Brief History

With demand in wheeled sports, follows the need for skatepark provision. Over the last 40 years, wheeled sports have suffered from 10 year waves of popularity resulting in a massive decline for skatepark provision.  This was especially predominant throughout the eighties and early nineties. 
 
Researchers believe movies like E.T. and Back To the Future were responsible for the rise in popularity in the late eighties, and thus brought about the resurgence of a new wave of skatepark design and construction.  Council provision around this era was merely the remnants of the old concrete skateparks such as Harrow and Livingston brought about by roller boot and skateboarding popularity in the late 70’s. 
 
Leslie Lipton, the father of a local skateboarder realised the lack of provision for wheeled sports and, in short, Freestyle Skateparks was born.     

Freestyle is now a well established company that has always been innovative and forward thinking.  We were one the first skatepark companies in the UK and we have been building skateparks for local authorities for over 20 years.

Freestyle Skateparks started out as a construction company specialising in timber skateparks.  We became famous for producing certain mini ramps that received cult status around the country in the early nineties.  These mini ramps became famous and received this cult status due to their popularity with professional riders such as Tom Penny, Alex Moul and Geoff Rowley.  These riders used to frequent these facilities and thus, they became embedded in the history of skateboard media. 

Uxbridge mini-ramp.  Circa 1990

During the nineties councils viewed skateparks as a way of reducing antisocial behaviour and realised that timber facilities were not ideal for the location of certain proposals and thus, steel fabrication in skatepark construction was viewed as a necessity. 
   

Eurosqeez Championships Circa 1994
 
Freestyle started to build in both timber and steel offering a wide variety of riding surfaces such as timber, steel, Skatelite and Duraskate.   The picture above illustrates one of the first portable steel vertical half pipes, built specifically for competition level.  This Freestyle construction was the first portable vert ramp to be used in European championship competitions.
 
Recent Years
 

Freestyle were one of the advocates for concrete as a material for use and are at the forefront of concrete skatepark design and build projects, today considered to be one of the leading skatepark construction companies in Europe, building skateparks across the UK and Ireland.  We construct in timber, steel and concrete. We strongly believe that all skateparks have their own identity and as such, we design to accommodate these factors with forward thinking, helping to ensure the successful longevity of our projects.  As a fully independent company, we are also not tied to any particular product.
 

Waterford Skatepark completed 2007
 
Freestyle offers an unrivalled and comprehensive range of services. From conceptual through to complete design and build projects. Our very experienced team includes: professional designers; engineers; architects and experienced skaters. We can also supply groundwork, fencing, lighting, seating etc. All of our parks are built to the highest standards, require minimal maintenance and are comprehensively guaranteed.