Rollerblade parks and the like for inspiration

sick at home currently so i have even more ideas man. Sorry gets long

So i was thinking about playing the game and while i´m mostly skating realistically, in the real world i´d probably still be one of the best skaters of all time.

I mean i love to think out of the box to find something fun. Even building stuff myself. And i find something new everyday. But overall especially with parks, there isn´t that much specifically designed for that kind of playing. You know those heart skips a beat kinda spots where you have to clear a gap or something. Bit of this rollercoaster vibe from the megaparks but somewhat realistic.

I think one issue is that the realistic spots are made based off of real stuff (and also modern) and while the game is close to that it is still it´s own thing (bigger) and i think should also be viewed in that way. 

So that got me thinking where to draw inspiration and what the devs said in an interview about being influenced by bmx and snowboarding for the sumr camp just shrinking it down.

So i figured the main difference between real skating and the game is that you have a lot more control and the board is practically attached to your feet.

Now what sport has things attached to your feet and is a lot like skateboarding just slightly bigger. Rollerblading! While of course all the action sports work as inspiration, i think that one is already really close to the physics of the game in terms of how obstacles are hit. How high. How fast.

So i went through parks designed for that. Only problem, with how unpopular that sport is, there simply are not many parks for it, but there is this huge contest once a year called winterclash.

It´s held at an existing Park in the Netherlands that again is build with skateboarding in mind. But is an old school street course with a lot of transition and for the contest they just build stuff to attach to the existing obstacles. Sadly i couldn´t find any good photos of just the set ups so you have to go through their video edits. But there are a lot of cool, really weird and interesting obstacles (and some goofy stuff) even just rails angled in a cool way. Also often times everything can be hit from multiple angles(like a lot of angles). That contest has been going for a long time. I guess the most interesting stuff in terms of obstacles happened in the last 10 years. Not all gold i think so you have to dig a bit. 

So i was trying some things inspired by their stuff and made a small edit to showcase examples of what you can do with it. Because of the itemdrop limit a lot of my stuff is really rudimentary, so sometimes you have to use our imagination to make it look like a funbox. Also think of possible variations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWK-ULg9-oA

First two work great as is with the angles of the things i built them on.

The first thing is a rail planted at bonski on the huge bank on the side leading to the hotel pool. That one is working almost perfectly as is, it´s just a tiny bit too long at the bottom so you don´t land in the transition and lose too much speed. The extension at the top is also perfect so you barely ever get thrown off there. It´s a 2 Support low rail planted as high as possible on the coping. Top support over the coping works too but then it throws you out more when coming down cause it´s not as steep. Height is also just perfect.

This thing is a lot of fun. When you hit the rail at the top it´s this zero gravitiy feel and then it´s extremely steep. You can grind it bottom to top and back. You can hit it from the staircase gap which feels insane. Also from the quarters on the side. Stall on coping, jump to grind down. Hippyflip it (i´d really like to see someone doing a hippy flip over the top support) and stall on the top of the rail (though that often doesn´t work because the game straightens you out parallel to the ground when you jump off)

That thing also attracted a lot of people to try it out. So i think that could even just be added as a fixture to bonski (also because it´s a pain to set that thing on the coping)

Second thing is a wall ride with rail extensions built on the church funbox. Overall works well but the x games wall sometimes throws you off. Same with the rail-extension on the top. Bottom rails work great. Angle even makes the wallride animation look good mostly (especially if you go big and only hit it at the end).

Done by putting down the thinnest manny pad, then a standard grindbox on top. There are two stripes on the ground. The outher edge of the grind box is on the inner stripe. Can vary, this sets the angle of the wallride. Wall is that x-games backdrop thing. If you pull it against the grindbox it should fall back against the rail of the churchbox(sometimes super slow so be patient). Then low 2 support rails slightly angled away from the wallride. Glued a rail on the top too to extend the grind and add a drop to flat.

That thing is also great fun. Can grind the top. wallride. wallride to grind. grind to wallride to grind (barely) grind to grind (all weird though) jump over the box to grind. Probably needs an edit beforehand to show what you can do. Had that thing up for 2 afternoons and absolutely no one understood what to do with it.

The other stuff is more low effort mostly just works and showing the vibe. Glueing bike racks on walls is always cool though. At the 2023 winterclash they had this huge curved rail on a box that was sitting on top of a really broad bank. I tried with the curved rail on the bank in boski but that really wasn´t it. bank is too steep, the rail is too curved and the gap to reach it too small, but the real thing looks like it could be a lot of fun in the game. 

Guess the design philosophy is that there´s always some whoa/ooooh s%&t moment to it wenn riding these things. Also rollerbladers really like transitions. So think 90s parks. No pushing. 

Also because it´s just for a contest they can design everthing for the best of the best. So there´s is stuff you won´t find at a standard park because the average skater simply can´t do anything with it. In that regard those one off skateboard contests with parks made for super pros also often have bigger stuff.

So second thing i´d like to add is hitting up pro park designers for their crazy ideas they plan for fun. You know the stuff they´d build if they didnt have to care about beginners or people not dying.

Third thing. I think the mega park style snowboard course stuff would also work for street. Just shrink it down and make it less steep. Think everything between super chill downhill and mega ramps. Also Pump tracks. The one on grom is awful, stadium is okay but not much happending. I think there is a world of possibility here if you get the flow right. think crossover snowboardcross and something like a not so tight mogul-slope-skiing (or whatever that thing with the bumps is called), then just add obstacles. Again think all kinds of sizes.

So there is just a lot of space between realistic and mega park that is not really explored and probably hides a lot of fun possibilties. Also not so strictly adhere to classifications. A street course can also be in a giant bowl. Bit like rolling waves but that´s still pretty separated.

Disclaimer: I´m not saying this is better than that and this should be the way (Except that i think the focus for inspiration should be more on the actual game than on real skateboarding or somewhere in between). Just some thoughts on different approaches to add more variety and something for everyone(me in this case) to the spots. 

Other stuff i like: Rails general can have a really different feeling depending on how they are fixed. There is a rail in the p-hus that is planted in the wall. Feels different. Also rails on ledges. Feels like a small gap. Hint: Double grinds work really well in this game. In hedgemont there is a rail planted on a thin ledge where you can grind both parts at the same time. Also handrails that are not as steep as the stairs and therefor end in a drop.  High rails in general. There is one on that small house at impervatower plaza that is almost head high. Feels great but has an awkward runoff.

Okay way too long, have a good day, thanks for reading

Cheers!