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STREET RAMPS PART 1
The first ramp I ever skated was a make-
shift street ramp built by leaning a thick.
sheet of old plywood up against a saw
horse at the bottom of my driveway. It took
less than two minutes to construct and
yielded hours of fun getting "three wheels
out."
Street ramps require very little effort and
money and are the perfect solution to the
suburban thrasher's craving for slanted
wooden skate surfaces. Here are a few
simple suggestions on building street-type
ramps and the like.
First off try to determine where the thing
will most often be used once built. If you're
going to ride it in the middle of the street,
then it should be very flat and stable. This is
not always a good place to position a ramp.
More than once I've seen hassles with
neighbors and motorists, and often they
win by simply backing their four wheel drive
over your structure. To avoid this you've got
to keep your ramp as far from the flow of
traffic as possible. An ideal spot would be a
driveway, garage or even a large patio. If it
must go in the street then it should be very
light and portable. You should move it out of
the street when you're through thrashing it,
and if it's heavy and there's only two guys to
move it, then you may be in trouble. We
used our skateboards under very heavy
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A variety of street ramp shapes at the Capitola Classic
ramps to move them around. Keeping the | that hold up TV antennas). Drill holes in op-
ramp light just means building it with smart
construction techniques. It's not like a
backyard halfpipe where a few extra cross-
braces and supports won't hurt.
For an eight foot wide ramp two vertical
support radii are plenty to do the trick.
Space them one foot in from each side and
use thick ply to constuct them. Your
cross supports need only be one foot apart
if you plan on having two layers of ply. It is
best to notch the support braces before at-
taching the ribs. This goes for any kind of
ramp. Notching the braces yields stability
without the use of lots of nails and brackets,
etc. This will help keep the weight down
and the skating surface will be more solid.
Applying a few very light criss-cross mem-
bers in the back of the framework will keep
the entire supporting unit very sturdy. You
can even use guy wires here (like those
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posite corners of the back braces and bolt
screw eyes (with washers) through the
holes. Now stretch strong wire very taut be-
tween the screw eyes. Use only two layers
of ply. If the plywood gets thrashed replace
it-don't just slap on another layer. This
just adds weight. Try to keep the rollout
deck (if you have one) to a minimum. A two
foot wide rollout deck is adequate in most.
cases. Again, the minimum deck support-
ing structure is best to keep the weight
down.
These are a few ideas about the funda-
mental support construction that will help
minimize hassles later. Another thing to
keep in mind when designing a street ramp
is how big you want it. You may find that
smaller is better. When a street ramp gets.
taller than five or six feet, it requires a much
longer approach area than a smaller ramp.
So if your driveway is 20 feet long you don't
want a nine foot tall ramp at the end of it.
Four or five feet high is ideal in most cases.
One eight foot piece of plywood lengthwise
should provide a perfect transition from
ground to coping-no worry about seams.
Always try to place your riding surface
plywood running lengthwise so that the
grain runs in the direction of the skating.
This also greatly increases strength.
Your light, strong street ramp can be
tossed in the back of a truck for a trip to
school or shopping mall for a demo. Or you
can bring it to a friend's who also owns a
ramp and set up a street ½ pipe.
Next month I will cover different kinds of
street ramps. Til then build strong and
skate long.
by Craig Ramsay
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