but the main one is “not being able to get the materials or tools in the place you are building.” He suggests taking everything from where it’s readily available, such as your nearest city or town, before you start the build as you never know the hardware situation in your chosen location.
So far, Shake has been involved with DIY builds in HolyStoked Park and The Cave Skatepark in Bangalore, Seema Guest House Ramp in Hampi, Hify Mini Ramp in Vizag, Cirrus Skatepark and the Alis Bowl in Goa, Janwar Castle Skatepark in Madhya Pradesh, Marleys Mini Ramp and Bonda Vayan Skatepark in Mahabalipuram, Pura Pura Skatepark in Bolivia, Pushing Myanmar Skatepark in Yangon-Myanmar, and the Addis Skatepark in Ethiopia. He has also been involved in a government skatepark in Navi Mumbai which has currently been suspended.
For the future of skateboarding in India, he hopes for better sidewalks and more skate parks all over the country in the next few years and for Indians to be able to compete professionally with skaters from America, Brazil and Europe. He added, “I hope there will be a local skate crew in almost every Indian city and town, so that when we travel we will always find skate spots and the brotherhood.”
So get out there, and build!
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