Words, photos and video by Robin Pearson

Bournemouth has recently been given this concrete treat, courtesy of Maverick. I follow them on Instagram (@maverickskate) and, having excitedly followed their updates from drawings and plans to photos of the finished bowl, headed down there with Danny Stanzl as soon as I could.

It’s a novelty thing being able to ride a snakerun these days – the feature was most prominent in the late 70s when skateboarding hit the mainstream and nice mellow, wavy concrete parks popped up all over the place. There are some excellent examples still surviving out there – such as Rom, Harrow and Southsea – but there aren’t many snakeruns newer than those early ones. That’s why Duck Lane is a treat, it’s a brand new snakerun!

This one is not an exact replica of the pioneering snakeruns, it’s been brought up to date with metal coping and regular quarter-pipe transitions. There’s just one curve at the shallow end which rolls over without coping and, if I’m honest, I wish there was more of that. The top end is rather tight but after a few runs you get the hang of whipping round it and cruising down towards the deeper section.

The deepest part again seems to hark back to the classic parks – it’s a bit like ROM‘s ‘Performance Bowl’ – deep, steep and curved all the way round. Good fun.