Missoula Skate Park | Missoula, MT

A skatepark is a purpose-built recreational environment for skateboarders, rollerbladers and BMX riders to ride and develop their technique. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, quarter pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, pyramids, banked ramps, full pipes, stairsets, and any number of other objects.

Skateparks were originally designed for skateboarding, but have evolved to support mainly roller bladers and BMX riders. Skateboarding and BMX riding have been known to create safety issues if done at the same time, leading some skateparks to ban BMX riding. There are many skateparks that are an exception to that rule and even several exclusively "bikes only" parks have been built. An example would be Espee Bike Park in Chandler, AZ.

Skateparks may be privately or publicly owned. Privately owned skateparks usually have admission fees, while publicly owned skateparks are generally free. Many privately owned skateparks are indoors, usually in warehouses, roller rinks or buildings with high ceilings, especially in areas with snowy winters. Public skateparks are usually outdoors.

Concrete parks, now "pretty much the industry standard", according to an editor of Transworld Skateboarding magazine, can cost three times as much to build as parks with ramps and wooden obstacles, but in the long run they require fewer repairs and less maintenance.Porstner, Donna, "Curve appeal / Area's new skate park opens", news article in ''The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut, July 13, 2007, pp 1, A6