Waterford, ON

Waterford, ON

Next to the Waterford Heritage & Agricultural Museum

159 Nichol St W.

The local Advocacy Group and Drop-in Skateparks are gonna hate me.

Let's Begin...after this.

(Update - Drop-in Skateparks has been extremely gracious with me and we are corresponding about how to bring more quality skateparks into Ontario. They've shared some info on the creation of this park; The design was influenced by more BMX and Scooter riders and was partially complete prior to Drop-in joining the project.  Please Check out Drop-in Skateparks Website)

'You Can Please 100% of Skatepark users 0% of the Time' - Spott

After many, many, many years of advocacy and fundraising, Waterford has a new skatepark! (June 2024)

I got to check out the park with my pal, Ryan - AKA the Skateboard Philosopher. Video HERE

We both had a lot of fun but we question some of the design & construction choices made by Drop-in Skateparks.

Drop-in is a Manitoba based skatepark design/build firm and this is their first project in Southern Ontario as far as I know.  The design, with some large features including a rad jump box, caters to the local users, as a good skatepark should.  There were a ton of other people today and they were all happy. There are a couple elements such as coping material, coping reveal and rail securement that Ryan and I questioned. 

Let me be clear. This is a good skatepark but I wouldn't want it as my local.

However, a few tweaks would make it great.

(Yes, I am Very Picky. When you've been to 500+ parks, you can be. I just want quality parks for everyone)

Edit - Closes at 9. There's a home really close. Let's respect them.

This set has a short run up and the rail is steep. The Street section is still fun.

The coping reveal on this park is bad/non-existant. All the coping appears to be a softer, galvanized steel and it seems to be smaller than the standard 2 3/8".  Everything is also brush finished - meaning the micro-grooves run around the coping while you would travel across the coping. the end result is a slower, stickier grind. 

Below is an example of standard coping reveal- AKA Bonk.

Big roll in

The big box blasts ya into the atmosphere!  More skateparks need stuff like this.

This 'A' Frame feature was great except for the coping.  All this Galvanized Steel is sticky. I haven't seen any modern parks built with it since Centennial in Markham & Bancroft's Skatepark.  Both have sticky coping issues. Bancroft pictured below.

They weren't afraid to go BIG!

I'm not a fan of bolted rails. I've seen them stollen a few times.  The bolts are welded on these but that still gives you something to strike when rolling by. Not really industry standard in 2024.

Soft metal, no reveal to lock into. Not my favourite ledge.

Below is a standard skatepark ledge.

I've been told this was Drop-In's first bowl. 

Whatever this metal is, you can see the brushed finish on it that runs perpendicular to the length of the coping - ie- the grooves run across the grinding surface making for more friction.

A friend described these as 'Cheese Grater Drains'

There's a cute little dirt track

So there it is. It's a good park. Not Excellent. It's Very Good as it caters to the local users, has some neat features.

Ok, here's my hot takes.  It's designed like an early 2000's park, very similar to Markham or Icelands.  The metal choice is bad and the reveal makes locking into grinds very difficult.  I used a lot of wax today because my trucks would dig into the metal.. 

I desperately want more competition in the Ontario Skatepark market but quality needs to be number 1.  Just take some time to avoid these issues in the future and you'll be loved in Ontario.

💚