Wally Holliday of California Skateparks @ The Sideways Guide!



Wally Holliday of California Skateparks Interview by The Chraveler

In August of 2003, renowned skatepark designer and builder Wally Holliday returned to his native New Jersey, commissioned to build a custom-designed skatepark in Sayreville, a small community just south of Staten Island.

Discovering skateboarding as a child, he explored the many new housing developments in his hometown of Cherry Hill on his board, skating the hills at first and then moving on to backyard swimming pools and drainage ditches. In 1977, he ventured across the country to California, the birthplace of skateboarding.

“I went to California to check out the skateparks, and what I found I thought was really badly made,” said Holliday.

The most skater-friendly and fun-to-ride skatepark in the NYC metro area - Sayreville, NJ

In California, Holliday met Joel Vest, who was the owner and original designer of the Lakewood Skatepark. Vest was not a skateboarder, and so he hired Holliday as a consultant in order to design and build his skatepark properly. As the skatepark industry was in its infancy at the time, Vest was not alone in his predicament.

“Most owners back then tried to design their own skateparks, initially,” said Holliday. Holliday built the Lakewood skatepark in 1977 with Superior Gunite, a swimming pool contracting company owned by Ed Olson. “I learned a lot with Ed, but I learned more when I built the Cherry Hill Skatepark’” said Holliday.


Cherry Hill Skatepark back in the day - Photos courtesy Scott Jarden and cherryhillskatepark.com

Working with Duane Bigelow, a shotcrete pool contractor from Arizona, the two built Cherry Hill Skatepark in Cherry Hill, NJ - a place considered by many of its users to be the finest skatepark ever built.

“Between the two of us, we were a pretty good team, with my eye, his skills, and the skills of his work crew,” said Holliday.

After Cherry Hill, Holliday went on to build more skateparks in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He built Apple Skatepark in Columbus, Ohio in 1978, commonly known as the sister skatepark of Cherry Hill. Holliday also built skateparks in Whittier, Calif. in 1979, Colton, Calif. in 1980, and returned to Lakewood’s skatepark to build a clamshell-shaped pool in 1981.
	Cherry Hill Action Shot - Pic courtesy Bill Helene

Shortly thereafter, however, the bottom fell out of skateboarding and the skatepark industry, as the finicky youth of America moved on to new fads. Holliday continued to build pools in Arizona with Bigelow - but these were for swimming, not skateboarding. He found it to be a tough change.

“It was hard cutting concrete in 110 degree weather,” said Holliday.

Holliday went to college to study art and design, and landed jobs designing displays for trade shows. He also became a commercial photographer, and was able to successfully support himself after skateboarding’s fall from popularity.

In the middle of the 1990s, skateboarding experienced another boom among the youth of America, and the public skatepark industry began its revival. In 1997, Holliday was contacted to build a skatepark in Cottonwood, Arizona, and shortly thereafter a private bowl in a backyard in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 2000, Holliday built a skatepark in Wilmington, North Carolina with Jim Rees, and he was also designing parks for the landscape architecture firm of L.R. Moss in California. Through L.R. Moss, Holliday was introduced to Joseph Ciaglia of California Skateparks, a contractor who wanted to build more progressive skateparks. Ciaglia proposed that he and Holliday become partners in the industry.

“I (first) thought that Joe want to just hire me for a few days (as a consultant), but Joe said ‘No, no, let’s just go build parks’, and basically on a handshake, we’ve been building parks together ever since then,” said Holliday.

The Big Bowl at Fontana, CA - An Award Winning Wally Holliday & California Skateparks creation

The process that Holliday prefers for building a skatepark is called “design/build,” where the skatepark is both designed and built by Holliday and the California Skateparks firm. “We feel that design/build parks are really the best value for a community, because I am designing them to be both inexpensive to build and fun to ride. We can often provide design/build prices that are five to seven dollars less per square foot than our low bid prices.

The Street Course at Fontana, CA

“With design/build, we’re given a specific budget and a site to work with, and we basically build as much skatepark as we can with that amount of money. I’ll go and do design workshops (with the skateboarders and others in the community) and turn the final design to our architect, who will draw up the official construction documents. Then I begin to physically lay the park out and do the initial shaping the dirt for the park. We place forms (for the transitions of the pool) and fit the rebar, and then the coping is set and the park is ready for shotcrete,” said Holliday.

The processes involved in building a skatepark pool are relatively standardized, but the shotcrete stage is where precision is an absolute necessity, and where Holliday’s work stands out most in the industry.

“I try to focus on anything involved in the shaping of the skatepark. My job is to make sure that the shape is correct, and if the shape is good, than the park is real easy to finish. That’s one of the reasons that we are so consistent - we have a really good method for shaping the concrete, and once it’s shaped, it’s easy to put a smooth finish on it,” said Holliday.

Some techniques of skatepark building have changed slightly since the 1970s. Originally, skatepark pools were topped with pool coping, which was found in the backyard pools of California. Today, steel pipe coping is used in most public skateparks, as pool coping would be quickly damaged from BMX bicyclists who also use skateparks in many communities.

“Now we can use the steel coping as a guide (to hang the form templates from) to make sure every section (of transition) is cut perfectly the same,” said Holliday. The finish surface of the modern skatepark has also changed since the 1970s. Pools built to hold water are commonly finished with a very smooth and slick plaster, which can be a slippery ride for skateboards. Holliday has also finished skateparks with a different, less slick plaster in the past, but he now prefers to use a shotcrete finish.

“All the times I have tried to use a plaster finish, it’s come out bumpy. Our shotcrete finish technique has been very consistent, consistent to the quality of Cherry Hill. I think that many people look back on that park (Cherry Hill) as being so amazing, but it’s because everything else (at the time) was so bad!” said Holliday.

In his design/build workshops, Holliday has found that today users want “more art in the skatepark.”

“I try and design from a more aesthetic viewpoint,” said Holliday. “If you look at all the major influences in skateboarding - pools, plazas - they’re all designed to look good, and when something looks good, it ends up being really fun to skate, a form-follows-function type of thing.”

“Cities today are looking to make their skateparks look better (to the community). Three or four years ago, they were sticking them in the worst neighborhoods, surrounded by big chain link fences, trying to hide these kids away. The cities that are coming to us want to make their skatepark the centerpiece of a larger park. They are really interested in making it look beautiful, whether it means incorporating artwork or making the park very sculptural in itself. Cities are always interested in building something that makes their community look better, but ultimately the most important thing is how fun the park is to skate."

For more information about Wally Holliday and California Skateparks, and how you can bring them to your community to build a truly world-class skatepark, visit: www.skatedesign.com, and for more information, pictures, and history about the Cherry Hill Skatepark, visit www.cherryhillskatepark.com.

© 2003 The Sideways Guide - All Rights Reserved.