Guangzhou University Town Skatepark(GZ Uni mega park) will soon open this year. Chinaskateboards.cn have an email interview with this great projects' designer & promotor——Australian Skateboarder and B&E CEO Brad Shaw, let's see some exclusive stories and behind scences that Brad shares with us.
GZ uni mega park will finish soon, would you like to share experiences and stories during your team build this skatepark?
I have working on this project for 8 years, its been a long, slow and difficult process. We started design for this park about 2.5 years ago with Cary Pogson from Australia, then half way through it the landscape company we worked with in the university were skatepark is stopped paying us and stopped communication with us so the design was not finished correct. We had a concept design we gave them but it needed a lot of fine tuning and it did not get done.
So then the construction work started just over a year ago and we we meant to oversee that with the construction company on a full time basis but the construction company only had us there about 4 weeks total of the last 14 months, meaning there has been no expert to show them how to build a skateboard park most of the time for they wanted to save money.
The construction company has never built a skatepark or seen one before, they won the tender for the job because they were the cheapest and seems to be a common theme in China unfortunetly so theres a high chance skatepark may not be built to the best standards.Most of the skatepark is fun, the process we had to go through has been slow and frustrating.
The size and courses in GZ mega park surprises many China skaters, compare to SMP and Beijing woodward, could you introduce its features and functions?
The skatepark is quite big altogether, about 17,000sqm, we designed it to cater for all levels of skateboarding and bmx. Other parks in China like SMP ( which i setup the management for in 2006 ) are large as well and SMP has a lot of big things to ride that most Chinese skaters cannot ride. The woodward park has a great indoor section with a good variety of ramps for Chinese skaters, main problem is the location is far from the city.
This GZ park has a large concrete combi bowl for international events, a banked slalom run about 80 m long going into a 13 foot bowl, this is quite easy to ride and is popular for most level of riders, We hope to do banked slalom comps in it as well. we have a snakrun, a fullpie, a open freebowl area and a street plaza for pro comps. All these features are made from concrete and are located in the main area.
Then in the 2 smaller area`s we have a small concrete pool, and a concrete street plaza thats made more for local riders. then we have alot of ramps and bowls made with a steel frame and Ramp Armor skate surface imported from the USA. this area has small and large miniramps and small and large bowls.We have a portable vertramp and a indoor street section in the veladrome ajoining the skatepark.
So we really wanted to have a skatepark for all levels of riding and different types of riding, particulary some simple ramps that can get the local riders started in skating etc.Plus a indoor section when it raining or too hot.
For years, GZ & Guangdong have so many skateboarders, but there are so few places to go(mostly street spot) how do you think about it?
Yeah, China has very good street area`s and most skaters in China are street skaters. There are still only a few skateparks in China and many are not designed or build well. China needs more quality skateparks so riders can learn all types of riding .
The government seem`s to think skateboarding is dangerous so no one should do it, because they watch extreme sports events and think everyone has to do a megaramp jump or someone that looks too dangerous. Once government understands skateparks are safe and the sport is pretty safe then thing`s will grow.
You begin to skate since 70s, how you think skateboarding (and maybe industry, market potentials) in China?
Like my last answer, skateboard and BMX are growing, but people need coaching and understanding of the sport, just have comps and demo`s do not really get the mass population involved. So its still a alete sport in that way. Chinese youth seem to want to try it, it just needs to be made more available and safe. Skate brands in China are slowly taking off, the sport is still very new in China and needs time to let people understand it. My view is to get more functional skateparks built around China to get people riding and making skateboarding a lifestyle like in the USA and other counties.
When will the skatepark open and how will it charge?
The GZ skatepark maybe open by June, it keeps dragging on, alot of rain this time of year and more to come, so this has slowed it down. At the moment park is the be free, but we are still working all that out, we are planning on managing the skatepark, it has lights and is in the great location in the middle of 10 universities with 170,000 students around it. and plan the have retail area's and cafe.
We plan on doing many events form local to international and well as coaching programs. We want to make this skatepark a hub for Action sports in Southern China and model it around China, the skatepark has next to it a BMX racing track and huge climbing wall, so lots of activities will go on. The size and variety of the skatepark together with location access to so many students we hope to make this skatepark busy and active .We are also seeking sponsors to be part of this.
Any other things you'd like to share?
I have been involved in skateboarding in China for over 13 years now and really want to see skateboarding develop there, there are some very talented skateboarders in China and the riders really enjoy skating and hope the sport grows which it is.
Skatepark photos via Arrow