Turning an Old Pergola into a Skate Ramp

It was all a while ago now but it brings back such good memories. When I was sorting out some of the old digital photos (that were stored all over various different PCs and hard drives) I came across a group of shots which show what I thought was interesting an timeline of a project that lasted many years. I thought it might make a good first post in the Build-It Hive community.

It all started around 2010 when my son and his mates got into riding scooters at the local skate park. Back then most of our local skate parks had pretty steep bowls and half pipes, which had pretty scary vertical drop ins for beginners.

There was no way I could have done it when I was a child with my extremely limited experience on a skateboard. I actually struggled to stay on skateboards even on the flat. Anyway, my son and his mates where keen to try, so one afternoon I knocked up a rough ramp with less vertical drop so they could practice.

The narrow single lane proto type was so popular that soon after I turned it into a wider set up so the could do more tricks.

Over time I added extra additions and improvements and it wasn't long before it almost filled the whole back yard, right next to our old pergola.

Luckily I have been a tradie most of my adult life. I've worked on lots of big jobs and construction sites which often had left over materials that were too good to throw out. Since I had a decent sized storage shed at home I had saved a lot of things. I knew they would come in handy one day!

From memory I had most of the structural stuff lying around and just needed a couple of hundred Australian dollars worth of sheeting ply to make a decent surface for them to ride on.

The next major change was when I upgraded our outside pergola area. (That could be a whole post on its own as I bought a custom kit and assembled by myself, with a little help from friends, over about 3 months. But I'll have to come back to that one as I haven't found all the photos for that yet).

The old pergola was all nice hardwood timber. The ramp needed moving a bit and was in need of some major repair from all the use and weather it had coped over the years.

The boys helped where they could and it was a great building, designing and learning experience for us all. No instructions or plans, just ideas and Goggle searching. Lots of trial and error, just working it out with what we had available. The budget was limited but we really enjoyed trying to make it work with what we had. It was repaired and remodeled in our spare time around my work and kids' school.

The ramp was well used every single day after school and on the weekends. It was used by lots of kids in our street as well as my son's school friends for many years.

This photo shows more adjustments. Basically they just wanted more space on the landing and a seating area, plus a spank. I had to look that one up: a spank was just a flat, sloping down ramp to land a jump.
(You can see the pergola posts and beam reused above in this photo)

A photo from the rooftop, well before drones were a thing.

This is the Spank we built. We also had to cover the timber with thin, 3mm metal sheets as the plywood and paint just couldn't handle the weather and constant use.

Eventually my son and his mates moved from scooters to skateboards, then got jobs and started riding motorbikes. The ramp got less and less use over time. It fell into disrepair and ended up at the dump. A great memory of which I am constantly reminded as even years later, the grass still has not fully grown back. Fun times indeed.