REVIEW | Best Skateparks Around Vancouver

Photo Credit: City of Vancouver

As the weather improves, we are bound to see more skateboarders, both beginner and experienced, around the city. Where are they going? With so many skateparks around, where should they go? There are a variety of skateparks in the Greater Vancouver Area - here are both my opinions and those of other teenage skateboarders of Vancouver skateparks.

Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant Skateboard Park is my local skatepark and where I first started to skateboard. Although the park is small, the vibe is great especially when other skaters are there. Mount Pleasant is a good place to skate as a beginner.

“The features at Mount Pleasant are sticky. The quarter pipe is too big for the park,” said Owen Tam (11). According to Karim Elrfaey (11), the skatepark is kind of small. “Once, I was going fast up a ramp and flipped over it because there was no flatground at the top.” 

Elrfaey also pointed out that the park is easy for beginners, because the features are not big. Tam agreed; he learned to skateboard at Mount Pleasant as it is close to his house. 

“It’s got some basic ledges, rails, and ramps,” Tam said. “It’s not super busy. It can get busy, but it’s a chill park.”

Tam and Elrfaey both said that the skatepark is an ideal place to meet people. They pointed out that the bench inside the skatepark is where skaters can relax together.

Finally, Elrfaey expressed his disdain for all of the children who ride the skatepark on scooters. “Especially at Mount Pleasant, the scooter kids are so annoying”, he pointed out.

Their opinions are different from mine as I love Mount Pleasant. The atmosphere, obstacles and people are great. The skatepark is worth a visit for you to decide this for yourself.

Quilchena

Quilchena Skateboard Park, known as Quils in the skateboarding community, is the main skatepark on the west side of Vancouver. There are different sized features all over the park that people of all abilities skate.The skatepark can be very hot as it is in the direct sun. Quilchena is a good option for all kinds of skaters. 

I interviewed Leighton Wesenberg (10) from Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School to get another perspective of the skatepark. “The ledges are a good height. They are not massive and they grind well,” he said. “There are some good ramps but one of them is weird, it’s steep and not a lot of people use it”. 

He has been to Quilchena many times, and the smaller ledges have helped him progress to larger ones. “Overall, I would say that Quilchena is one of the least sketchy skateparks”, shared Wesenberg. “Sometimes at Quilchena there’s some odd dudes, but other than that it’s pretty good to socialize at. There’s little kids, a playground nearby, it’s just a really chill place.” He also told me that the ground at Quilchena is not as smooth as other skateparks. “It hurts if you fall”, he said. 

Quilchena is not my favourite skatepark because I do not like the atmosphere, but it is fun to ride with friends.

Photo Credit: CBC

Plaza

The Plaza Skateboard Park (commonly known as Plaza) is placed right below the Dunsmuir Viaduct on Union and Quebec Streets. Plaza is one of the largest skateparks in the city and one of the few skateparks in Vancouver focused on the street style of skateboarding, which includes ledges, rails, drops and stair sets. The ground on the park is noticeably smooth and slick. This can be both good and bad. It is harder for your wheels to grip the ground when landing tricks, but can be helpful as you will slide on the ground when you fall, rather than slamming into it.

Plaza is a sketchy skatepark initially, but it becomes more comfortable the more you skate it. I sometimes need to avoid beer cans, urine, or syringes. As a beginner, Plaza is intimidating and harder to skate. Once you advance as a skater, it is a very good skatepark.

“The features at Plaza are very good”, declared Jamie Kim (11). “It’s very street skating oriented. There are a lot more ledges than ramps, which I prefer.” Jamie says there is a large community of higher skilled skaters at Plaza. Many professional skateboarders skate there. “You skate with better people, you become better yourself”, Kim shared. “Plaza is very good as a social place. There is a big community.” 

Cohen Milisavljevic (11) agrees that there is a large community of proficient skaters at Plaza, most of whom are nice. “Some people are really good and some people are not so good, but still there is that community,” said Milisavljevic. “It’s in a good area because it’s right next to downtown and the train stations. It’s a Vancouver icon.” 

Plaza is definitely worth a visit, even just to watch some very good skaters ride the skatepark.

UBC

The UBC Skate Park is a park for all ages and abilities on campus at the University of British Columbia. It is best for beginners to go earlier in the day, when the park is emptier. The skatepark is quite big and has good ramps, rails, ledges and a nice stair set. This skatepark is a great place to skate at on sunny and cold days, since there are lots of warm restaurants and cafes to go to. I have met many skateboarders of all ages at the UBC Skate Park. It is a great place to socialize if you are outgoing. 

“I think the features at the skatepark are great, but it’s missing some more ramps. It has lots of rails and ledges but there is only a small bowl and that’s about it. I’ve skated there a lot and I think I’ve improved a lot there because they have beginner friendly features. It’s good for all levels,” shared Dinu Spataru (9). He added that he believes that the park should have more beginner friendly ramps for skateboarders to practice tricks on. Ramps like these have helped his own skate progression in the last couple of years.

Courts

The Courts Skateboard Park is a do it yourself (DIY) skateboard park located in the tennis courts of Britannia Secondary School. The ground is rough, but the ramps are smooth. The Courts attract a wide variety of skaters, and people from across the Lower Mainland come to skate it. I have always had a blast skating at The Courts. It has an addictive rough feeling. Otto Alcock (9) thinks “the features at The Courts are okay. They’re pretty small mostly. They’re kind of slippery, but I like how they skate.” When asked about the social scene at The Courts, he stated that “there’s a big community at The Courts, and there’s a lot of people there to skate with. There is a good and nice vibe there. There’s a lot of conversation going on and music playing, compared to other parks that are just silent a lot of the time.”

Kensington

Kensington Skatepark is one of the most popular skateparks in East Vancouver. A main attraction of the skatepark is the gigantic bowl in the middle. The deep end of the bowl sits at nine and a half feet deep. There are some beginner features in the park, but most of it is taken up by the bowl. 

Milisavljevic shared that most of the skatepark is transition focused, meaning it has more ramps than rails or ledges. He also pointed out that there is an obvious way to skate the park, which is around the bowl. There are small ramps that Milisavljevic learned his tricks on and large ones that he currently practices on. 

When asked about how the park impacted Milisavljevic’s skateboarding progression he stated that “because the park is so transition focused [he] tend[s] to do a lot of transition tricks.” He also shared that “the social aspect of Kensington is really good. [He has] been skating there for five years and it’s good if you’re younger or older. There is always a community there for older people. You always feel like you have someone at the park. I think that you should come to Kenny [Kensington] to see the bowl and try to skate it. There is graffiti but it is insanely fun.”