Rotorua Skate Park Re-development

It's unacceptable that a council running on borrowed money, and increasing rates yet again, is even considering a $2 million project that has no tangible return. lets see some fiscal responsibility, for once.

A giant round waterpipe to skate in would be a great asset because it would allow local skaters to learn how to go inverted.

I think this is such a great development of an already well used park. There are always kids, teenagers, adults of all small wheel codes down there.
I do think the open plaza, should definitely be an open plaza. Make it usable for artistic skaters, roller hockey, roller derby. By placing the large structure in the middle, you will be limiting the spaces range of use. By making it a regulation size for these codes - we can then get more people down there - create more atmosphere in town and still maintain the 'open plaza ' feel for all users.
The location is on one of the busiest thoroughfares through town - how cool would it be to see all codes using this area, ALL THE TIME! What a great look for Rotorua.
Roller Derby deiniitely need a place to train - regulation size where skaters are not risking injury every time they train.
The success of last Saturday night's event at the Sportdrome really does speak volumes - you have a team that Rotorua are getting behind and supporting. Artistic skaters, I assume, are in the same boat. We have a national tournament coming to Rotorua in July, yet they still have no regulation size area to train.
Please don't get me wrong, this is a great development, lets just cover all bases the first time. :)

I love the comments made so far and agree on most. First thought was shade sails and lighting. With all the public health warnings made about the sun, I am surprised more protection wasn’t included. And lighting a definite must for all public areas frequented by children.

The second issue that stood out was the “Open Plaza” seemed like an afterthought. All the other areas are well thought out and encourage use, but the open area seems like a great waste of usable space. I really like the idea of polished concrete to be used for the figure skaters and roller derby! It would be great if those roller skating groups had a place to play as well. If it had a roof, I’m sure you will have many, many folks out on roller skates!

BBQ facilities, toilets and fencing would be an awesome idea to get the whole family out for the day!

Overall, I am really excited to see the council reaching out to the community. Thank you.

I would like to reiterate what Layla says about an outdoor rink. i grew up in Rotorua and every time i talk to another local about skating they all remember the outdoor rink at Government Gardens very fondly, like I do. An outdoor rink is a great way for kids to start skating. I am a member of both the Steam Rollers and the Rotorua Artistic Skating club and we all support this skate park and want to see it happen. But we could make awesome use of an outdoor skating rink area. It would increase usage of the whole facility by the wider community several fold.

Hi guys,

I'm sure you already know, but Rotorua is home to two skating-related Incorporated Societies with paying members; the Rotorua Roller Skating Club (artistic), and the league I co-founded, the Sulphur City Steam Rollers roller derby league. Both clubs skate on roller skates (quads) and have no designated facility in Rotorua for our members to utilise - instead, we juggle between a number of gym venues. We are currently working on our own hope to have a covered skate rink in Rotorua and (speaking for SCSR anyway), we also fully support the Rotorua Skatepark upgrade!

In saying that, I am personally surprised that we have not been consulted during this process other than being invited, with other members of the public, to give our feedback after the design has been proposed. I'm not sure if you're aware, but there is a huge worldwide movement called Chicks in Bowls (https://www.facebook.com/chicksinbowls/) which was founded by Team New Zealand Roller Derby skater, Lady Trample (Samara Pepperell). Many roller derby leagues in New Zealand frequent their city's skate parks, filming their tricks and sharing them with the huge International community that is CIB. So we certainly have an interest in the proposed improvements of our city's main skate park.

While we find the general design usable, the main piece of feedback we'd like to offer is a simple feature that could be added, which would aid in also supporting our skaters; a flat, polished concrete area that we can use to practice our code.

I notice the open plaza for example. Should the area be larger and the sculpture placed elsewhere in the park, this area could be used for team practice during summer months, and even for us to host outdoor games, bringing even more attention to the city and the park itself.

While the bowl area is great, we also find vert ramps to be enjoyable to skate on, however it would need to be covered with Skatelite or similar to endure the weather well rather than the metal surface that's currently used in town. While members of SCSR currently skate at Jackson Park's vert ramp, the surface is pretty average so we don't go nearly as much as we'd like to.

As others have mentioned, shade is necessary and is something lacking from many play areas of Rotorua. Also fencing would be ideal to slow the motion of skaters approaching the skate park and also smaller humans trying to escape!

Thanks for the opportunity to express our opinion on this major upgrade.

Regards
Layla Robinson
Chairperson
Sulphur City Steam Rollers

First of this park looks great catering for all styles of riding and all levels. A concern I have is that plans are normally scraped for skateparks and are often made worse than the intitial design. Lighting would be a good addition to the park so people who work can skate/ride after work where there is less ch age of hitting kids. It would be nice if the box jumps where wood so you don't graze your skin as easy. A resi would be a nice addition. This looks like a really good park and I hope it is made to the plans. I'm sure this would benefit sports such as skating, sccotering, biking and more.

Hi team. This is a really exciting project and we can't wait to see it get underway. A couple of things:

1. I couldn't see anything in the design other than trees for shelter - are you thinking about some shade sail areas perhaps?

2. Seating. Couldn't really see anything for both skatepark users to have a rest, and for people watching/supervising. Would be great to have seating scattered throughout the whole park with some under cover (trees and shade sails) and in the open.

3. Will the connecting paths be nice and smooth so that it's comfortable for users to move around when transitioning from each area? In the plan it looks like large pavers, but obviously if there are lots of gaps/lines etc it'll be annoying to use on wheels.

4. There's a feature at the new skatepark in Waterview, Auckland which the kids I watched (including our own) absolutely loved. You can see it at this link (which you'll see is when it was still under construction). But basically it flowed gently downhill so you could easily build up speed and had little features that you could jump (similar to table tops on mountain bike trails where you can either roll, or jump over the flat top and land on the transition). It would be awesome to see something like this included. I guess it would be aimed more at the younger user, but is heaps of fun.
www.richlandscapes.co.nz/blog/waterview-skatepark-nearing-completion

Thanks and let's roll!!

Fantastic idea and will be incredibly we used. Design looks great. Lot's of lighting would be a good idea and it would be incredible to have a sealed pump track like the new Grey Lynn pump track. Given that Rotorua is a leading bike destination in NZ a world class pump track seems essential.

Would be really cool if there was a deep bowl section. Like 12-14 foot would be fantastic.

Can a ressy ramp or a foam pit be implemented into the design do people can practice new tricks safely

Must include the pump track as part of the re development of the skate park. It's got to be awesome!

As parents take their kids down it would be nice to have some tables and maybe even a bbq area. A play ground also for the younger kids to play in that is fenced. Just thinking about those parents who are there with their kids making sure they are safe and also making it a whanau area. Lots of rubbish bin opportunities. Better toilets as well.

Sorry last post got off....


Park looks great and has potential to be an NZ wide example of good planning and feedback support. The major suggestion I have would be that the middle and outside box jumps have their direction reversed. It is better (safer) to turn away from the edge of the vert wall in a clockwise direction and I would suggest adding a 5 foot quarter pipe approximately 3 feet back from the vert wall on the outside end around the width of the outside two box jumps. This will add a feature for wall rides and ability to jump from quarter into vert wall and carry on into middle or inside box jump.
I am very happy how the park has clear lines and flow, also it looks like it really will help to kind of segregate high speed areas to limit collisions with bikes and skateboards. Really well done on that part.
The street area is well designed and thought out. Also looks to be of appropriate sizing that bikes can use the rails and ledges as well as boards and scooters. No obvious blind spots which is great as well.

I would hope that if this has to be built in stages that the street plaza area and the box jump areas could be done in tandem first as the bowls would be less usable to the majority and create too much on one obstacle to be shared initially. May cause unintended issues. Also as the street and box jumps are the easier things to get right, a chance for construction crews to get easy win before tackling much harder pool bowl and flow bowl.


Great job all involved.......

Park looks great and has potential to be an NZ wide example of good planning and feedback support.
The major suggestion I have would be that the middle and outside box jumps have their direction reversed. It is better (safer) to turn away from the edge of the vert wall in a clockwise direction and I would suggest adding a 5 foot quarter pipe approximately 3 feet back from the vert wall on the outside end around the width of the outside two box jumps. This will add a feature for wall rides and ability to jump from quarter into vert wall and carry on into middle or inside box j

Awesome design. Would love to see this go ahead. We often make trips to the new Te Puke skatepark and others around the B.O.P so this plan will not only benefit locals but will attract other passionate skateboards throughout NZ. And NO WE AREN'T JOBLESS TROUBLE MAKERS like what was said in the daily posto a while back. If you still have negative thoughts regarding skateboarding I suggest you do some homework.

I think the park needs lots of lighting and security cameras. And safety fencing would be good especially for our younger children who could run out onto the busy road.

I think this park is amazing I live an hour away from Rotorua but would definitely travel to skate it if I were to add another feature it would be a half pipe