The North has always had its fair share of skateparks and owing to the weather, if its not indoors it isn’t going to get skated a whole lot, it truly is grim ooop north. Thankfully along with the each negative point, there has to be a counteracting positive one, and in the North the skaters are blessed with a determination to step away from moaning about “there is nothing to skate” or “the weather sucks” and go and create.
Ramp City‘s wooden creation spans around 30,000 square feet, and is fully undercover. Housed here we have a couple of street courses with the usual up to date obstacles, Wembley/Euro gap, pyramids, steps, rails etc – street heads a certainly well catered for regardless of ability. There are essentially 3 ramps in the main room starting with the fun micro-mini spine ramp which incorporates a roll over and wallride setup. In the middle of the park is a 6 foot mini ramp that hips in to the street course. Sulking in the corner of the park is a mammoth 13 foot high vert ramp, so all aspects of ramp skating are more than covered.
The latest editions to the park have a room all on their own, the Simparch Free Basin and accompanying full pipe have found a settled resting place here at Rampcity. Perfectly reconstructed and illuminated these pieces of art are just a sight to be gasped at. The bowl has been traveling the world for around 8 years now and this elevated Kidney bowl stands around 6 feet deep and has been lovingly restored with cement pool coping, this is the real deal. The fullpipe is as inviting as it is imposing, with its over vert coping I think doom or glory awaits here – I think anyone who gets passed 9 o’clock deserves a pat on the back. I truly never thought I would see these kind of constructions in the UK.
Inside you will be well fed at the café as well or you can hit the pot-noodle vending machine if you are that way inclined! Also resident in the park is Big Woodys SkateShop, this is pretty much the epitome of a skater owner shop, fully stocked with core brands and certainly not shy to bang out the snapped kingpin you couldn’t get out of your venture truck! Woody is pretty much the law inside this warehouse of treats, it’s a great vibe to skate in.
Blackpool can be a bit of a trek, but get your crew to share some petrol costs and it’s a wicked day out, or if you fancy, its only a mile to Blackpool’s seafront so you could score a B&B for £20 and make a weekend of it! This park is rad and ever evolving; look out for a few new obstacles springing up in the near future…..
Sessions:
Sessions are 3.5 hours and £5 per session
Monday to Friday: 4.30 pm till 9.00 pm BIKES WELCOME
Saturday and Sunday: 10.00am ~ 4.30 pm SKATEBOARD and INLINE BLADE ONLY
Saturday and Sunday nights: 4.30 pm ~ 9.00 pm BIKES WELCOME
Rampcity is situated in the Marton area of Blackpool. For those traveling from out of town you need to come along the M55 to the very end ( do not turn off at Junction 4 ). The motorway regulations end and it becomes Yeadon Way ( A5230 ), now turn left at the first roundabout ( with metal artwork in the center ) within a hundred yards or so you will come to another roundabout take the 2nd exit which is Cropper Road . Ramp City WSA is approx. 200 yards along here on the right.
Address:
Ramp City WSA
Cropper Road
Marton
Blackpool
FY4 5LB
Tel: 01253 699005
Philip Procter