If the recent news about the Heritage listing of Rom skatepark didn’t put a smile on your face, its more than likely that you are cold and dead inside. This recognition of our culture from the most unlikely of corners – whether or not you are in to skating big, crusty transitions – is a small sign of a wider change in how ‘the authorities’ view us. Just look at the current crop of good quality concrete parks which are becoming the norm in skatepark building, compared to the Skatelite wank regularly commissioned to cowboy builders ten or fifteen years ago (the former of which all owe some kind of debt to Rom, and can’t match it for sheer white knuckle fear as you fly around).
While the argument about skate parks being used to cattle us off of the streets and justify street skating fines is still very much valid, I reckon that this path can be avoided by aggressively calling out any council attempt at such bullshit and nipping it in the bud. In the meantime use the opportunity to try and skate everything, then get yerselves down to Essex and soak in the good vibes oozing out of Rom’s rough-as-arseholes concrete. If it could tell stories, you’d hear about Lance Mountain flapping inverts in the pool, about Mattias Nylen doing a front blunt in the halfpipe, about Cardiel and TNT and the Gonz, about Munson, Raemers, Carl Wilson and Lee Blackwell tearing it a new one at various times over the years. Then it would try and tear your skin off, because Rom is basically the Buffalo Bill of UK skateparks and it doesn’t care if your man or woman, it just wants your flesh.
36 years of weathering do not make for the smoothest of parks, and part of the adrenalin rush as you try a trick is knowing how much slamming is going to ruin you. The park is an old, gnarled beast, a massive piece of the puzzle which makes up our skate history, and best of all it’s a guaranteed fun session. While you start checking train times and prices, here are a few of the gnarliest moments which have been captured at the park along with some words from long-time local ripper Dion Penman.
Paul Jones layback destruction courtesy of Monkeyglove
