Building Backyard Skateboard Mini Ramps

Back in the day I designed and built the majority of the skateboard ramps my friends and I skated at our house. Though I had plenty of help building because what skater doesn't want to help a new skate ramp get built as quickly as possible?

The crowning glory of all the ramps I built was my backyard mini (pictured), which I've written about before in this blog.

It started out as a 16 foot wide, 4 foot high, 30 foot long mini, to which I later added 1 foot extensions. It probably had a 6 foot transition but I can't be sure. I used to draw transition templates free hand and just eyeball it until it looked right to me. I never worked off a plan either. It's not a hard structure to just plan as you go.

There are lots of photos of me doing
frontside ollies. It's the only aerial
I could do above coping height.

Despite the surface growing increasingly sketchy due to wear and tear and the elements it was a solid ramp that my friends and I skated every day we could. Back in the 1990's there wasn't a public skatepark in almost every suburb, so this ramp was pretty special.

If you couldn't build something like this yourself, your next option was a road trip to one of the few private skateparks that existed (In Perth, Western Australia, that was The Edge Skatepark for us). I can't begin to tell you how good it was to have a home ramp to practice on through the week and then take your tricks onto bigger ramps at the skatepark on the weekends.

The main benefit of having your own backyard ramp is the community that springs up around it. You control who skates it and everyone always gets a fair turn. Back in the day, even at skateparks, if you were on any kind of mini ramp there seemed to be an unwritten rule that you look out for anyone wanting to skate it, and make sure they got a fair turn - people rarely monopolized the ramp for themselves. That doesn't seem to happen in today's public skateparks.

Post mini ramp... sad face.

Ultimately a backyard ramp is a great place for you and your extended group of skate friends to hang out and share a common love of skateboarding... and make no mistake, it is the ramp that's bringing you all together. When I eventually had to pull down my mini ramp, our group gradually drifted apart. We didn't stop being friends but it was the ramp that brought us together.

At this point I have to say this post is not sponsored... this post is as much for me (reminiscing) as for anyone else contemplating building a mini ramp in their backyard. I came across two fairly old videos that show how to build 4 foot high mini ramps properly.

This height of ramp is great for a backyard because it's a good size for beginners to learn and still a lot of fun for even the most advanced skaters. Plus it usually sits below fence height (Tip: try not to locate your ramp near any back fence that going to disrupt your neighbors privacy. Consider some kind of privacy screen if this can't be avoided.)

The first video is by EasyHalfPipe.com and shows how to build an 8 foot wide mini ramp. I would suggest 8 feet wide is the absolute minimum width for a 4 foot high mini. It's enough room to skate but you're going to wish it was wider once you progress into slides, grinds and ollies above the coping.

This ramp uses PVC pipe for coping, which tends to be more slippery compared to metal but does reduce the noise of the ramp overall. You'll need thick PVC so it doesn't break and/or you can fill it solid with sand for extra support (and cap the ends).

The great thing about this ramp is that it's modular, so you can store it away or move it if you need to. Easy to make wider too... just build another next to it and bolt them together for 16 feet of perfect mini ramp!

Easy Half Pipe

If you want something a little wider the following video from Vice.com shows how to build a 12 foot wide mini ramp and has a few extra tips for perfect transition templates and improved ramp surfaces.

Vice.com

If you are contemplating building a backyard ramp but a 4 foot high ramp looks a little too big. I can tell you a 2 foot high mini ramp is just as fun and costs less to make. The basic plan is the same as a 4 foot ramp (same transition) just cut it off at 2 feet high. You may want to reduce the length of the flat to 6 rather than 8 feet too otherwise the smaller transition might not give you enough speed over 8 feet of flat to do tricks.

Comments

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas (see vi...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

Bruce, South Australia - A Forgotten Aussie Town with Spectacular Landscape Views and Potential

The Bruce Railway Station. Now a private residence. V isiting the almost forgotten town of Bruce reminds me of visiting Silverton back in 2007, except Silverton has been revived into a kind of arts town with a very famous pub. Bruce, on the other hand seems a little too spread out, and a bit too out of the way to make a similar 'arts' kind of revival. Bruce's Pub appears to be an art studio with signs of restoration work in progress. The main part of town appears to be the Bruce railway station (now a private residence) and a pub, also privately owned and possibly was, or still is, and artist studio. Other buildings and homesteads are set fairly wide apart, and are mostly privately owned homes. You don't get much sense of being in a town as such. I'm told there are approximately 14 local residents/families? Once earmarked to be a commercial centre, Bruce fell by the wayside after successive floods and drought in its early years. Obviously the railway line is no lo...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Kids today are smarter than their parents?

Mother's Bed Art Board Print by TET. Available from RedBubble . How often have you heard it said that kids today are smarter than their parents? I’ve heard it quite frequently in the media – even Dr Phil has said it. I say speak for yourself. It’s not true and don’t let the media fool you. Today’s kids may have access to more information that may give them more choices but in my experience, they only take in what they want to hear and still make stupid, uninformed decisions. Just like we used to at their age. Like any cross section of people there will be exceptions. There are kids that are genuinely smarter, more mature and responsible for their age. However the vast majority know everything they need to know by the time they turn fourteen. They’re ‘adult’ enough to be responsible for all their own decision making so parents should just let them do what they please…right? Just like we thought at fourteen. Don’t be fooled. Just because your son knows how to download MP3’s onto an i...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Three Days Before Christmas - 2025 in review

While this is an AI image of me, I can assure you I write all of this blog myself with no help from AI at all. I 'm afraid this may be an uninteresting article, three days before Christmas, for the sole purpose of not missing my weekly post to this blog. I'm drawing a blank on what to write about so... I settled on doing a review of posts for the year. Read on at your own discretion. Starting 2025 I introduced my new Resident Dragon Daily Cartoon series that grew out of a daily drawing habit I had started six months earlier. As I write this I've sketched about 335 cartoons, and digitally inked just over 50 of them. Initially I was writing about the new US President but I stopped covering US politics back in March of this year, because I was tired of giving the current US president any attention at all. So I won't. Let me know when you elect a proper leader. Since 2025 was an Australian Federal Election year I took a deep dive on looking into our political landscape...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog