Britannia Courts

1490 Venables St, Vancouver, BC (49.27611947090947 -123.0736066950517)

the sound of my favourite place to skate: the "courts" on the northwest side of the britannia community centre. here, the flat painted concrete of a has-been tennis court has been converted into a DIY skatepark loved and maintained by east van locals.

the park constantly changes features and layouts.

on this day, nov 27 2022 at 6:02 pm, the main features include:

• numerous painted quarter pipes assembled out of scrap wood, flat metallic sheets (some from old signs), and steel coping- generally these are around the sides of the park's fencing, but there are two or so in the middle (including 3 spine features)

• two bank features and a larger quarter pipe made from smooth plywood or skatelite material

• unsecured bars and rails. some are constructed out of broken sign posts or welded from scrap metal

• 1/2 ft to 2 ft busted manny-pads made from particle board

• a massive concrete wall for doing wall-rides

My favourite feature as of late

Adapted from field notes, Nov 27 2022

I, among many other sound-curious folks, think that listening can reveal a great deal about ourselves and the world. There’s one aspect of my skating experience here at courts that I think truly illustrates this, as well as adds a dimension through how the production of sound shapes experience with skateboarding and space.

This is a small spine that I usually practice on when I’m here. I love the rhythmic impact, scrapes, grinds— wood knocking, the subsequent metal clang, or an occasional scrape. There’s a somewhat predictable slope and curve to the sound, which is produced by the motion of my skateboard over the shape of the feature with the same bodily movements each time. It’s a rather musical interpretation, which probably speak to a background in music-creation. In any case, I want to explore that beyond the rhythmic-nonrhythmic or pleasant-nonpleasant dichotomy. The sounds of skating are ephemeral, performative, spatial, temporal, relational— how sound-space is understood is interlocked with my personal experience. All that aside, focusing on listening here reveals how one can get lost in worlds, which speaks to the intersubjective understanding of sound.