Welcome to the New Site

We at Skaters for Quality Skateparks, a collection of skaters, advocates and concerned citizens, have created this website to share our opinions about American Ramp Company and the sub-par skateparks we feel they are selling.

In several situations, we've approached cities who have been speaking with American Ramp Company (Hardcore Skateparks is the same company) and warned them that they should do more research before moving forward. Telling cities to check out the American Ramp Company park a few cities over or quoting posts from angry skaters in skateboarding forums has not been enough though. Skaters and advocates who question American Ramp Company's legitimacy and credibility, once they've already been working with the city, are often viewed as ungrateful and as a roadblock to the skatepark being built. Thus, we've created this website to provide a single location with information about American Ramp Company. This way the skaters and advocates who are trying to do the right thing can appproach their city with stories about American Ramp Company's skateparks and the city can decide for themselves if that is the company they want to work with.

This website is not meant to endorse any particular skatepark vendor or slander American Ramp Company. Rather than posting biased opinons, this website links to credible newspaper articles and third-party websites. Our only goal is to help communites with good intentions realize their goal of creating a quality skatepark by being aware of information that often falls through the cracks. This website's purpose is to educate the public and raise awareness - skateparks built with low quality standards lead to safety issues - and the public deserves to know if their skaters are being put in danger.

Please read further or check out photos of low quality skateparks here.

Bradenton, Florida Skaters Angry about Hardcore Skateparks

Full article here

http://www.bradenton.com/2011/07/27/3376165/skateboarders-pained-at-park-builder.html

With construction of the $6.2 million Riverwalk project slated to begin in a month, the project’s leaders are facing an outcry over a pivotal feature: the Riverwalk Skate Park. City council members received several emails over the weekend from adult leaders of Bradenton’s skateboarding community objecting to the choice of Hardcore Shotcrete Skateparks Inc. to build the skate park.

“Bradenton has a unique opportunity here to be at the forefront of a progressive urban environment,” Darrah said. “We’ve got a shot at being an example for small and big cities all over the country. With such a high-profile project, it doesn’t make sense to look at a contractor that the skateboarding community has always asked not be involved.”

Cantwell and Darrah said they first asked NDC in May not to consider Hardcore. The two said the company’s owner, American Ramp Co., has a bad reputation among skateboarders for building municipal skate parks that weather poorly and require extra maintenance.

They’re concerned that serious skateboarders, and the high-profile events they can generate, will be driven away by the Bradenton park’s association with American Ramp Co. Darrah cited several websites formed specifically to warn against American Ramp Co., and also sent city council members links to stories about cities who have had issues with the company. “(The park) is not going to give the business draw that they’re expecting,” Darrah said. “It’s not going to meet the needs of the end user, which is the skateboarding community.” Cantwell said more than 200 local skateboard enthusiasts have expressed support for Team Pain as the subcontractor. But Allen said his staff members had spoken with several cities who expressed satisfaction with Hardcore. A spokesperson for Hardcore denied that Hardcore was owned by American Ramp Co., although Missouri’s division of corporations lists American Ramp Co. as the company’s owner.

The American Ramp Company Story

The full story behind American Ramp Company and Hardcore Shotcrete Skateparks.

Hardcore Skateparks Creates Bad Blood in Holden, Mass

Hardcore Shotcrete Skateparks (which also goes by the name American Ramp Company and SOLO Skateparks to most likely skirt their terrible reputation) was hired by the Town of Holden, Massachusetts earlier this year to design their skatepark. A news article has just came out talking about why Hardcore Skateparks created bad blood with the skatepark committee and has now appeared to been replaced by a local architect.

"Yet the process has been slowed by obstacles along the way, from opposition to the location at Eagle Lake, to struggles getting design input from Holden skateboarders and most recently communication troubles with Hardcore's landscape architect Mark Leone.

"The principal designer that we were dealing with had been moved to the west coast, and we weren't notified," said Morano, who said that everything came to a standstill. "It kind of created bad blood for me. How high are we on their list of projects when they kind of dropped us without any notification?"

Full article here, http://www.thedailyholden.com/news/holden-skate-park-project-finds-new-hope-funds