Work Experience Takeover

All last week the youth club got taken over by two very enthusiastic young people for their work experience week from BBA School, Eli and Sebi!

After getting through the rigorous interview and induction on day 1 (we don't employ just anyone you know)! They set about creating their aims and projects for the week.

They created and delivered a survey, to see if there were any immediate needs from our wider young people. This didn't give us one clear result, but it did inform us that young people really appreciate the green room as a comfortable chill out area, so we thought we could make some additions/improvements there. It also highlighted how much young people like our trips, so we thought about building on our 'Local Skateparks' page, which already contains loads of info but could do with a deeper dive in places.

Starting with the former, Eli and Sebi wanted to revamp one of our resin tables (the one currently covered in copper coins) Its about 8 years old now and definitely looking tied!

First up was a quick trip to Ikea to grab a new table (a full list of materials and costings are below). Ikea hack: All the doors marked Co-Workers only are shortcuts! we were in and out in 20mins.

Eli got to constructing the table while Sebi took some very old, worn out boards outside to snap them in the right place. We had some broken boards already and even found one at Vicky Skatepark when we were out writing our park reviews.

Then we needed to cut some wood to create a 'bathtub' around the top to hold the resin. We also used some ply to reinforce the legs (poor Ikea quality just can't withstand the youth club treatment). Eli helped glue and clamp all the trim around the top and then gave it all a snazzy paint job.

All the snapped boards got arranged and both decided that a blue resin river running down the middle would look cool. This was inspired by a visit to Impact mentoring on Tuesday. Impact has a resin river table in their foyer and Eli and Sebi knew they wanted to recreate it as soon as they saw it.

Unfortunately, this is as far as we could get during the Work Exp week, as so many of the jobs required you to do a bit and then wait 24hrs for things to dry, very frustrating. But Eli has been coming back up in their own time to carry on with it, and get it finished (updates will follow).

Materials:

Ikea table £19 Ikea

Wood trim £10 B&Q

Tile adhesive (to fix down boards) £4.99 Jason's Trading

Silicone sealant tubes (to keep the resin in) £3.99 Jason's Trading

Spray Paint £5.99

Blue mica powder 2oz £9 Amazon

Resin 750ml (for the blue river) £10 Amazon

Resin 4ltr (Clear, to fill) £60 Amazon

Total: £122.97

Skills learnt, fun had, cool table in the green room £ PRICELESS!!!

UPDATE: Table is now finished! Come and see it at the youth club...

And onto the skatepark reviews:

Dean lane

The park is of moderate in size and quite spread out. Its split into three main parts: Transition section, Downhill street section, and the new and glassy smooth Slab flat ground section.

The transition section consists of a 5ft bowl, a convex quarter pipe with a vert wall and a tall quarter 7ft opposite a huge flat bank. There were lots of cracks and litter about so local knowledge would help you avoid a nasty slam.

The downhill street section has lots of rails, kickers, curbs, a coffin shaped funbox and lots of DIY obstacles. The rough ground, cracks and holes takes the confidence away a bit here and because its downhill it all gets a bit quick.

The Slab, was a newly added crown funded area up near the basketball courts. Mainly flat and smooth but there are some DIY ramps about 2-3ft high, a high manny pad, ledges and a gap to ollie over.

Beginner friendly: The slab is the only area we thought would be friendly to beginners.

Equipment: Lots on over, something for everyone, Flow is very one directional due to the hill.

Accessibility: Close to town centre, buses land in Bedmo short walk from there.

Crust factor: Off the charts, cracks ahoy, chunks missing, broken glass and litter everywhere. High fear factor.

Unique features: Vibe was great, tolerant space, skate shop close, lack of loos.

Total: 23/40

Vicky Park

Coming up to 1 year old in 2025 Vicky park is quite small but has great flow opening the whole park up to one run. A lush shady spot in the park with loos nearby.

Eli liked the long run back and forth, and the spacing of all the obstacles. Everything was accessible and you can choose which bits to skate.

Sebi liked how smooth the whole park was, decent ramps but struggled with the lack of a lock-in on the no-ping brick bank.

Beginner friendly: Yes! Smooth easy and mellow. Welcoming vibe. But might be a struggle if it got busy, early morning raids essential. 7/8 bearings

Equipment: Brick bank and volcano were great but limited in other areas.

Accessibility: literally on the cycle track! Train station close by and easy buses from bedmo, not great parking though. 7/8 bearings

Crust factor: No crust to be found. Rough tarmac round the outer edge and remnants of play area but we’re being really picky

Unique features: In the shade, cycle track, and in a nice park

Total: 33/40

Filton Bowl

Has a nice bowl with a shallow and deep end, Sebi thought this was good all round. The bowl also has an L shaped street section that wraps round it with super low ledges and a rail (definitely inspired by The Search for Animal Chin and the Hawaiian wallows).

Beginner friendly: theres not very much complicated equipment, and a good flow on the street, so would be good for beginners  

Equipment: lots of flatbanks around the street, and a few rails.

Accessibility: quite far from tbs, you’d need to get at least two buses.

Crust factor: quite rough concrete and cracks, but not too bad in general.

Unique features:  this is right next to a retail park, with a KFC and a leisure centre for loos. Its in a huge park as well.

Total: 26/40

Bradley Stoke

A big park, with a crazy shaped bowl and moderate street section. Lots of different things on offer but all a decent size height which might put off some beginners.

Beginner friendly: A bit of an intermediate park. The bowl and street require a certain level of confidence to get stuck in especially when its busy.

Equipment: Good mix of ramps and street. Lots of flatbanks, hips, vert wall, rails, ledges, small stair set. Lots of stuff in a small foot print

Accessibility: Quite far again from TBS. Maybe two buses from staple hill but lots of parking

Crust factor: Park is smooth and fast. Can be chavy in the evening

Unique features: big Tesco and McDonalds close plus leisure centre for loos. Also some containers offer youth provision some evenings a week

Total: 30/40

Portishead

Cool shaped Bowl at the top of the skatepark, with different equipment and some flat parts. Beware of toddlers/younger kids going round on scooters though.

Beginner friendly: lots of it is fit for beginners, but there are also parts for more developed skaters so lots of people could skate here, plus theres a good flow.

Equipment: theres a lot of ramps, and a cool shaped bowl. Flatbanks, rails, and an aframe with some street wrapped around it

Accessibility: for the third time, quite far from tbs. 2 buses from staple hill, but there is parking right next to it

Crust factor: basically nothing, not too smooth or too rough, no cracks or annoying bumps

Unique features: next to the English channel, with a beach, lots of walks, a park, and a café. Loos are nearby but cost 20p.

Total: 34 /40

And that's a wrap on work experience week 2025! We had ana amazing week in the sun, packed full of trips out to skateparks, giving them littles reviews to maybe inform future trips. We've made possibly the best thing ever, our resin river broken board table. Plus we got involved delivering all the normal sessions, helping out and learning what it is to be a youth worker!