What is a “bowl” in a skate park?
Rescuing A Skunk From A Skate Park Bowl
A2 English listening practice · American English · Picked for people who know a little
The bowl is the deep, rounded concrete basin at the heart of many American skate parks. The shape comes straight from history: in the dry summer of 1976, California skaters started riding in empty backyard swimming pools, which became the Dogtown and Z-Boys legend. When the first proper skate parks were built later that decade, they recreated that pool curve in concrete, and the word bowl stuck. Skaters drop in over the lip, ride the round walls, and pop tricks out of the top. Every modern American skate park has at least one bowl.
In this clip, a skater finds a skunk stuck inside a skate park bowl and uses his board as a ladder to help it climb out.
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Harder words in this video
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In American skate-and-surf YouTube channels (Braille Skateboarding, Thrasher)
- ▸In American skate-park documentary films (Dogtown and Z-Boys, Skate Kitchen)
- ▸In American Olympic skateboarding coverage (since Tokyo 2020)
- ▸In American teen skate-shop conversations
- ▸In American skate brand websites (Vans, Element, Powell-Peralta)