This has turned into one of the most interesting discussion on the forum for a while.
I am conflicted about skating schools. I completely understand that schools are horrifically underfunded and adding anything to their upkeep costs is terrible. At the same time, because they are so underfunded, school buildings (more so than other types of building) often date back to the post-war period (before blind bumps, 'ealth and safety etc. etc.) so do contain some gems or at least quirks. But not all schools by any means.
I learnt to skate on school yards. There wasn’t a skatepark where I lived and, to echo what others have said, school grounds were pretty accessible. I also liked the fact that school premises were nearly always deserted on a late evening or weekend. They were good to fall over in away from judgemental people.
Do I skate schools now? Yes, I can’t help myself and still jump the odd fence. The thumbnail for this video is from a very skatebale school:
Very stoked on all this! Made do skating my fair share of shit schoolyards as a kid but this convo got me thinking that I never found anything good/interesting and they’ve never had much presence in bigger UK videos
That one school in Bromsgrove with the two rails was hot for a minute in mags and videos @Haven_Hamilton_Official The one where Grove had the Sidewalk cover flip front boarding and Vaughan nollie tailslides the other, bigger green rail in his Lost & Found part.
Someone, John Fisher maybe, had the key code to get into that place so you could drive in with generators and whatnot.
The caretaker was cool too.
Relatedly for the longest time I didn’t realise that the picnic benches in American videos were generally made for kids and not actually the same size as the ones you might find in an English beer garden and so it got to me that I could only just manage to ollie onto one by getting my front wheels on.
I skated that place a lot when I first moved to Oxford and got friendly with Alex.
One of the first times I met him and were getting ready to skate that spot I put a knee pad under my jeans on top of a knee gasket because I had a little chip of bone floating around in my kneecap.
I clearly remember Mouly going “What the fuck are you doing? Are we skating vert?”
Lol.
I kick flipped that grass gap next to the handrail numerous times in that session complete with vert leg [/cmoac]
This is the other rail/stairs that were famous in Sidewalk/ Document for a while and in UK videos.
Apologies for the shot screen caps - it’s Vaughan Baker from Lost & Found.
Just hyped on the convo
