Dusk

Today I arrived at 17:25 and it is busier than my last visit. There are 2 small children with parents, a group of primary school children with Micro Scooters and 4 teenagers skateboarders. It was not so bad to wait for the hour as it was pretty entertaining to watch everyone while they practiced all their moves.

 The older skateboarders I noticed are pretty dedicated in practicing their next trick. each take it in turn on the desired area of the skate park, failing time and time again but they keep at it regardless.

The teenagers also maneuver quite effortlessly around all the small kids

The skate park itself appears to be in 4 sections. At this moment I noticed that one section was not being used at all but will be interesting to see if it is used during peak busy times, which is probably a Saturday and Sunday .. when I am working. :(

I manged to get a few photos before my camera decided that 15% was not enough power to take anymore. Thanks Galaxy s5.

A proper look

Arrived for my first hour long stay at the skate-park. It's 1pm and it's empty when I arrive. According to my phone the temperature is 5 Celsius but feels more like 1. All the benches here are metal so I am not very thankful for them to say the least. Apart from weekends I have a feeling my best time for coming would be after 3pm but will keep an eye out to gage an idea of good times to visit when I go past while heading to the university.

You have been warned

My seat of choice for the next 8-10 weeks

The offending mental/metal chairs

Eventually a parent turns up with a small child on a micro scooter after about 25 minutes. I'm surprised as he looks a little young to be bombing about the place with no fear but I guess kids are pretty fearless at that ages. After 15 minutes both both of them leave me on my own once again and Im staring into an empty space, possibly looking a bit weird. I'm now wishing that I bothered to get myself a flask so I make a mental note to do so for my next visit.

Decision

I have made the decision to use the Saughton Skate Park as my place of observation.  I made my decision based on the park being a 15 minute walk from my home and it is also en-route to the University,
During the winter the park is open until 10pm at night and is lit up well so I should have no issue with what time I go at during the day. 
At this moment I would say that my preconception about the skate park would be that it is full of young males on skateboards out with friends no matter how cold it is. Apart from that I have really no idea of that area is used for anything else.

Choices

For my course work I must picked a public area within Edinburgh, where I will observe the space, the people who use it, how and why it is used and on what days and times, along with what it is not being used for.
For my area I plan to use either Saughton Park which consists of a a large playing field, a park for younger children and a skate park or the Grassmarket area. I will be visiting these two places over the following week to see what will be more suitable.