The results are in…

We were provided with the results from the survey on offer at the Summer Jam! Some good information; it would seem that everyone is behind the idea of Culture Skatepark providing an indoor facility in Cov (the majority of people said they wanted a new skatepark to be indoors). There was also a demand for street obstacles, with a lot of people citing “rails” as an obstacle they wanted to ride – the numbers were fairly even between those who prefer to skate transition and street obstacles; banks and ledges had an even spread, with slightly more preference to transition, and slightly less preference towards stairs.

Not surprisingly, the majority of the users for the Summer Jam’s temporary park were skateboarders. We kind’ve expected more BMXers, but we put their low numbers down to the lack of a decent sized mini ramp – and given the transition-centric nature of the Cov BMX scene we felt like a lot of the riders didn’t get on well with the street obstacles on offer. Some of the guys got stuck in though (as the comp proved!).

A lot of people gave “dud” answers for their favourite parks; they put down parks that didn’t necessarily help our cause and didn’t show the Council what to look at for inspiration. I was disappointed to see a lot of people claiming their favourite parks were Covpark, Alan Higgs, and even the Annix… Use your imaginations, and get travelling. I was shocked to see a lot of people just don’t travel out of Cov, so haven’t even experienced parks like Midsomer Norton, Hereford or even Stoke Plaza and Smith’s Wood in Solihull. It’s for these reasons more than any other that a new, well-designed skatepark is needed in our city – how can people improve and experience unique and interesting obstacles when the only park they ever ride is the Annix?

Lastly, a mixture of different comments on a proposed skatepark. A few people asking for foam pits (which I see absolutely NO reason for… they smell, people’s keys and phones get lost in them and they take up an unnecessary amount of space for something to just “practice” on), someone asking for an age limit (come on now, the young’uns have just as much right to ride a skatepark as anyone else), and someone even said “today was shit make the skatepark better” (hmm… how about you stump up the cash and organise your own event… it’s not about people being horribly ungrateful for something we all put a lot of work into). What did come across was that everyone wants a better skatepark and that they are willing to co-operate with the Council on a new park (which is what we’ve told them ALL ALONG).

The best part of all of this, was during our de-briefing session with the Council, we were told they want to do the Summer Jam AGAIN next year!!! In the mean time, they want to get involved with helping Culture on the road to gaining a premises and funding – which will be a long process. A long way to go, but we’ve covered a lot of ground….