Park City Rides Again!
Photography: Richard Cheski
Moms and dads have long felt Park City’s draw. Now, with a world-class skateboard park smack in the middle of town, “Generation Y” kids feel it, too. Some of us may not quite get it—the whole skateboard ‘thing.’ My extensive experience with skateboarding (please note sarcasm) was in the early ’80s, with a bright-orange plastic plank on a moderately steep, asphalt street near my house in one of the birthplaces of skateboarding, California’s San Fernando Valley. We’d walk up, skate down, make a crouch-like move, felt cool, then did it again a few more times and called it a day. What you see today at Park City’s Skate Park, however, puts any ’80s rider to shame.
Designed by Site Design, one of the most progressive firms in the country, not only are Parkite kids riding the $500 thousand dollar-, 20,000-square-foot facility regularly, but skaters from around the world seek it out. “Word gets around,” said Park City’s Recreation Coordinator Jessica Moran.
The area just south of the Miner’s Hospital at City Park has gotten so hot that the city plans to throw down another $275,000 this summer to stay on top of the skate scene. A first-of-its-kind expansion will soon offer an 8,000-square-foot “plaza” addition of urban features like stairs and rails.
“The majority of skaters are 12 to 16 and they dig street features. The older guys may like the bowls, but the magazines and videos are all about street skating,” said Site Design’s Brad Siedlecki. “The park has become its own community,” said Cris Williams, as he stood beside his son during a spring public planning meeting about the expansion. “[Kids] stay here all day. All their friends are here and there are no adults,” Williams said. (At least not the kind that would put a crimp in a righteous ride day.)
Skateboarding’s popularity has exploded. On any given summer day, you’ll find between 30 and 40 kids hanging at the park, pulling primo stalls, 50-50 grinds, boardslides and caspers. “Any time in the summer, the place is packed,” said Moran. With its own language and sentiment, the skater scene has hit harder and faster than snowboarding, even in Park City. But its history is spotty.
Skateboarding took off in the late ’50s as an after-surfing sport, died a swift death in 1965, and then in 1975, when you had to make your own board because there were no shops selling them, it crept back into society, ultimately emerging as a main source of recreation for those ages 8 to 18.
Skateboard parks (which looked more like malformed empty swimming pools) had sprouted up all over the country. But back then, you usually had to pay to use a park, and you had to be good enough to be admitted. A decade later, skateboarding rolled back onto the scene, only to crash again in the early ’90s. Tony Hawk, considered the world’s premier skateboarder at age 16 in 1984, literally (and financially) felt the industry’s ups and downs. Thankfully, the talented athlete and marketer persisted; watching (and facilitating) boarding’s phoenix-like rise from 1999 to now.
Though he no longer competes, Hawk skates, throws new tricks, runs the Boom Boom HuckJam, (a 24-city tour featuring the world’s best skateboarders, BMX bike riders and Motocross athletes), and sets the example even kids in Park City idolize. “It makes me proud that I can switch from being a skater to a responsible parent,” said the father of three in his Web bio. “But, I don’t feel as old as other parents.” Park City Mayor Dana Williams understands the power of the board. He fervently fought for the original Park City skate park around 1996. “When you have the mental capacity of a 16-year-old, it’s easy to back these things,” Mayor Williams chuckled. “[The skaters] know they’ve got a supporter.” But it was tough to convince a winter-centered town that spending significant funds on a summer-only venue was a smart investment.
A City Council roadtrip to Sun Valley for a look at that skate park convinced members that the sport wasn’t an underground, juvenile-delinquent movement. “These are not bad kids,” said Mayor Williams. “These are our kids that do this.”
In 1998, the city then spent $40 thousand dollars to erect ramps in the Park parking lot to test the demand. “It was HUGE,” said Williams. “So we put in a designated park and sold the old ramps to Heber.”
People had finally begun to see skateboarding as a sport, not a fad; one that hooks you because you improve with the speed of light. It’s easy to see why kids spend every day, all day, at the park. Plus, with the help of the recreation department and their morning skate clinics, kids of all ages can learn even faster, from some of the best skateboarders in town. Instructors cover basics like dropping in, grinding, ledge, flat ground and rail tricks, as well as carving the deep bowls. “We sell out every session,” said Moran of the eight-week, four-times-a-week youth clinics. “We’ve seen double what anyone would expect.” When the clinics end by 11 a.m., parents’ biggest fears of fighting, drugs, language and vandalism never materialize. “It’s a wonderful social experiment,” said Mayor Williams about the skate community. “In the deep bowl, you need eye contact with every other skater. It focuses kids to work out issues among themselves.”
Except for a fence and some posted signs, the city leaves the park fee-free and uncontrolled to avoid exposure to liability. “The more you manage, the higher the insurance because of the greater perception of safety,” explained Mayor Williams. Of course, it is the parents’ responsibility to send their skate rats off with protective gear, extra water and the right attitude. “Only one person has been life-flighted in five years,” said Mayor Williams. “And he was back out [skating] three days later.”
Kids just can’t get enough of the place. “Looking at Park City as solely a winter ski area is not prevalent at all anymore,” said the Mayor. “We’re becoming a destination because of the skate facility!”
In 2000, just 72 hours of Internet chatter brought Tony Hawk to Park City’s skateboard park. “We were on tour in Salt Lake City and heard about the park. It’s surprisingly big for a relatively small town,” Hawk commented. “It kept us coming back on our days off; there are some rippers skating there regularly.” And with a beginner bowl on the expansion plans, less-experienced skaters won’t face intimidation from those rippers. “This is the first time I have heard of a city adding to their existing park, but it’s a great idea,” Hawk said.
Whether Hawk will check us out again is anyone’s guess. “I prefer my time at skate parks to be more relaxed [unannounced], so you might catch me there without notice,” he hinted. Even if Hawk never resurfaces in Park City, future Hawks will be flying all summer long. Regardless of your age, stop in and survey the skate park. You might discover that 16-year-old mentality and sign yourself up for the next skate clinic.
For more information on the Park City Skate Park, call 435.615.5401. Youth clinics start mid-June and end mid-August. Look for three or four skateboarding events to shake things up as well.
Jill Adler is a regular contributor to Park City Magazine and spends as much time playing action sports as writing about them. Look for her in the park this summer or catch her at www.jilladler.com.
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