Indoor skate park opens in Haywards Heath

SussexWorld

Skatefarm has just opened in Bridge Road. Founder and Owner Tom Johnston shows us round this inclusive new facility.

Transcript

00:00Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to The Skate Farm. Come on in. This is a new indoor facility

00:08in Haywards Heath called The Skate Farm. It's called that because everybody grows differently,

00:14like a plant and like a crop in a field. This is basically my passion, is to nurture everybody's

00:21growth and how they grow. Everybody will grow different, but the end result will always

00:24be the same. Everybody wants to go home happy, and that's my end result for this facility.

00:30When you come through into the first area, I want it to feel like everybody's got anxiety

00:35and they're a bit wary about going to a new place. All their emotions are all over the place,

00:40so I wanted to ground it as much as possible with the grass and plants and the feeling of

00:45actually a little bit more calm before you actually go into the skate park.

00:50The decks on the wall, they are photographs from a good friend of mine, Ollie, who took them over

00:55by the viaduct. I have them up there. He gave them to me as a Christmas present last year.

01:00The caps on the ball are all done by the kids that come to workshops. They design the cap and

01:05then they go up for sale, and if they sell, they get a free skateboard session in the skate park.

01:09So basically, the skate shop is turned over by the people that come and use the facility.

01:15The same with the grip tape. We have got, yeah, basically this is the entrance. We've

01:22got a pinball machine here, the highest score every month. You'll get a new complete skateboard

01:26or probably a scooter as well. So it's just to entice everything going back into the facility.

01:33The more energy you leave here, the better the facility, I believe. So, yeah, if you want to

01:37follow me on through. We're going to go into the main garden. So it's the main, actually,

01:45the skate park field, we're going to call it. So it's just a field of wood and everybody can come

01:50in here and enjoy the space. The space is designed for beginners. Beginners, everybody.

01:57Like myself, I'm nearly 50 and I'm still learning the skateboard. So to have little things that you

02:02can learn on makes you feel a lot better than big ramps that you might never get your trick in.

02:06You could be just chasing and chasing and chasing. So everything's low, below, knee high, full of

02:12ledges. The bank is stepped for different abilities and confidence. Once you go on one stage, you can

02:18go to the next stage right away and the next stage. And it's just like that. Nurture the

02:21confidence where they're here and they feel a lot better about how they grow.

02:28Yeah, it's taken me two and a half months to build this from scratch. So basically I've learned how

02:34to build ramps because I believe that what's the point of waiting for others to do it, just get on,

02:38crack on. And if I can facilitate that with anybody coming here and get the vision to do

02:43it themselves and you know, it's, it's all good. It's just like learning to cook. You know what,

02:47if you can't cook for yourself and you know, you can't blame anybody else really, you know,

02:50just something like that, I guess. On the walls, they've got people that can, everybody can write,

02:54mums, dads, all the kids, they leave a little bit of message. And there's a psychology behind that.

02:59When you sign something, you become linked, you own it, you feel like you've got a part in it

03:04and everybody feels like they've got a part in the skate park. And that's what makes me happy.

03:08You know, it's, it's for everybody. I want everybody to call it their home, no matter how

03:12old they are, no matter how good they are, basically, where they're from, this is their

03:17home for as long as it lives, basically. On down here is going to be all the grass

03:24and the two toilets here. This is a little tech deck area where the kids play hours when they're

03:29not, when they're not skateboarding out there, they'll come in here and this keeps them really

03:33regulated and understanding what to do when they get on a skateboard. And it keeps your mind ticking

03:40over about trying new things and everything. So it's, it's, it's, it's just like that. It's

03:44facilitating their creativity when they're not skating and scooters and yeah, little things

03:50like that. So, and there's going to be the cafe. There'll be a little hatch where you can serve

03:54food and coffees out here in the future. Behind you now is going to be the sensory room. So

03:59in here is very important room for me to facilitate neurodiverse children and adults

04:06and like myself that maybe need to regulate. People regulate in different ways. Maybe they

04:11need a timeout so they can go in there and just chill. If it's too loud, they've got headphones

04:15and it'd be just nice soft lighting, a little area, give five, 10 minutes and then come back

04:20out to the busy, busy hustle. And it means the world to those children and adults, you know,

04:26so that's why I'm doing that. It's very important for me also. In here is going to be the birthday

04:31party room. So if you hire a party, there'll be tables and chairs, there'll be TVs, there'll be

04:36another pinball machine in there and you have that whole room for the birthday party. Basically,

04:41the hatch will go from the cafe in making sure we can do cakes, we can do everything for them

04:46have it all in-house. So when they want to come out and use the facility, they can,

04:50but then go in there and just stay with their friends and their parents and it's just all,

04:53it's just separate. Down here is a mini ramp garden. So basically this was the first stage

05:00in here in this room with a little ramp. And I started doing lessons in here. So the ramp grew

05:07as the people started to come and basically organically, when everything grows organically,

05:11it's much better. It's much, it's much more substance. And I just want this park to grow

05:19organically with one or two people that want to come and let them use it. That means more to me

05:25than having 30 or 40 people in here busy every day, because that is the substance of what I,

05:32what I believe so that the mini ramps are nice and low and nice and easy to learn your tricks on.

05:37There's a little kid here came yesterday for the first time and he said he learned more here in

05:40two hours than he had done in the last two months, trying to learn tricks everywhere else. And you

05:44know, that alone has to have some sort of quality and why I've designed it. So that kind of feedback

05:51is really nice, you know, and over there is a little bit of a bigger ramp. So when you get

05:56good on this one and you get confident, you can come into this one and have a little bit bigger

06:01mini ramp, basically four foot and then a five foot extension. Yeah, it's quite long at the

06:07bottom. So you've got a lot of time between each ramp and basically I designed it that way as well.

06:11So I stretched out the bottom so that you're not rushed between each side. It gives you more time

06:17to relax and be confident. And there'll be a window here from the party room in looking,

06:23watching and seeing the skateboarding and if it closes from the inside,

06:26they don't want to see and keep it private. So lots of things I've taken into account.

06:32And the, and the painting on the wall was done by Aiden, who is a gentleman that is,

06:38his daughter was, came to me in COVID for lessons and he started skateboarding and I,

06:43and the both of them haven't stopped ever since. So, you know, he's just coming along

06:46and that full circle is just how the farm should be and how everything works.

06:52So thank you for having a look around and I hope you come and visit and enjoy it sometime.

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