Community response to the new Tampines skatepark. Comments taken from Facebook.
--"Finally after how many years of requesting a skatepark in Tampines now there's finally one!! :)"
--"Good to hear abt the upcoming park but am slightly disappointed cos it looks like there's no inputs from skaters again. The design of the park does look a bit dated.... Something more street friendly will be good. Ledges, manny pads, stairs / rails, etc like Stoner Park in the US."
--"Hey LionCitySkaters could you try approaching the town council to redo the park?and ask for a football sized flat ground for a D-I-Y spot?"
--"Exactly like queenstown skatepark."
--"Don't have rail?"
--"It's a waste of tax payers money building a skatepark like that, improper layout. I was expecting a mini half pipe. But nevertheless at last a proper place for the kids to skateboarding. Being grown up in Tampines, been skating around Tampines since childhood. It's like a decade they build one, thumbs up SG government."
--"What a wack (stupid/terrible) design....waste of money...can't they just build a simple street course..."
--"We should all buy cement and build our own instead of getting the government to do it for us."
--"Tamp sk8park so lame... like khatib. No rails and sooo small"
Lion City Skaters opinion:
Considering the size of area these are the wrong types of ramps. This should be a street styles park with box's, rails, manual pads and curbs. By having 3 large obstacles the space is poorly utilized. Furthermore, these ramps are identical to queensway skatepark. There is nothing special to draw kids and youth to the park. Nonetheless, it's great to have a new park! But it's a shame the end users, youth and skate community were excluded from the design and choosing of obstacles. No one asked the community "what do you want to skate?". Skate parks obstacles are expensive and this is an example of the Tampines Town Council throwing tax payers money down the drain.
(Click on image to enlarge)
These ramps are the Rhino Ramp brand and distributed by Playpoint Singapore. They do not hold up to Singapore's harsh outdoor environment. See Queenstown Skatepark damage.
We called the Tampines Town Council repeatedly and spoke to the project manager Mr. Ting who was unable to answer our questions regarding the skate park.
You can read our e-mail to the Tampines Town Council below, which we never got a reply too despite calling to remind them and using the contact form on their website to inquire about the new skate park.
E-mail to Tampines Town Council:
--"Dear Mr Ting,
To continue from our telephone conversation:
We are writing to you as representatives of the Singapore skateboarding community. We are a group of skateboarders that regularly meet to participate in skateboarding, organize events and carry out skateboarding workshops.
We have been receiving lots of questions and even complaints with regard to the Tampines Skate Park that is currently under construction.
These are the questions we would like addressed:
1. Was a meeting held to gather local user input on the the design of the skate park?
2. Were the end users given the opportunity to select the obstacles?
3. What has been the extent of skateboarding community involvement in this project?
Perhaps you would like to read about the downfalls of the last skatepark built in Singapore here:
Here is an extract from the link
"The Yishun -Yio Chu Kang Town Council and Playpoint Pte Ltd have not consulted any local skateboarders in the design, layout and choice of the ramps. As a result what could have been an amazing facility has now become a poor representation of what skateboarders in Singapore want and need.
We are already receiving negative feedback about the skatepark design and it's not even complete yet! This leads us to presume the local community hasn't been involved whatsoever in the project. Hopefully, this is not the case!
Sincerely,
Lion City Skaters
26 comments:
the tampines skate park is not a proper skate park, it is not what we as skateboarders want and would like. it is a shame to us and for us.
Its small, Hard for beginners, Shitty flooring and its not fun at all. Please make it better. The place have a lot of space and the skatepark can be bigger better most likely be like the skatepark at ECP.. So please listen to our voices even if its only once..
With all this poorly designed parks and obstacle and the people and council who are too arrogant or can't be bothered to consult the end users of the course that they built, I'd say we just revive the 90's where we skate public properties and run around playing 'catching' with the 5-0.
Dear person in-charge of the plans/designs of the skatepark, Why must you guys always make the same mistake. A little R&D(this means research and development) goes a long way. ASK, Research, Even fucking googling a skatepark can give you an example of a good skate park.
Perhaps you have a very tight budget; maybe go to a local skateshop or ask people to build stuff DIY or something.
I'm really pissed off with singapore not just you. Like seriously, you build this for people, don't you ask people with survey or something?
like the skatepark in yishun they have to buy some gate to close the park because i believe they didn't bother to do a little research that the area they are building a skatepark will affect the residence at night. As a result it closes at 8pm.
Let me ask you a question, what time do you finish work? about 6pm right? some of us finish at 7pm or 8pm. By the time you reach the park its fucking late. Then whats the point?
Then comes another issue at ECP skatepark. Its a good design but the fuck? its in the middle of a recreation spot, the fucking beach. The lights turns off at 10pm. Seriously? its fucking dark, i have seen many people get injuried because of lighting and don't get me started at somerset skatepark. just stay there at 10pm and see the place turn pitch black while people are attempting high risk tricks.
i sincerly hopes the world ends in dec 2012, because singapore really is a shitty place to live because of people in-charge like these; don't bother to even ask. Lame
this is a really sad moment in singapore extreme sports history. the structures /obstacles all look temporary.. and there is no intergration between the local community and the skateboard community.. a skate plaza can be a multi purpose area for the community to use also and safe the government alot of money.. jus tlook at our parks now that have "community plaza" they have not been use actively but instead been utilized by skateboarders only to have us been chase away by cops.
It's never been about skateboarding, it's always about money money money, and since play point Singapore distribute this stuff, and they probably won the tender since they are the only company that distribute these shit ramps. And since no one can compete to their shit pricing of crap ramp.
They probably won the tender, finish up the fucking project at a cheaper cost and made a huge profit. I believe the only way for them to listen is for a company, a skate company to win the tender first order a project management company that listens to skaters.
where the fuck is the skateboarding association of Singapore that was set up....?
WE SHALL MAKE OUR OWN SKATE PARK RAISE SOME FUND AND STOP COMPLAINING OR MAYBE OUR GOVERNMENT WHICH OWN THE WHOLE SINGAPORE COULD HELP US PLEASE... I'M VERY PISSED OFF EVERY TIME GETTING SPOT CHECK BY THE POLICE IN SINGAPORE JUST BECAUSE I STREET SKATE?? IF U ARE SAYING U ALREADY BUILD THE SKATE PARK AT EAST COST PARK AND IT COST A LOT OF MONEY?? U GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?? ITS ONLY ONE IN THIS COUNTRY MAN BE CONSIDERED ITS A WIN WIN SITUATION U GIVE US A GOOD SKATE PARK IN SINGAPORE WE WONT BOTHER YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD AND WASTING THE POLICE OFFICER TIME TO SPOT CHECK US... OWH DONT REMEMBER INDOORS SKATEPARK THATS THE MAIN THING WHY WE SKATERS SKATE UNDER HDB FLATS, CAUSE WE GOT NO INDOOR SKATE PARK!
"You made the decision to build a park for the skaters but yet not putting in effort to ensure that this is what the skaters want.... Just a total waste of time and money I say."
Its tinyyyyyy >< How to skate there? So small, so many Tamp skaters n crews :/ Ramp also so damn low --' Should build bowls and more launchers
can make the biggest shopping centre and yet make the lamest skate park eveer!
Town council in Tampines doesn't care about their skate community. It has been like this since day one.I guess the skaters living in Tampines had already given up hope on them.
Tampines produce the best skateboarders but the worst skatepark and support from their town council..SHAME!
To be honest its quite small and all but the floor is smooth.well atleast its better than nothing
if only Singapore government listens to what skateboarders want to make out of the park, and if only this kind of people are willing to come to Singapore, i'm sure everybody will be pleased. even though ecp is up to standard, skaters are not willing to go there everyday as it is very far for some people. we need more skate park like ecp. it doesn't have to be as big as ecp but the quality is important. that is what i think. this vid shows how much thought and co-operation the skaters and the builders put through just to build a skate park like this. hope this helps. :) http://vimeo.com/46685196
If residents are soooo concerned about keeping us off "their" property, then these skateparks definitely won't do the job. WE WOULD GLADLY GO TO SKATEPARKS, AS PER SHOWN THAT OF THE UNITED STATES, if Singapore's Town Councils actually gave a shit... If ya'll continue to build "up-to-standard" (according to their own), don't expect us to be rid of from your property, WHICH are most probably better than these skateparks.
: Why dont they even made a skatepark in sengkang ? We have a very big area that could create a skatepark and its like so akward , they chosee a place that is so small instead of a big one LCS can you convince the sengkang town council to create a skatepark ?
how can i learn new things when all of the skateparks in singapore is almost the same except east coast skatepark! how can we get much more good in skateboarding if there is no new things for us to do ? there is no stairs in singapore neighbourhood skatepark ! oh wait ... there is 2 of them who have the stairs... but its too small! its only 3-4 stairs! when you go to some american country, their stairs is so much taller and better! and tampines skatepark is so small.. need to be big and atleast have a grindbox like khatib skatepark but longer...
resident like to complain about us skatebording then why not have a skatepark in the west in bukit panjang i hope LCS would console the town coucil.
In singapore, Many people doesn't see skateboarding as a sport. To us, Skateboarding is like a whole new level of sports to us. We train hard, we spend time and days or even weeks to train on one tricks. It's the effort and time we put in, yet people doesn't see it as a sport. From what i see, People just judge you by skateboarding 'This kid doesn't have future, he just skate whole day' That's what i heard when i was out skating with my friends. Fuck, we need a good facilities to start from. Those skateparks are bullshits compared to UK or US. I really hope they would build one skate plaza so that all skaters can come together as one and skate together. Fuck the lights limit. Just don't off the lights at 10pm.
Few days back I notice an artical in Singapore Government is not poor . Which is true . Its nice to see Skateparks more and more in our homeland . But such a waste in seeing a poorly build skatepark which doesn't even attend to the needs of skaters fully . At least bring in LCS or any local skateboarders group in planning for the park .
Anyone tried the skatepark in Bukit Batok beside Blk 175 West Ave 8. I see it everytime i travel along the PIE to Tuas
We should all skate in front of the rc's then say the sk8 park here is too small
I just don't get it. They want us to reduce myopia (read: geekiness) by spending more time outdoor but they build more houses to make them spend more time indoor. People like to run, cycle, but we like to skate! At least 1 skatepark in every town.
if sg have woodward camp
Is this skatepark still around? Any other skatepark in Tampines?
Guys, modular skateparks are always built in Singapore because they were meant to be taken down.
Concrete parks are hard to demolish, and will only be built if they intend the park to be a long term existence, e.g. ECP skatepark.
As usual, the government is simply half-assedly addressing our wants with the hopes that the skateboarding "craze" will die down. Then they will demolish the modular park in a day's time, and install a new playground for all the imported FT children.
I wish our govt would care more, look at the name of the website, we are all obviously proud to be part of Singapore. Too bad the incumbent govt isn't proud of us.
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