Equipping Playgrounds for the Big Kids on the Block : Recreation: Brightly colored facilities in Palmdale and one opening soon at a Santa Clarita park are designed specifically for teen-agers.

Teen-agers at the playground is often not a good sign. When older kids gather among the swing sets and merry-go-rounds in many city parks, they are probably not there to play, except at being gangbangers or drug dealers.

But a Dutch company has a plan--currently being put to the test by the youth of northern Los Angeles County--to bring teen-agers back to playgrounds for some old-fashioned fun.

Palmdale is the first city in Los Angeles County to have a 10-PLUS, a playground facility designed to appeal specifically to preteens, who are at least 10 years old, and teen-agers.

The brightly colored play equipment, designed and manufactured in Holland, was installed at Marie Kerr Park in 1993. It includes rotating spiral-shaped pipes that can spin at high speeds, tall monkey bars, and nooks and crannies for hanging out.

Palmdale park officials call it a “huge success,” saying that last summer youths as old as 19 waited in line to play on the equipment.

A second, larger 10-PLUS facility is being installed in Santa Clarita at North Oaks Park, adjacent to Canyon High School. In addition to some of the same equipment in the Palmdale facility, it will have a snowboarding simulator, a two-person tug-of-war device and a “Spirouette” that spins riders around at dizzying speeds even faster than the pipes in Palmdale. The Santa Clarita unit is scheduled to open June 24.

Susan Long of Pacific Design Concepts, a Southern California distributor of 10-PLUS, said the Dutch designers of the equipment did a good deal of field research.

“They would go where these teens hang out and watch how they sat, the way they lean, the way they communicate,” Long said, “and then incorporated all of these styles into the design so it would be attractive to teens. It’s something uniquely for them, not baby things.”

Damon Conway, 12, and Jose Villalta, 14, said they were indeed wary of the 10-PLUS when they first visited the facility several months ago. They say they thought then that playgrounds were for “little kids.” They would rather have played basketball.

But last week they hopped on the bright yellow spinning pipes, screaming with joy as they twirled each other around.

“Come on, push me!” Damon cried out to Jose.

As the boys staggered off the playground, Jose said with a big smile on his face, “You can’t walk after this.”

A distributor of more traditional children’s play equipment agreed that playgrounds can be attractive to teen-agers if the “little kids” stigma is taken away. Debbie Kellerman, an owner of the Northridge-based Sennergetics company, said she often sees teen-agers playing on the equipment displayed in her showroom or at her home.

“I have a 17-year-old and the kids all come over and work out on the machines and play a little basketball and the next thing you know they are on the slides and swings,” Kellerman said. “They are like little monkeys.”

In addition to the apparatus, 10-PLUS also offers lounging spots.

“Part of the design and research stemmed around the fact that the young adults, short of finding more creative words, like to ‘hang out,’ ” said Wayne Weber, park development director for the city of Santa Clarita.

Park officials hope that Canyon High students will use the facility before and after school and at lunchtime.

Using funds provided by a Los Angeles County safe recreational parks bond passed in 1992, Santa Clarita’s parks and recreation department is spending $250,000 to revamp North Oaks, including about $15,000 on the 10-PLUS equipment.

A team of city workers went to Canyon Country with brochures about the 10-PLUS equipment to ask North Oaks Park patrons if they would enjoy the apparatus, Weber said. The results were positive.

Weber said he was especially surprised by the demand for larger swings, big enough for both teen-agers and adults.

The Palmdale park also installed a set of oversized swings, which on Thursday were being used by a threesome of students from Highland High School.

Giggling, the three girls explained that they often come by the park after school to just hang out.

“It’s a nice place to relax sometimes,” said Jackie Jordan, 16. “Not in big, big groups but with a bunch of friends.”

“It’s being a kid again,” said Beth Everhart, 15.