The invention of concrete has led to many beautiful developments and innovative technologies and creations around the world, but one of the most recreational ways in which concrete can be used is for the design and construction of skateparks. All over the world, the counterculture skate movement has grown, where kids, teens and adults alike are taking up inline skating, rollerskating, skateboarding and even BMXing as a hobby and even a profession. But for this to be possible, we need flow bowls, spines, pipes street sections, rails, ramps and more – all of this can be achieved with the help of concrete mixers, which lay the foundations for some of the best skateparks all over the world. Read the article to see which of the world’s most infamous skateparks were developed with the help of concrete mixers.

 

Best Concrete Skateparks In The World

 

Venice Beach Skatepark, California, United States of America

 

Venice is the epicentre of Los Angeles’ bohemian beach culture, with a boardwalk sprawling with street artists, souvenir shops, tourists, locals, weightlifting enthusiasts, surfers and skateboarders. One of California’s biggest tourist attractions, Venice is a great place to watch trained skateboarders perform tricks, and at any given time you can find people riding bicycles on the boardwalk underneath the warm California sun. This space has seen legends like Jay Adams and Tony Alva come and go.

 

Skateboarding in Southern California is a counterculture movement that emerged in the 1970s. The Zephyr skateboarding team was a legendary group of local teenagers and surfers who decided to experiment with riding skateboards in empty swimming pools around the neighbourhood in Venice Beach and Santa Monica. The growing energy between the two areas awarded them the name, “Dogtown.” Today, the culture is immortalized in the documentary, “Lords of Dogtown”, made in 2005.

 

Just off of the Venice Boardwalk at 1800 Ocean Front Walk, you can find the Venice Skate Park, where the town’s vibrant skate culture still lives on. The skatepark is 16 000 square feet and strongly resembles two large empty swimming pools (a nod to the Zephyr movement). The challenging course is a massive expanse of bowls, snake runs and ramps that spread over the beachfront and it cost about $3.5 million to construct with the help of concrete mixers, making it the most expensive skatepark in the world. Jesse Martinez was an instrumental player in campaigning for the construction of the skatepark, and the story of its initiation can also be viewed in the documentary, “Made in Venice”, which aired in 2016.

 

 

Guangzhou Skateparks, Guangzhou, China

 

Located in the Panyu District, this skatepark forms part of the Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre at Guangzhou University. Crowned as the largest skate park in the world, it is approximately the size of four average football fields, sizing up at 182 000 square feet. For reference, that’s double the size of Lake Cunningham park in San Jose California. The park features an indoor skating area, as well as pipes, pools, ramps and slalom runs.

 

The massive space is made of concrete, and it was designed by Alexandra Cain, an Australian entrepreneur who managed the development with Eddie Liao, his Chinese partner. Built-in 215, the skatepark is located next to 10 universities that house about 160 000 college students, all of whom have access to the sizeable space. Accommodating China’s new skateboarding culture, the park is a haven for extreme sporting and skateboarding. Panyu is the district city of Guangzhou, and it is located in southern China. It’s about a two-hour drive to hong kong and Macao.

 

Panyu is often referred to as the cradle of Cantonese culture, which is recognized for its expressive music, painting and operatic culture. Dragon lion dances are performed on the streets during festive occasions. Popular sports such as basketball, table tennis, traditional dragon boat racing and in-line skating and skateboarding are commonly carried out everywhere you go within the district.

 

The Level, Brighton, United Kingdom

 

Situated at the centre of Brighton’s skate scene is The Level Skatepark, an infamous polished concrete skatepark. This park is not new by any means, however, the new refurbishments that took place over recent years have gained the park a lot of attention. With concrete mixers, contractors and architects alike, the organisation known as Freestyle was able to recreate the space so that pros and juniors alike can enjoy a variety of amenities.

 

The Level skatepark has a plaza-style street section, which is basically an open space, where beginners can try out the basics and get used to roaming around on the smooth, polished concrete surface. The street section is the perfect place to try banks, hips, stairs, rails, kickers, curved ledges, pyramids and pole jams. There’s also a transition area where more intermediate and advanced skaters can gain some elevation and try their luck with a couple of tricks. The transition area is centred around two bowls with a lot of depth, as well as two mini ramps which together form a half pipe with one bowled side.

 

The flexibility of this skatepark allows people from all different levels to enjoy skating. What’s more, the space is very accommodating for skaters, providing facilities such as bathrooms, on-site skate shops, relaxing areas and even an on-site cafe. For all of these reasons, the Level is considered 1,400m sq. of pure, polished concrete bliss.

 

 

Skate Park Galit, Tel Aviv, Israel

 

Situated in the Yad Eliyahu district, next to the Nokia Basketball Arena in Tel Aviv, you can find the biggest outdoor concrete skate park in Israel. In 2007 on September 15th, this skatepark, known as the Galit Skate Park, was opened up to the Israeli public. Tel Aviv is known as Israel’s commercial and cultural capital, with a bustling nightlife, flavourful cuisine and liberal people. Tel Aviv is also the second most populous city in Israel after Jerusalem, making it the perfect place to accommodate the growing movement of urban teens and streetlife skateboarding enthusiasts.

 

The riding surface is made from polished concrete, which was poured from concrete mixers by builders from the Grindline construction company. The designer of the skatepark is Avi Luzia, a famous professional, Israeli skater. The surrounding park was designed by Kav Banof. The diverse space has diverse features to accommodate many different kinds of skaters, at many different levels of training.

 

The Galit skatepark features a street section with banks, manual pads, stairs, euro gaps, rails, quarters, pyramids and wallrides. There is also a flow bowl and an amoeba bowl. For those of you that don’t know, a flow bowl is a combination of elements that are found in bowl parks and street plazas. In a flow bowl, skaters can pump up and down curved walls, quarter pipes and more without having to push off using their feet.

 

 

The Black Pearl, Cayman Islands

 

Built by renowned park designer, Michael McIntyre, from Site Design Group, the Black Pearl is 52 000 square feet of concrete, made with concrete mixers, for the benefit of residents of the Cayman Islands. The park accommodates junior, intermedia and expert skates alike. It often hosts scooter clubs, grom competitions, BMX competitions, rollerbladers, rollerskaters and even parkour enthusiasts. The park even has the world’s tallest FlowBarrel wave machine, which generates an 11-foot wave for extreme sportsmen to brave.

 

The Black Pearl is the largest concrete park in the Western Hemisphere, and it was first opened in 2005. The park gained popularity and publicity in 2009 when Shaun White hosted the Black Pearl’s first skating camp in 2009, which put them on the map. Shaun White is a professional American snowboarder and skateboarder, famous for his impressive record of being a five-time Olympian and three-time Olympic Gold medalist for snowboarding.

 

The park aims to provide a space for Caribbean youths to diversify their x-sports and encourage sportsmanship and career development. The Black Pear offers street courses and flow courses to kids of all ages, and the diverse community represents a budding culture of sportsmen and friends. Cayman Island has the largest population in the Western Caribbean Sea.

 

Skatehalle, Berlin, Germany

 

This skatepark is known amongst many skateboarding enthusiasts and international communities as the mecca. Located at the RAW area in Friedrichshain, the indoor skatepark hosts a street course that has a 1200m² skating area, and a massive, fairly flat bowl with a contoured ramp. The indoor Vert Ramp is the largest in Europe, with high vertical walls. Not to mention that the park also includes a beer garden and a Cassiopeia Club for relaxing and socialising post-stoke.

 

Overall, the space is 6,000 m². Skatehalle welcomes beginners and even hosts training sessions as well as advanced coaching for the pros. What’s more, events of all kinds are hosted here regularly. From birthday workshops to professional competitions, the versatile space welcomes everybody for good, sporting fun. And that includes BMX drivers, who are allowed to use the track at given times on the schedule.

 

The park features a street section with elements such as rails, quarter corners, hips, china banks and pier 7s. There are curbs, pianos, hubbaledges, double sets, wallride areas and a big bang if you’re down to try your luck. Berlin is the capital city of Germany and the second most popular city in Germany, it is situated on the River Spree in northeastern Germany, Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, and it is known for its music, media, culture, science and sports.

 

 

What To Take With You To The Skatepark

 

• Helmet
• Wrist guards
• Knee pads
• Elbow pads
• Closed, non-slip shoes
• Water
• Gum guard

 

Conclusion

 

If you’re a skateboarding enthusiast, BMX driver, inline skater or rollerskater, then you absolutely have to try out any of these internationally renowned skate parks. With the help of concrete mixers, forward-thinking, urban visionaries, construction companies and skatepark designers, contractors and architects, these skateparks have become home to many legends. The polished concrete provides a safe terrain for some of the greatest aerial spins, dolphin flips and nightmare flips ever seen – and, hence, these spaces will live on as a meeting point for an infamous community and counterculture of sportsmen. If you’re a skatepark designer or just an enthusiast who’s interested in building something similar, then consider investing in some of BS Power’s concrete mixers to help you with your project.

 

BAUMAX BS360L Concrete mixer fitted with BAUMAX RX200 2:1 ENGINE (R17, 495)

 

• Drum Volume: 360L
• Capacity Unmixed: 260L Mixed*: 200L
• Drum Speed: 25RPM
• Output: 5m3 per hour
• Mix cycle: 2,5 minutes
• Length:1900mm
• Width:1000mm
• Height: 1560mm
• Weight: 200Kg
• Transmission: V Belt
• Engine: Baumax RX200 2:1 Engine 6.5HP
• Chassis: Robustly constructed from channel iron and folded metal
• Wheels: Semi-Solid Wheels
• Option: High-speed towable wheels on 145 x 10 Pneumatic wheels.

 

400L Concrete mixer with BAUMAX RX2002:1 ENGINE (R19, 995)

 

• Drum Volume: 400L
• Capacity Unmixed: 320L Mixed*: 220L
• Drum Speed: 25RPM
• Drum Thickness: 3mm
• Mix cycle: 2,5 minutes
• Discharge height: 600mm
• Loading height: 1100mm
• Track width Standard: 900mm Tow: 1200mm
• Dimensions(LXWXH):2025mmx955mmx1460mm
• Weight: 215Kg

 

BAUMAX BS500 500L Concrete mixer fitted with BAUMAX RX200 2:1 ENGINE (R24, 995)

 

• Chassis: Robustly constructed from channel iron and folded metal.
• Ultra-Durable 3mm Drum bottom.
• Total volume 500L
• Capacity(Unmixed)* 420L
• Capacity(Mixed)* 280L
• Drum Rotation 24rpm
• Weight without engine 270Kg
• Drum Thickness 3mm
• Wheels Solid rubber wheels with bearings.
• Dimensions(LxWxH) 2155mmX1045mmX1550mm