Ramp Building! A How-to Guide

Probably one of our most requested blog posts to date (by young people that is, not the parents who'll have to give up garden space)!

We've got lots of different ramps at the boarding school and after a few sessions, young skaters are keen to get some practice in at home and to do that they want their own ramp!

The three most common types of home ramp are:

Kicker: the smallest, easiest to move around. The idea with this one is to fly out the top, get extra boost and height on your tricks!

Flat Bank: These are great for learning kickturns, tricks to fakie and making the space you have feel bigger by enabling you to go, turn round on the bank and come back.

Quarter-pipe: named as the shape resembles 1/4 of a pipe, this is the go to for learning tricks and the ideal home ramp.

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First off lets start with a simple Kicker:

This plan uses the dimensions of the small grey CanvasXCabot kicker we have at The Boarding School. The angle of the kicker is 10 degrees which makes for a nice mellow ride up and take off, perfect!

You will need:

18mm plywood (130cm x 75cm)

2x4 timber (these usually come in 3m lengths so we'll need 2 (or 2.5m total))

A steel plate the width of the ramp at least 3mm thick

a saw to cut the wood (any will do)

screws (5xL50mm are ideal)

Drill with screwdriver attachment.

A pencil, set square (hand saws have these), Protractor.

Start by laying your plywood flat on the floor and marking our cuts with the pencil. For this ramp we're going to have a riding surface 130cm long by 50cm wide, but you can make something bigger, smaller it's up to you!

This shows that we're going to get the sides and the riding surface out of the one sheet of plywood

Now we've got the sheet cut, we need to cut the timber that's going to support the sides and riding surface. One thing we need to take into account is the width of the plywood sides! if our riding surface is going to be 50cm wide, we need to subtract the two sides or walls (18mm x 2) and that's how long our timbers need to be. So for this ramp 50cm - 3.6cm = 46.4cm long.

Now we need to assemble the ramp:

Start by screwing in two pieces of timber, one at the bottom back corner and the other as close to the tip of the ramp as you can without it poking out

Be sure to do this step on a flat and level surface, and use the set square to make sure everything lines up properly.

Then we can space the other timbers along the top, evenly spaced. These timbers will add more strength if they are 'stood up.'

Finally we can place our riding surface on top. Use where the screws are on the side to help you know where the timber is underneath to screw it down.

Finally you can add the steel plate to bottom, and the ramp is ready to ride!

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Now onto a Flat Bank:

Flat banks are generally steeper than Kickers, as they want to turn your speed into height on the ramp and then let you turn or roll back down again. 20 degrees in angle makes for a nice bank to pop tricks on, but you can go all the way up to 45 degrees for a sharp gnarly bank and an extra challenge. Experiment by learning your plywood board up against a wall and using your protractor to measure the angle, find what's going to work best for you.

You will need:

18mm plywood 4ftX4ft

2x4 timber (14ft in total)

A steel plate the width of the ramp at least 3mm thick

a saw to cut the wood (any will do)

screws (5xL50mm are ideal)

Drill with screwdriver attachment.

A pencil, set square (hand saws have these), Protractor.

The method to making a flat bank is the same as the kicker ramp.

You'll need to allow more wood for the sides, and a wider riding surface so there's enough space to turn and come back down.

A good rule of thumb for how many timbers you'll need is, there should be a support every 1 ft (or 30cm) measured from the centre of each timber.

Here's a cool video to watch of us making a really small flat bank back in lockdown!

https://youtu.be/d9DdDGrNn9I?si=yg9hhH57qbnX7uU0

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Finally The Quarter Pipe:

You will need:

18mm plywood for the sides and deck

6-9mm plywood for top riding surface

2x4 timber

A steel plate the width of the ramp at least 3mm thick

Steel Coping

a saw to cut the wood

a jigsaw to cut the curve in the ramps sides

screws (5xL50mm are ideal for construction but you'll also need some shorter to fix down the top sheet)

Drill with screwdriver attachment.

A pencil, set square (hand saws have these), Protractor, and some string.

A quarter pipe is quite different from the kicker and flat bank. Quarters have a curved riding surface, coping, and a deck to stand on. They can be a bit more tricky to build, and need a lot more materials which can make them more expensive too (but there really is no substitute for owning your own quarter or miniramp)!

A common mistake with building quarters for the first time is getting the steepness, or transition radius, wrong. Too mellow and the ramp will feel flat, too steep and it'll be horribly hard to skate. The transition radius is the height the ramp would be vertical, IF it went to that height. Example: a 10ft ramp with 8ft transition radius will be vertical at 8ft and will have 2ft of vert up to the top. Similarly, a 3ft high ramp with 8ft transition radius won't be vert at the coping but closer to 45 degrees.

At The Boarding School we wanted our ramps to be nice and mellow but not too flat, and most have a 7.5ft transition radius. The spine is a little sharper at 6ft TR (the steepness of the spine was voted for by young people).

So once we've decided on how whippy or mellow we want our ramp, how do we draw the curve onto the wood? It's simple; tie a pencil to one end of a piece of string and then cut the string to the length of your transition radius. 7.5ft transitions like ours? then you need to cut your string at 7.5ft!

How big does the deck need to be? The smallest deck you can get away with for a standard skateboard is 15 inches or 38cm.

The top image shows our 7.5ft string drawing our curved transition line (remembering to leave at least 38cm for the deck).

The image below shows how we can layout our two sides so we don't waste wood!

You'll need to cut small notches for your coping too, but make sure you have it first so you cut the right size. There's a few different ways to attached the coping but J bolts is best.

Construction starts the same way as the other ramps. Get the corner timbers in first, make sure everything is square, straight, and level. Bottom timber on the transition can be flat to help get closer to the edge but all the others should be orientated vertically to add extra strength.

Now we can add the remaining horizontal supports. Again these are stronger when placed upright. The coping can also get fitted with the J bolts.

Just like with the kicker, you can use where the timbers were screwed into the sides as a guide for where to screw down your top surface. A metal plate at the bottom will stop the wood from getting destroyed by skate wheels.

A now you have an amazing quarter pipe to skate and learn loads of new tricks on! Most of the quarters at the boarding school were made this way and have lasted 5 years of being pulled about and skated. Ramps won't last as long if left outside so get a tarp to cover them in wet weather! 4ft wide will be perfect for learning stalls with 8ft wide allowing you to progress those tricks to grinds.

Happy Skating!!!