Solid Surf

Skateboarding is an important part of 21st century culture and has considerable cultural, financial and entertainment value, as indicated by its recent incorporation in the Tokyo Olympics. It is practiced on human-made surfaces such as pavements and roads as well as on wooden ramps and within asphalt and concrete skateparks. Hundreds of examples of the latter were built worldwide during the skateboarding’s ‘Second Wave’ in the late 1970s–early 1980s, but nearly all were subsequently closed, infilled or destroyed. Very few original concrete parks of this key period survive and many are currently threatened with destruction. The historic status recently ascribed to two well preserved examples in the UK and Australia underlines a need to assess the heritage value of the other remaining original skateparks, as well as to consider possible strategies for their protection and conservation. The present article tackles this topic using selected examples of these unconventional historic structures from around the world.