Simply but profoundly put, the Bay Area will always be synonymous with skateboarding. San Francisco, San Jose, Fremont and nearby counties have produced some of the greatest skateboarders the skate world has ever seen. Nyjah Huston, Stefan Janoski, Keif Hufnagel, and Mike Carroll are just some skaters who come to mind.
Equipped with amazing weather and populated cities demanding robust city architecture and public spaces, skateparks and skate spots have been the nucleus for a thriving skate community for the Bay. That being said, the Bay Area has naturally been where gatekeeper’s tend to keep their skate spots secret compared to other parts of the world. However, even with a natural affinity for localism and keeping skate spots close to the heart, there are plenty of amazing skate parks you can enjoy. And we’ve even included some videos of skate spots you can easily access to find the most famous spots with ease.
We’ve taken it upon ourselves to provide you with the most complete guide to the best Bay Area skateparks and skate spots while providing each one with its own Kid Friendly and Beginner Friendly Rating based on our GO SKATE surveys.
If you’d like to learn more about booking a one-on-one lesson via our skate instructors or to look up a skatepark in your area, check out our Skatepark Directory and of course, keep reading.
Now, let’s GO SKATE.
What makes a Skatepark Kid Friendly?
While most of the same aspects apply to best beginner skateparks for kid-friendly skateparks, there are more factors when considering what makes a skatepark kid friendly. For starters, one aspect can be how well a parent or guardian is able to watch their child skate or if some parks have designated hours for kids and beginners.
Statistically, most skateboarders are teenagers and many younger kids can be intimidated while skating at a skatepark, especially when they are beginners. It’s why we suggest booking a lesson with one of our expert trained skate instructors but in the meantime, you can rest assured that skateparks with open spaces, less incline based obstacles, and easy viewing are the most kid friendly.
Hours of operation will determine this as well. If you go to a skatepark at 8:00am versus at 5:00pm, the population will be drastically older as the day goes on. And lastly, the skateparks with the most advanced obstacles will have the oldest, most experienced skaters.
That being said, there are plenty of beginner and kid friendly skateparks in the Bay Area on our list below.
We wanted to start this list off with a bang and it was easy to find the perfect candidate. Built in 2014, SOMA West is an incredible skatepark located right in the heart of San Francisco. You’ll find it nestled in the city’s popular South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood, beneath a bridge on Division St. and Bryant, giving skaters a city-grit atmosphere full of graffiti and scenic opportunities for photos and videos. Built with a skate plaza mentality homaging the legendary EMB skate spot, skaters get to enjoy a robust new skatepark with historic elements. While the skatepark might not be the most beginner or kid friendly per se, the iconic skatepark celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year establishing itself as a staple in the bay area community.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Average
San Rafael is a gem of the bay area when it comes to this amazing skatepark. 4.3 out of 5 stars speaks for itself but so does walking right up to this concrete playground located off Smith Ranch Rd. This skatepark is often celebrated for its natural flow with a slight downhill from the top of the park to the bottom, giving the park a giant snuck run feel. It has a healthy mix of street obstacles and transition obstacles but with a more traditional skatepark feel versus the new skatepark plazas designed to mimic the streets. The skatepark is also deemed more kid friendly than a lot of other skateparks in the bay area but plays to all skill levels including beginner and advanced.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Slightly Above Average
When you think about Bay Area skateboarding you might not think about Napa but hopefully that is about to change. Napa skatepark is a great skatepark with the same obstacle radness and creative courses without the hustle and bustle of busy bay area skateparks. So while this skatepark offers unique obstacles like bank to ledges, rainbow rails and wavy quarter pipes for a fun free flowing experience, the open space and smooth concrete makes the Napa skatepark a great kid and beginner friendly skatepark usually not suited to a park of this stature. This also makes Napa skatepark a great skatepark for kids to grow into great skaters and a great skatepark to book a one-on-one skate lesson.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Above Average
Pacifica Skatepark is a great skatepark for those of us who might crave the more traditional skatepark builds found in skateparks constructed in the 90s. That’s why it has such a high rating, 4.1 out of 5 stars, from our skate instructors who are usually a bit older. That being said, our skate instructors can tell you, young skaters who can master the transition found at the Pacifica skatepark often grow on to be far more equipped to advance in street and beyond. The skatepark is also right by the Pacifica State Beach and was designed with valuable input from Tony Hawk, the skatepark is truly a gift to the bay area celebrated by skaters for nearly twenty years. Highly recommended by our skate instructors even if the park isn’t as beginner friendly as some others on this list.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Average
Hilltop Skatepark is one of those skateparks you might have never heard of but local skaters have been talking about for years. With (77) reviews, the Hilltop skatepark is one of the most rated on our skatepark directory and boasts an impressive 4 out of 5 stars. The reason why is the skatepark has a great construction all while being very unique. With a donut bowl design, the skatepark utilizes quarter pipes and open spaces with varying lengths, heights and grooves to create a park not like any other in the area. The park is also known as Sundial skatepark, nestled on top of San Francisco Hilltop Park, receiving great sunshine all day long. It’s just one of those skateparks you can’t find anywhere else with a classic feel built by modern architecture.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Slightly Above Average
Heather Farms Skatepark also known as Walnut Creek, represents what a bay area skatepark is all about. Classic designs from the late 80s and 90s that have stood the test of time. It’s a bit more cutty than some other skateparks but that’s why people love to skate it. A central area where the quarter pipes meet at a pyramid, the surrounding rails and funboxes create a ring of flow. Skaters can session one obstacle or enjoy creating lines. While this park might not be the most beginner friendly, going early in the morning with your child will beat the crowds of older, more experienced skaters.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Average
We would be remiss to create a list of the best Bay Area skateparks and skate spots and not mention the legendary Potrero Skatepark. This legendary skatepark is kept famous from Thrasher Magazine’s editorial staff, so much so it is rumored the offices are close by. It’s a park not for the faint of heart. It’s essentially a giant bowl with some of the gnarliest concrete and incline one can skate. It’s one of the oldest standing skateparks on the West Coast and its volcanoes and curbs create a speed track for surf-skate enthusiasts like Jake Felps. This skatepark is not very kid friendly or beginner friendly to someone who wouldn’t know how to respect this sacred skatepark. However, booking a one-on-one lesson ensures your child can enjoy this iconic bay area skatepark like one of the pros.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Slightly Below Average
You would think with a name like Treasure Island we wouldn’t have to say much more than load up the car with friends and the fam and let the gold hunting adventurer in you unleash. In many ways, that is exactly what skating in any of the bay area skateparks are, as hidden gems both well known and waiting to be discovered. A Park like Treasure Island provides skaters with an open DIY skatepark, with spines, quarter pipes, tiny pump tracks and volcanoes for a wide open skate experience. While the locals who built this spot can be known to keep a watchful eye, just follow the rules of proper skatepark etiquette and you’ll be fine.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Slightly Below Average
You can’t mention the bay area and not talk about Berkeley, California. Berkeley is one of the most beautiful cities in the state so it’s no wonder the skatepark follows suit. What’s particular about this skatepark is even as one of the older skateparks built, its obstacles are still just as fun years later. Coming in at an impressive 18,000 square feet, this skatepark is also one of the largest skateparks in the bay area. The park is open till 9:30 pm with lights for skaters to enjoy perfect ledges, quarter pipes, pyramid banks, funboxes and an oval transition section. This skatepark is also one of the most kid and beginner friendly on this list. Enjoy!
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Above Average
Continuing the trend of great skateparks for kids and beginner skaters, Livermore Skatepark ranks up near the top. The park is built with skateboarders and bikers in mind, so there’s almost a split in the skatepark where there’s giant prefabricated ramps on one side and a cement skate section on the other. The skate section has some mellow ramps, quarter pipes and banks perfect for beginners to learn how to kick turn. There’s some more advanced ledges and flat bars and obstacles for more advanced skaters to hone their skills. It’s not super crowded or well-known either. We teach a ton of skate classes here. Highly, recommended by our instructors.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Above Average
Another great skatepark for beginners and kids is Pleasanton Skatepark, also known as Inline Skatepark. There’s so many unique skateparks in the bay area but Pleasanton just has this perfect charming construction of banks, curb sized hubbas, square flat bars and pyramids, you can’t help but enjoy this skatepark for hours on end. We’re a little surprised it’s not ranked higher on our user submitted reviews but that might be because this skatepark is known to have a ton of kids at it. Kids bring scooters, bikes and improper skate etiquette. But if you come to foster your passion for skating and don’t treat the park like a daycare facility, this skatepark is absolutely perfect.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Above Average
The Concord skatepark is one of the least known skateparks in the bar area, with only 7 reviews on our skatepark directory. That being said, we couldn’t keep it off our list with some of the most unique architecture we’ve seen from a skatepark. The park opens with two giant tombstone pillars, its quarter pipes on the sides is something we’ve never seen. A banks ledge with three pyramid shapes cut out of it are the landing zones for a euro gap pump track, with huge quarter banks with zero coping. If it sounds like a skatepark out of the twilight zone, it’s not just you. That being said, all skaters know that the most unique skateparks produce the most unique skaters. Nyjah Huston for example grew up skating at the Davis Skatepark, which many would consider an odd park.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Average
The UN Skate Plaza is an accumulation of what skateboarding and skateparks have been leading towards for decades now. What began as seeding skateparks in undesirable locations or in big sports parks to keep skating centralized, now cities are understanding how healthy skateboarding can be to a metropolitan ecosystem. Instead of hiding skaters out of sight, cities like San Francisco are incorporating skateable architecture in their downtown areas. This is truly the future of skateboarding across the entire world and taking one look at the UN Skate Plaza is a hopeful glimpse of skateboarding’s incorporated future.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Below Average
Last on the bay area portion of the list closest to San Francisco, the Palo Alto or “Greer” Skatepark is worthy of capping it off. This skatepark is renowned for its distinctive bowls and nearly 35 years of skate heritage. That’s right, the park was constructed in 1991 and while the surrounding park and neighborhoods have changed, Greer Skatepark has remained. This skatepark is relatively kid friendly being in a large sports park but the skatepark itself is somewhat limited compared to what other skateparks offer. That being said, if your child loves to drop in and skate fast transitions, bring them to Greet Skatepark. It’s a history lesson at the very least as well.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Below Average
Fremont skatepark is truly out of a video game when it comes to the design and accessibility to this skatepark. Every city in the world should endeavor to have a skatepark like Fremont Skatepark. As one of the most rated (120) and highest rated 4.8/5 stars, this skatepark is one of the best skateparks in the state of California and one of the top reviewed in our entire directory. The skatepark has everything you would want, both beginner and advanced street and transition sections, featuring a wide array of bowls and quarter pipe centric snake runs; a street section with plenty of unique gaps, ledge formations, flat bars, many pads and banks, all placed without competition from other landing or starting zones. We didn’t even mention the skatepark has light for night sessions and is 30,000 square feet. We could go on and on but really you should check out this video below:
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Average
Lake Cunningham nearly single handedly demanded we added San Jose and Fremont skate parks to this list. With several incredible transition pieces like full pipes, corner pocket, half dome bowls and pool coping quarters galore, this skatepark looks like it was molded by the gods. An iconic tombstone wedge in the center divides the skatepark from its transition section into a more open street section. So while the transition section might be intimidating for kids or beginner skaters, there’s plenty of room for skaters to master the foundations of skateboarding. It’s a great skatepark to see the entire spectrum of skate skill, with obstacles for everyone no matter what you want to skate or skill level. It boasts an impressive 4.⅘ stars with 319 reviews. Bar far the most on this list.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Average
Street League Skateboarding has just entered the chat. What do we mean by this? Newark is the perfect example of skateparks that stem from the Street league skateboarding mold, with the type of construction and obstacles found in the famous contest series. Table top rails and ledges and spread between small and larger stair sets. Banks and quarter pipes are placed around the edges to ensure flow and run up for each obstacle. A focus on plaza style ledges centers the park with a mellow but practical transition section for park-style skaters, with a larger pool like bowl on the top. This park is great for beginners and is certainly kid friendly. It’s a great skatepark to master the fundamentals and take your skating to new levels.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Slightly Above Average
Sacramento Honorable Mentions
For most Californians, Sacramento does not constitute the Bay Area but with such amazing skateparks within a short drive, we wanted to include some bonus skateparks in the area.
Here we go again with another amazing skatepark that looks like something out of a Tony Hawk video game. Granite skatepark is an impressive 45,000 square foot park with expansive street and transition sections for skaters of all skill levels to hone their craft. The park also incorporates its surrounding areas of grass and hill tops to really make the skatepark an enjoyable place to be. 4.4 out of 5 stars with 168 reviews, the variety and opportunity to learn new tricks at Granite is second to none. While this skatepark can get crowded at peak hours, being one of the best skateparks in the state, it really is one of the most inspiring skateparks in all of Northern California to learn how to skate. Highly recommended booking a one-on-one class or skating the early hours if you’re a child or beginner skater.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Slightly Below Average
4.2 out of 5 stars and out of 177 reviews, we think you know where we are going with this. 16,000 square feet of skateboarding bliss, the Tanzanite Skatepark features a varied terrain of street and transition courses. Designed with both the beginner and professional in mind, the transition section has both beginner friendly and challenging obstacles ranging from 3 foot to 13 foot oververt. The diversity in design really invites skaters to thrive in their creativity and while its designed with advancing a skater’s skill in mind, the park is still relatively kid and beginner friendly. As we said in the start of this article, it’s all about the hours.
Kid & Beginner Friendly Rating: Slightly Below Average
An Ode to San Francisco Skate Spots
It’s really a disservice to mention a skate article about the Bay Area and not mention the amazing skate spot selection throughout a city like San Francisco. Home to some of the most legendary skate spots of all time, San Francisco has been a breeding ground for both the skate industry and culture as a whole. While many spots have come and gone, we thought a quick video of touring skaters checking out the city would be a perfect way to end this article.
![Olympic Skateboarding – Schedule, Teams, Athletes, Favorites and More [Paris Olympics 2024]](data:image/svg+xml;nitro-empty-id=MTk5MDoxMjUz-1;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMTUwIDE1MCIgd2lkdGg9IjE1MCIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxNTAiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PC9zdmc+ "Olympic Skateboarding – Schedule, Teams, Athletes, Favorites and More [Paris Olympics 2024]")
