I can’t find the login area for the Covert site, so I’ve decided my new Skatepark Situation article should just appear here on the Terribleco site.
Being somewhat of a geek on the Sidewalk forum, I noticed this thread. Whenever the name “Bendcrete” is thrown around, I get kind of riled up. I have somewhat of a grudge against them, as do the majority of skaters my age (and older) in Cov. The younger lot amongst you may not really know of them, but Bendcrete are a park building firm who specialise in concrete. This is great, except they deal primarily in pre-fabricated ramps (AKA panels of ramps that are built off-site in a factory and shipped to skatepark sites). By now, you should have a crude idea of who they are. Look at any skatepark in Coventry, and you’ll see a pre-fabricated ramp at each skatepark. This is because Bendcrete are responsible for 4 of our skateparks.
Now, I dislike having to repeatedly bitch about a person, company or place, but Bendcrete haven’t really provided us with brilliant skateparks here in Coventry. Now, I’ve often said before, this isn’t entirely their fault. Through the thread I posted above, a Bendcrete rep helpfully explains that local park users can sometimes demand badly designed park features. The response to the Bendcrete rep, posted by Krillmonger, reads as follows;
The people on the forum aren’t saying these things to be arses, the
opinions reflect what pretty much any skateboarder would think having seen the design. I don’t want to be only negative. I just find it hard to believe that you have skateboarders on your staff that would let that get built, knowing full well have the obstacles are not usable and as such are a waste of money and your own time having built them. You are by no means really bad contractors as i’ve seen far worse, but c’mon guys, you yourselves ( as skaters and bmxers) must know that those obstacles are not up to any standard.
Bottom line; a skateboarder with anything between their ears, and a few years experience skating parks would never allow anything god damn awful to get built. In Coventry, we had Jim T Skin and a few other key skaters involved. Whilst I understand that Steve Spain’s designs for Covpark were overlooked, and Bendcrete’s “catalogue” design for a skatepark was selected by the council, Bendcrete still had an obligation to provide something long-lasting and well designed.
In this respect, they unfortunately failed. As claimed by the Bendcrete rep on the Sidewalk forum;
Many people are against pre-cast parks, but the quality is far superior to anything you can hand float on site and the ramps were tested by Warwick University and given a life expectancy of 46 years! The mistakes of the 70s have been learnt!
First off, Warwick University, what exactly do you know about skateboarding? Other than the fact that you don’t want skateboarders anywhere near your campus, and have in the past allowed security guards to rugby tackle skateboarders, causing them serious harm (another debate for another time). Secondly, a life expectancy of 46 years? Somehow, the locals of Covpark disagree.
The pre-fab panels sink every winter. This summer the mini ramp panels have sunk to the point where they’re a good 0.5 cm into the ground, providing a horrid bump as you roll over the crack. This is something you won’t get with sprayed concrete ramps that are built on site, because sprayed ramps are built to follow pre-shaped areas of land, as opposed to being heavy concrete units built in a factory.
The gaps between the pre-fab fubox and the concrete floor has lead to a giant gap, that could easily throw someone off their board. Quick fixes on the part of the council haven’t lead to a solution. Whilst these problems may not affect bikes, I have a photo of a problem that is far more dangerous than this and could damage everyone at the skatepark…
Part of the wire mesh that holds the funbox together is now sticking out of the concrete. Someone could lose an eye or get a nasty scratch they fell on it. If a bike hits that at the right angle, they’d get an instant flat tyre. This kind of problem could potentially cost BMXers quite a bit of money in new tyres, and even more if they actually injure themselves on it. Still think that pre-fab ramps are the way forward, Bendcrete?
The other half of the argument is that Bendcrete’s skateparks have no innovative design to them. They’re bottom of the barrel, basic and bog-standard. Well, most of them are;
This is Kirkintilloch in Scotland. It’s a Bendcrete park, built quite recently, and to be honest it has so many lines, looks like a blast and appears to be built perfectly. The ramps look like they’re planned as pre-fab, but from the photo it seems like the pre-fab has been ditched for this park. This is a skatepark of modern standards, something that everyone in Coventry would be stoked on. The question is; how come this kind of effort and design wasn’t implemented in Coventry? The answer may very well be the influence of much better competition such as Wheelscape and Maverick.
It would appear that the only way we’d ever get something like the park above from Bendcrete would be if we repeatedly nag the council and those at Bendcrete whilst the park building process was underway. Having said that; our parks were built during a different time, where skateboarding/BMXing wasn’t as permanent as it is now. Back in the early 00’s, councils were still under the impression that skating would die again and they’d be left with concrete monoliths that had no use. Companies like Wheelscape and Maverick have only begun to thrive and take risks with designs because parks built previously are still heavily used, and the number of park users is increasingly rapidly. In turn, this means we have more experienced skaters, and they’re all pulling Bendcrete up on their previous mistakes.
One day this might lead to Bendcrete becoming a steady competitor against the other big park builders, but for now, they’re mediocre efforts and reliance on pre-fab concrete are what’s dragging them down.
The Terrible Company 
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