Spot Check: Alford Skate Park, Aberdeenshire

12 October 2005



Really different spot this one, nestled in between a dry ski slope and a school in the small town of Alford, Aberdeenshire, is a 6ft double bowl with very strange lines and an flow to it. Strange isn't it how a town of 1,400, and without disrespect, in the middle of nowhere can have a dry ski slope and a skatepark, yet a city servicing over 200,000 has nothing anywhere near what they have. I digress.



Layout: 2 6ft Bowls back to back adjoining via a curved spine that expands into a 51/2 ft 'teat'. A large flat area cornered twice at 5ft enclosing the park, and a 7 ½ - 8 ft vert section to the right of the park as you face the bowls. There is a 2 1/2 ft 'Animal Chin' 'mini' cut into the side facing the teat and a pointless, platformless, roll in perpendicular to this. These two things are pointless, and annoying, as is the steep bank disecting the park as it changes from 6 to 5 ft.

Oh yeah and some crappy flatbars dotted around that both have bad run up.



Although not everyone's cup of tea this place is a beautiful disaster of a park, the original plans incorporated a driveway in the flat bottom, which would have rendered the place un-skateable, by some stroke of luck the idea was overruled and hey presto, you can shred it!

The main bad points about this park are that the coping is too flush for grinds where your weight is out of the bowl, the wobbly-ness of the over vert wall, the park drops a foot, over the distance of about 2 ft which results in a short sharp flat bank running the entire width of the park, a real bad idea, oh yeah and the drains are gnarly as f**k.



Colin Kennedy, Pivot Fakie >>









Pluses of the park far outweigh the bad points though, not in number of points, more from the

sense of gratification you get from over coming all the awkward quirks, that there are so many of..

But be aware, it's one of a kind, and it's tough to skate.

Use of the teat is the crucial aspect of this parks success, you have to use it on every pass, pumping it allows you to keep your speed round the walls of the bowls. There's an awful lot of carving to do there, and speaking as an aging skateboarder, I suggest you invest some time into learning the art of the carve. With a bit of learning you lines you can get round this park fast.



<< Andy Dobson, Layback Front Rock







Parks like Alford are special, it's the uniqueness of a park like this that makes it stand out from the crowd, councils all over the world, not just Scotland, are guilty of opting for the pre fabricated, mundane, park that town X, 20 miles away, has.

It's small independent projects, like this one, that will prove essential to the

furthering of skateboarding in Scotland.

Extra Bonus Points For:

The amazing steak pies from the bakers just down the road
The fighter jets that sometimes scream over head
The lights!!!
The mad Janny fae the school who thinks everyone using the park are clueless morons, well, i suppose some of us are...