It's All in the Swoop

Skateboarding, once associated with concrete wastelands and empty parking lots, has inspired a whole new design field. Here's how skate parks became fast, deep, curvaceous and breathtaking

If Salvador Dali had fashioned the moon, its surface might look something like the skate park in Sayreville, N.J. Undulating concrete bowls flow toward one another like bumping wombs. Ribboning "snake runs" slither around steel-pipe rails and abrupt concrete boxes. If it all seems like a dreamscape, that's because it is. This is the kind of place that skateboarders dream about. Steve Lenardo, 32, a physical-education teacher who also co-owns the local skate shop, comes down here a lot with his board. "It keeps my blood flowing," he says. "There's always something new to try, always new lines to find."

There's...

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