City urged to get on board with skateboards
Facilities need to catch up to skateboarding craze
By Richard Cuthbertson, Calgary Herald December 3, 2011 8:40 AM
It’s been more than 30 years since Skatopia 1 in Calgary’s Franklin Industrial Park became Canada’s first indoor concrete skate park.
One old photo taken at the site shows a 1970s skateboarder, knee-high sport socks and all, riding the edge of what looks to be a dry swimming pool.
But even with its early start, skateboarding facilities in Calgary have dragged well behind the growing interest in the sport.
A new consultant’s report, commissioned by the city, is recommending dozens of skate parks be built over the next decade, carrying an estimated price tag of $11 million.
The new strategy, which is heading to a council committee next week, comes after years of complaints from skateboarders.
“The situation’s pretty simple. It’s just a gross lack of facilities,” said Zev Klymochko, with the advocacy group Calgary Association of Skateboarding Enthusiasts.
With more than 34,000 aficionados in the city, the consultant is recommending the construction of 45 smaller skate parks and “spots,” ranging in size from a half basketball court to full tennis court.
Five others would be larger, up to the size of a little league baseball field.
Ideally, they would be dispersed around the city, particularly at points where there is good interest in skateboarding, according to Ron Smith, a researcher with the city’s recreation department.
“According to the model that’s being proposed, ultimately and ideally you’d like to have various scales,” Smith said.
City officials aren’t recommending council hand over a lump sum. Rather, they suggest putting individual projects on the city’s culture and recreation infrastructure wish list for funding consideration, when potential sites have been found.
The city’s reputation seems to have been to build big, but not build many.
Skatopia 1 opened in 1977 and then closed in 1979 due to insurance costs.
A series of short-lived indoor parks, with names like Ramp-o-Rama, Skate Jungle and All Skool, popped up and then faded from view.
In 2000 Shaw Millennium Park opened – an outdoor facility which at the time was considered one of the premier skateboard spots in the world.
Westside Recreation Centre has a skate park, there is a modest spot in McKenzie Towne and the city does have some temporary, mobile skate parks.
But aside from that, there is little else.
One of the big current complaints is there are no indoor facilities in Calgary, although a church in Dalhousie does opens its gym to skateboarders.
RCUTHBERTSON@ CALGARYHERALD.COM