Worlds largest skatepark (2024)

Industry News
18 May 2010

Opening of the worlds largest skatepark on October 6-7th.

It's open, it's gigantic, and it's free to use.
Built by Convic from Melbourne, Australia, at a rumored cost of over 8 million US dollars, it took over 18 months of discussions, design and development work before completion. It is now officially
recognized by World Cup Skateboarding as the largest skatepark in the world.
The opening was timed to coincide with the "Shanghai Showdown Gravity Games" sponsored by SMP and run by RealOne Sports and Octagon.
The park is Installed in the New Jingwan estate, surrounded by parkland and is just one of the first structures to be built on the estate. The Government paid for the park as a way of "heating up" the site of a once secret airfield, and now to become an entirely
new suburb with offices, apartments, sporting halls and a new campus for Fudan university. The metro line will also be extended to here and the suburb is due to be completed in around 5 years.

SMP has a ten year branding lease on the park. John Dai, CEO and owner of SMP stated; "the park is a great platform to grow our brand here in China, and it is also a lot of fun." Daily management of the park has yet to be decided. The Camp Woodward group from USA
and local Shanghai based RealOne Sports have both expressed interest at coordinating coaching and camps on site. RealOne Sports is already offering skate tourist packages to those skaters who want to come and ride the world's largest park.

First impressions of this brand new park are impressive, you don't need to be into skating to appreciate its sheer size and depth and artistry in design. This park is both enormous and also aesthetically pleasing. The park has 7 concrete bowls from beginner's to expert, a tunnel, street area, and, at a staggering 45 meters in length also hosts the worlds largest half pipe, painted in the national colour.

The approximate 3000 locals, most whom have never seen a skateboard, let alone a skate park turned up and wandered around it nodding quietly in appreciation. The largest bowls are over 12 feet deep, three large buses, or even a regular sized house would comfortably fit inside them. A train carriage could park in the
tunnel, and the half pipe is so long it wears out even the most seasoned skater before they have done a lap.

A skater's first impressions are initially pure shock, then elation. Watching the professionals arriving off the bus for the first time, seeing their eyes pop and then their jaws drop in sheer awe at at Convic's gigantic concrete masterpiece and at the sheer size of
the half pipe was an unforgettable experience. Most just wandered in a daze for around half an hour, anyone who ever skated before does the same, at first glance its not easy for the athlete's brain to grasp the sheer enormity of the site or the number skating
options available here.

Simon Oxenham, the Australian Director of Convic was
in charge of the parks construction. He stated;
"Building it was a unique experience, it was a lot tougher than we expected. We constructed it over the 6 hot and humid Shanghai summer months. At times it was frustrating but I would certainly work with the Chinese again. The end result is exhilarating though and riding the park is like rolling into a dream."

Don Bostick, Chairman of the world Skateboarding Cup, and the World Snowboarding Cup, said; "looking at this place and standing in China it's amazing to see how far skateboarding has come. The Chinese have been very gracious and I look forward to coming back next year."

Dave "Daggers" Duncan, works for World Cup Skateboarding, and now in his early forties is a living legend in the action sports community. Dave still loves to skate and was comfortably bombing some of the largest lines in the park. He recognized the difficulties of working abroad and remarked; "Five stars to the Convic team for
overcoming the construction troubles here. This sure is a fantastic park and I wish it was near my house! The design is world class and has everything a skater would want, the bowls are a concrete paradise, and it's like riding a rollercoaster. There's loads of
small playful stuff here as well and it's a challenging park which will allow the kids to learn."

Willy Santos, a pro skater from California stated; " this park is un-believable. The paint on the half pipe needs to be improved but its still good to ride. There are so many pools and bowls and places to hit here. I think its great for China and the skaters, and it's a
win-win for both China and for skateboarding." Lincoln Ueda, a pro-skater from Brazil also agreed about the paint, he stated; "It's my first time here and enjoyed my visit a lot. I'm really happy for the
kids in China, they are lucky to have the park and hopefully in two years it will be permanently on (the World Cup) circuit. I'm stoked to be here and want to visit again to film as there's a lot of lines to find.
The people are super friendly and I'll be going home with a really good impression of China."

After the close of events on the first day the judges and some of the pros for the event sessioned the bowls. Dave Duncan, Steve Ruge, Sasha Steinhurst, Pierre Luc Gagnon and the parks creator Simon Oxenham plus some Aussie skaters were ripping big as they pulled two story high carves with foot wide smiles on their faces! The awesome sight of watching the giants of skate, not for money but for fun ripping in the largest park in the world, whooping with joy like
young kids on too much lemonade at a birthday party was a great highlight of the day, and a highlight of their trip.

Bowl riding is new to the skate scene here. China certainly has no shortage of streets and new office areas with wide, smooth pavements and the local police are OK with skaters to enjoy their sport. There are no anti-skate feelings here.

Concrete bowls are hard to find in China, and lack of bowls and bowl riding pictures in magazines means the young skaters here are focused on street. The 100 or so young Chinese skaters ripping the street course were oblivious to the presence of the giants with just
a few intrepid young locals dropping in on one of the smaller bowls and learning fast. Joe Eberling from Vans was there coaching them on in fluent Chinese and then explaining to the curious locals what the tricks and tips were all about.

One of the hottest Chinese skaters is Che Lin, at 24 is sponsored by Quiksilver, Gift, Raysys and Fly Skate Shop. He won the skate event at the China X Games and also at this year's China ISPO.
"I prefer street skating" he remarked.
" I started to skate after watching movies and have been skating for
about 10 years now. The ramp here is perfect for China but there are plenty of places to skate in the cities."
I asked him how many skaters he thinks are on a world class level, he replied "only about ten are world class right now. Skaters from around the world are certainly welcome here, we love to see foreign skaters and we will show you all the right spots to hit."
Max Chen is one of the best BMX'ers in China, he too loves the park. His favourite is in Shenzen. Max has been riding about 10 years and he stated; "right now there are only about five or six guys that are on a world class freestyle level."
I asked why compared with skaters there were not many
local BMX'ers there, considering that the bicycle is so popular here. He replied; "China is a bicycle country. Chinese people see a bike and they think it is for transport, not just for fun. BMX riding is not
popular (yet) here for two main reasons. One, it is dangerous, and with families only having one child the parents are reluctant to let their child and ride dangerously. The other is a good freestyle BMX is
expensive, around 300 US dollars in comparison to a normal bike costing around 20 US dollars." Max and his friends are addressing the problem. They have started their own BMX company named "Level" and have already started selling clothing and bike
accessories. They are also actively finding ways to make BMX frames more affordable, and have their own bike research factory. I tried one of their new bikes and found it quite tough and light, and Level is certainly a brand to watch in China over the coming years. "To all the BMX riders out there China is waiting for you" said Max.

I met with Wei Xing the Chairman of Action Sports Association, a division of the Government Sports Bureau.
He informed me at the Olympics in Beijing 2008 will feature BMX racing as an official sport for the first time in Olympic history, as well as holding action and extreme sports demonstrations.
"Our office is working hard to create more BMX tracks
and skate parks all over China" he stated. "I am visiting Camp Woodward early next year to learn more about the process of bringing up world class athletes from a junior stage. China is a sporting nation and we support action and extreme sports."
China is new on the action sports stage, but with comments such as those it's a safe bet in the not too distant future the rest of the world will be seeing Chinese champions competing at the top levels of action sports.

Robbie "Perella" Burns works for RealOne Sports, a
Shanghai based sports marketing and communication
agency. For more information about this article or on
RealOne Sports please contact Robbie "Perella" or
Frank "the Tank" at RealoneSports

Worlds largest skatepark (2024)

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