What would say is a distinguishing characteristic of a Glifberg park design?

I think something that’s good to look at, you know? Skates good and is good to look at. That’s what we like to take pride in, making something that looks rad.

Yeah, aesthetics are definitely important, people forget that

Well it is to us, a lot of skateboarders might not give a shit? They just want to skate and don’t care what it looks like. The feel and the vibe of a place that you skate is super important, as skateboarders we’re really attracted to spots – whether they’re truly urban, a full pipe, a ditch – that look cool. We want to skate stuff that looks cool, and we want to film on stuff that looks cool, it just makes it that much better than your standard park that has a quarter pipe and a flat bar. One where the elements are all there but there’s nothing that makes it interesting. Designing parks where you can go take photos and film stuff and be stoked on it, that’s pretty rad I think. You feel more at home being there, and are more inspired to use the park, it’s not just a training facility, it’s a cool place that you feel inspired skating at.

“I don’t think councils realise what potential a good skatepark has as far as money coming in is concerned”

With the Olympics around the corner, where do you see the future of skatepark design heading?

Well I think that a lot of countries, cities, city councils etc will be investing more money into it. Whether its government funded sports budgets or Team England – whoever the money comes from – hopefully a lot more parks are going to get built. I think if you build parks of a certain look, scale and proportion it’s a good investment for cities to make. It’s not like putting in another football field, baseball diamond, rugby fields where whatever you build is exactly the same.

Skateboarders by their nature are explorers, they want to get out, travel, film, be creative in new surroundings, that actually creates skateboard tourism. Say a city council puts in a million pounds or whatever into a skatepark that looks super rad, they put the city on the map. People will see it through the internet and they will want to go; not just locally either, people will come from all over and that means you’ve got money coming into the city. The local shops, hotels and pubs will be making more money, if its small place in the countryside of England that money could be helping that place to survive. That’s how it is in Denmark anyway.

A lot of these suburban cities, or countryside cities, all the kids as soon as they’re 17/18 they go to the big city as that’s where all the fun is at. If there’s stuff there to keep them excited about their hometown, a good skatepark or whatever else they’re into, that’s what will keep those small local communities alive. Bringing in tourism is a great way for city councils to make money, I don’t think they really realise what potential a good skatepark has as far as money coming in is concerned. It may sound stupid to a lot of people, but I really believe that’s a true theory. You won’t get the investment back over a year, but over 5-10 years it can happen. The city that Streetdome is in, they have a sign on the freeway that says Streetdome, just how they would if it was Stonehenge or something like that.