CASE is not directly affiliated with any skateparks in Calgary. We advocate for new skateparks and skateboard friendly policies and legislation in Calgary on behalf of the Calgary skateboarding community, but we don’t own or manage any skate facilities.
Downtown:
Shaw Millennium Park – Calgary’s oldest skatepark is located on the site of the old Mewata Stadium, on the west side of downtown at Bow Trail/9th Ave between 14th and 11th Streets. It’s Canada’s largest at 75,000 square feet. The skatepark is open 24 hours a day; the greenspace surrounding the park adheres to regular park hours (5AM-11PM). Read more about it on the city’s skatepark site.
South East
Deer Run – 2223 146th Ave SE, next to Deer Run Community Centre. 2016 construction.
Midnapore – Midlake Blvd SE, next to Midsun Community Centre. 2016 construction.
New Brighton – 130 Ave SE, east of 52 St SE. Opened Summer 2016.
McKenzie Towne has a small modular park with mostly steel-framed ramps. View the park details here. It’s located at 200 McKenzie Towne Gate SE.
South West
CKE Skate Spot is about 5,000 of plaza style terrain located at the corner of Elbow Drive and 73 Ave SW.
Southwood – Sackville Drive SW, next to Southwood Community Hall. Opened Spring 2016.
Westside Rec Centre, located at 2000 69 St SW has a smaller modular skatepark that is open during the spring and summer months. The set up includes various street obstacles and a 40 foot wide mini ramp with a bank and two distinct sections. Read more at this link.
Woodcreek, a small modular skatepark built by area Community Associations separate from the Skateboard Strategy.
North East
Genesis Centre – skatepark is in the design process
The City of Calgary operates the Mobile Skatepark Program during the summer months, generally starting in late June. There are a few parks that travel to all quadrants of the city. Check out this link for dates and locations.
Calgary Region Skateparks
There are a number of free outdoor skateparks in towns close to Calgary.
In spring 2017, the City will be moving into the construction phase of the last 2 parks of the first eight, as outlined in the Skateboard Amenities Strategy. You can read about how the initial skatepark sites were selected in this report. The City’s Skatepark Development website has some more information on it regarding these future skateparks.
Indoor Skateparks
Currently, Calgary has one indoor skatepark, The Compound, operated by Riders on Board Snowboard Club.
The city has had nearly a dozen indoor parks come and go, however. Places like Skatopia, All Skool, Four-O-Three, Skateworld, and Skate Jungle were all privately operated. It’s been proven that private indoor skateparks cannot exist in most cities. High overhead/operational costs combined with insurance costs make indoor parks a tough go financially.
CASE is working constantly towards an indoor facility. We live in a city that is unskateable nearly half of the year. We hope to follow the models of parks like Le Taz in Montreal or the Regina Indoor Park. The cost of running a skatepark cannot be supported by user fees alone; a partnership is required. For example, a donated building.
Skatelife operates a temporary indoor skatepark every Tuesday night at Dalhousie Community Church. More info on their website:
Rob Thorpe is an OG Calgary skater who made a series of skate videos featuring the best Calgary skaters. Rob has donated copies to us so that we can put them on Vimeo.
Since the Skateboard Amenities Strategy began to be implemented, we’ve seen six outdoor concrete skateparks built in Calgary: CKE, Southwood, Huntington Hills, New Brighton, Midnapore, and Deer Run.
This year, we’ll likely see two more: Bowness and Genesis Centre (northeast).
Bowness skatepark initial concept
City staff have informed us that these two new parks will go out to tender/bid in March so that ground can be broken as soon as the construction season starts in late spring. Construction times of skateparks vary a lot due to size of the parks and weather, the latter which can be very unpredictable in Calgary.
In addition to Bowness and Genesis, the new Rocky Ridge rec centre will have a skatepark. The facility is scheduled to open in 2018.
We’ll continue to keep you informed on the latest developments of these new parks.
Calgary’s newest skatepark location has been announced! Bowness skate spot will be located in Queen Elizabeth Park, also known as 77 Street Park. Engagement from 2014 will be honoured so preliminary designs will be released early in 2017!
You may recall that the original location near Our Lady of the Assumption School was kyboshed last year for various reasons. The new location has the support of the community association, councillor, and Calgary legion located nearby.
Watch for more information in the near future.
There are now a handful of DIY skate spots in Calgary. DIY stands for “do it yourself”. That means that individuals or groups of individuals have used their own time and resources to design and build these skateparks.
DIY skateparks aren’t a new concept. Burnside Project in Portland, Leeside in Vancouver, FDR in Philadelphia, and Channel Street in San Pedro are some of the best known ones.
Burnside
Skaters at these DIY parks adhere to a specific set of rules and often self-police them with tenacity that comes from pride– pride from pouring their hearts and souls into these parks. And it a many cases, a lot of funds.
Rules at Burnside, for example, include no scooters, no bike pegs, and no drugs or alcohol. It comes down to respect. If you respect the builders and the park, you’ll be allowed to skate there. If you disrespect it, chances are you will be very unwelcome by the locals and likely banned.
Channel Street
The function of “harsh locals” is two-fold– they keep out riff raff like drug users and others who seek out places to engage in illicit behaviours. They also ensure that no one is disrespecting their park. And make no mistake– it is their park. They built it so they get to say who uses it. Think of it as their house.
Leeside
These rules aren’t that different from the sanctioned skateparks we have. PLEASE respect our parks, both DIY and legit. Don’t litter, don’t loiter, don’t snake, and just treat people how you would like to be treated. Offer help– chances are it will be accepted. Who knows, maybe you’ll become a local one day.
