Yer but thats like you prancing around Wakey smoking a fat one haha.
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Even before though - laws being the way they are now, I would not want to be trying to explain why I’d climbed into a school man.
Be careful
I have no moral aversion to bunking fences to skate a school. It’s more of a practical issue these days. It’s not that I’m incapable of doing it, even though I’m technically ‘getting on a bit’ I still have monkey like abilities when it comes to climbing things. It’s just that schools have ramped up security to such a crazy degree over recent years that getting in is like trying to break into Stalag Luft III or whatever.
For example, there’s a cool little spot at a local primary school - small bank, smooth flatground, couple of tiny benches and a manny pad - where, not that long ago you just walk through the open gate after hours or,at a push, hop the waist high fence around the back of the site and wander across their playing field. You now have to bunk the locked gate, avoid the cctv cameras then climb two 12ft+ anti climb fences whilst hoping you don’t get busted by either the security patrol people or the on site caretaker. It’s just such a pain in the arse that I can’t be bothered with the hassle any more.
During lockdown I regularly skated another school until I got kicked out by staff members a couple of times who seemed confused that I thought it acceptable to just hop over the fence from an adjacent field, (that and the fact that they expected a spotty teen but when they got up to me it turned out that I was twenty years older than them probably added to their bemusement). When I came back the next time they’d added Heras fencing around the actual fence and covered the top in grease rendering it unclimbable. All of that, I assume, just to stop me from skating flatground as far as you could get from any of the buildings whilst still being on the property. The spot’s not good enough to warrant finding another way in so I’ve given up on that one too.
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Mate I’ve been skating once this year and it wasn’t even in this country. I’m not hopping shit haha.
Certainly used to.
Back in the 90s I got pulled over by a police officer who had been watching us skate a school in Richmond (North Yorks). He said that he suspected us of being drug dealers. We replied ‘On a Sunday? We’d be the shittest drug dealers going. Since it’s closed.’
War Memorials were always a no, no for us as yoofs and still is of course.
After Dunblane schools became a major bust, rightly so. Also with nonces and high terror alerts these days I can understand they don’t need the stress of skaters jumping fences. Even if it is weekends and school holidays.you probably look like you’re casing the joint too.
Skaters are also one less hassle the NHS can do without, really sick people don’t want to hear the noise of a session going on outside. Plus the A&E staff having to deal with drunk or people on drugs don’t need skaters on top, again with high thefts going on too.
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I think it used to be different partly because schools never used to be entirely fenced off like they are now not quite public spaces but people would use the fields outside school hours.
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There was an old people’s home/end of life facility in my hometown that had an almost perfect 5 stair with an out ledge and flatbank combo - perfect in every other setting but no one ever skated it because even as teens it felt inappropriate.
Places of worship, war memorials and hospitals also felt no go to me. But schools are fair game (I guess until you’re old enough to send a child there).
What’s interesting to me is how access to schools has changed over the past 20 years. We’d skate my local primary school in 2003, but the playgrounds and fields would then also be used at weekends by people in the local area to play footie, ride bikes with their kids etc. it was like semi-public space. Now the same school has double height fences all around and is fully locked down.
Though I went up visit a friend in a small town in the midlands recently and took her young kids to play in the school grounds and that had no fences, so guess it depends where you live.
Tldr, what Mark just said
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Had to go over to a school on a filming mish with my mate who said about some benches to skate last year but thankfully, said school wasn’t a mission + one of the boyos knew the owner and they were sound with it, as long as we put the benches there back and didn’t damage stuff etc.
Totally wasn’t worth it, ground was probably only good back in '92 or something and the benches were shorter than I.
There are these dope benches in the school dead opposite mine but they make the schools as accessible as Fort Knox nowadays and it totally isn’t worth it just for a row of benches. Kept telling the boys who want to skate them that, the fence to get in looks like it’ll probably rip your knackers off or finger or two on a wrong move plus er, it just isn’t really that worth it.
Hate having to say why you’re hopping fences to said places as well, another point on why it’s not worth it. Bad enough having to deal with normal folk at spots who just don’t get it any other time, let alone a bloody school.
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This one school in Oxford the fence was easily 15ft high that we used to climb.
This is close to that school, and with a minimal bust factor.
don’t get me wrong, if i’m asked to leave a spot i won’t get aggy or anything (usually just give it the “I’m training for the olympics” bullshit these days) but everything in the streets is fair game. some have a higher bust factor and i’m not skating anywhere i could actually hit people
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On top of the nonce factor, school spots are the blandest, most soulless places to visit.
Footage always looks so pedestrian
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I’ve a theory, which I’ll never prove, that handrails in schools are lower than the normal, uneducated handrails, because they’re built for smaller people.
That’s why all 2000s American footage is in schools because they were too short or too shit to film handrail tricks at Morrisons where the adults were.
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It’s elementary.
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Is there ever actually good spots in UK schools? Coverage wise there’s been a couple of handrails over the years but for whatever reason in my experience UK school infrastructure is a bit shit and spots are always off in one way or another.
There’s a whole U.K. video about them - Playing Fields, hehe… in all seriousness Alex Moul did an NBD on a school rail in that.
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Be interested to see anyone’s good UK school spots old or new as I’ve never found one
This school in Abingdon (the same one @voodoo mentioned) was cool.
Bunch of mini rails and mini carlsbad gaps.
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My old secondary school has banks straight outa an old santa cruz vid stairs, rails manny pads. Still gets sessioned occasionally by the new breed of Barrow skaters.
The college around the corner has the funnest bank too as well as a couple stair and rails.
Barrowlona
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