Palma de Mallorca, Spain - By Dean Tyrell: Posted 8-1-07
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Landscape Architects on LSD - Sadlands on Steroids
How about this spot in Palma de Mallorca, Spain? It's virtually made for skating, it even looks like a bunch of waves! Yeah it's 100% real!! The site is called Plaza Bellver. This spot used to get skated all the time, but police always promptly turned up and moved people on as it's in plaza of shops and residential flats (conveniently in the red-light district) Look closely and you'll see a 'love seat'/bench, plus rails and steps for the lollipop ollie-sliders. There's also some well positioned chunks of wood on the banks, and a nice carpet the floor of the 'half pipe' section. The latter all added to thwart skaters I guess. Anyway, the town council made up for this by building two skateparks here last year, with plans for 3 more in the pipeline requested by the local skate association, (the Spanish kids are really militant about this stuff) so this site isn't used much now.
The first time I saw this spot 7 years ago when I moved here, I couldn't believe my eyes. It's better than a lot of the parks we had in the UK in the late 70's. I actually thought for that it was a free mini park for a few moments, until I saw the obstacles, trees, shops etc. I think it's been there since the late 80's and must have been designed with (trippy) nautical theme in mind as Mallorca is stuck right in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, and the sea plays a big part in the culture here. I don't know who designed or built it, though for sure it is Gaudi inspired. You know how Spanish artists love surrealism.
Here are some pics of Plaza Bellver plus a couple of the skate spots the council built for us, not as interesting to look at but still quite skateable.
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Palma de Mallorca, Spain - By Dean Tyrell: Posted 8-1-07
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photos ©DeanTyrell