RockCity Skatepark Hull CLOSED!

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Not a FB user but my Mrs has just sent me this hence the copy & paste job.
Here’s the post from yesterday (07/09/19):

SKATEPARK CLOSURE UPDATE

We wanted to reach out to those who valued having a skatepark in Hull and we wanted to offer some light on what has gone on this year. Those of you who have not been part of the recent hate campaign might want to know the truth about some of the rumours that have been spread.

Rockcity Bowl did not close to make room for more climbing walls.

Rockcity Skatepark hasn’t closed to turn the space into more climbing walls.

Rockcity Skatepark hasn’t closed for financial reasons. The climbing centre is open every day as normal. #goodvibes

Rockcity Skatepark hasn’t closed due to a major incident, like the roof falling in or an accident or getting sued.

Rockcity is not under new management, it’s still run by the same rock climbers who listened to the needs of their friends who skated and shared some space within the climbing centre 24 years ago.

Rockcity Skatepark is not run for profit, if it was it would be open. It has been subsidised and only possible because of the climbing centre.

Climbing, Skate and BMX lived for many years in harmony, but recently there has been a lot of hate towards climbers on social media and in the skatepark which has led in part to this closure.

We are happy if Skate and BMX feel sufficiently independent now to go its own way, but we, Rockcity, are not the problem here. Eventually a good use for our space will present itself.

In January, we were invited to save Leeds Works, by our friends at City Bloc. In February we spent a month reclaiming and storing an entire skatepark that had closed suddenly (see photo), many skateparks have gone already and foolishly we felt we could do more to support skating and riding. Little did we know that only a few months later we would be on the wrong side of the line and climbing would become the enemy of skateparks.

We worked to get skateboarding accepted and included by Hull City Council, making it the UK’s only skateboard friendly city.

Its funny how in just six months everything has changed. The vandalism, damage to the ramps, the walls, the toilets, litter, abuse of staff from adults, parents and children using the skatepark. We could carry on banning people, arguing with people, stopping the fighting and generally having to be some kind of community wardens. It never used to be like this and we certainly aren’t going to carry on doing it.

We are truly grateful to those of you who came, saw and conquered our ramps and showed us genuine love at the same time.

It is shame to see it go, I skated it in its first 3 incarnations mid to late 90s, witnessed 2 sick Blueprint demos and The A-Team including Rodney’s crazy freestyle routine :exploding_head:
Hull does have 3 more outdoor parks but not ideal heading into winter.

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wait what? some skaters were dicks to some rock climbers so they closed the park to teach them a lesson? what’s going on here

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It certainly seems that way from the statement above. Never had any such goings on at any parks I visited including Rock city back in 90s there was always a mutual respect for other users and you had to pass through climbing area to get to the park then not sure if that had been changed but suppose things change society wise also. Our local is over run with with mouthy kids on scooters on a weekend who don’t think twice about snaking each other up let alone some guy nearly 3 x their age then telling you to f#*k off :rofl:

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Just had a browse through some of the comments on their posts.

Turns out kids/adults these days are entitled shits and I can’t say I’m surprised that trying to run a paid, indoor skate park in 2019 is a thankless task.

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This sucks. I think there is a bigger context here: the cuts to youth centres and programmes. Skate parks have become one of the key meet up places for young people and are having to operate as de facto youth centres, but they aren’t set up to work like that. Staff aren’t trained as youth workers and there’s not the same ratio of staff to young people. It puts a lot of pressure on the business.

Also, I don’t want to say “kids these days”, but there does seem to be a very small minority of young people who are pretty angry. I was at Long Eaton skatepark on Friday evening and witnessed a drunk dude in his 20s or 30s get knocked out and have his head split open by a group of chavs. Instead of doing one, they came back to the park whilst the man was waiting for an ambulance and tried to assault him again.

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I don’t understand why the rock climbers would have any effect on the skaters’ experience? unless they were climbing up the side of the ramps, or the park was made smaller at some point to accomodate a wall? skaters are so fucking entitled at times

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I’ve only been once since the last incarnation of the park and the skate-able area seemed huge compared to the climbing stuff. Had any space been taken away? I could see them getting rid of the foam pit as it was in a separate room.

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The climbing was always at the forefront as that is what it was long before the skatepark opened. I have not been either but it looks massive compared to what it used to do. As far as I can gather only the bowl was closed oroginally.

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This was my local and winter is going to suck.

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Might have already been brought up in here somewhere but I saw a poster about Rom being closed down after gaining its heritage(?) status a couple of years back.

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Can’t believe this,first went to the Rom as a kid of 13 back in 78 and went back a couple of years ago and was amazed how the place looked the same,this is the one park especially with the heritage thing that I thought would never go :disappointed:.

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So I wonder what happens to it? It’s listed so it can’t be demolished, right? So it will just sit there and rot, and be unskateable\unrideable?

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Rom was the closest park to me and first skatepark I ever went to. Can’t say I will miss it, the riding surface was so unforgiving, saw so many people break arms\legs there.

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Yeah really weird grey area I guess about what can happen with the future of ROM, be really interested to see what happens. Has it always been the case that’s it’s a helmet/pay in jobby there?

Re: rock city, I got to skate that park a handful of times and the climbing people at the counter were always so judgemental of skateboarders before we had even said anything to them. They made things so hard to skate that park in my few experiences of the place, and even if you were the most polite friendly folk would beef at you or warn you what not to do etc. Shame it came to that. I’ve always found climbing culture to be pretty arrogant and snarky.

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'There is also a new zero tolerance policy in place. The doors are open to anyone who brings respect and the door is closed to those who bring the hate. After All, It’s a skatepark, not a hatepark.

Thanks to our social media accounts we have managed to collect quite a big list of all the haters from the recent posts and these people are now banned from using Rockcity again. But, it is a shame to stop everyone else using it because of a few angry, selfish and bitter bullies that haven’t got anything decent to say about anything. They can click ‘UNFOLLOW’ at any time. If anyone else would like to be added to the list please jump on the hate train and comment accordingly.
Prices are based on who uses the skatepark and the real costs associated with each visit. This is mainly based on the litter dropped, the first aid needed and the wear and tear on the skatepark and the building.’

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Great news for all involved separate skate/BMX/scooter sessions sounds ideal if only our local park would follow suit.

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Sounds like all their issues were scootard related?

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Sounds like that was part of it. Honestly all indoor skateparks need to take measures on how it’s used by small kids on scooters. I’ve been to parks before where I’ve wanted to ask for a refund because the place is literally unusable for its purpose.

I’m still no closer to understanding what this was all about though. Without the full story and with the repeated use of the word ‘haters’ it kind of makes the skatepark staff look like petty whiners

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Makes you wonder what they’re doing to illicit all this hate.