A group of about 20 Penhold community members, including youth, parents and town officials, met at the multiplex to dream big and come up with an action plan for a high quality skatepark.
Trevor Morgan, vice-president of Newline Skateparks, gave an in-depth presentation to eager ears April 4, exploring a wide variety of approaches to creating an inclusive recreation facility that caters to skateboarders, cyclists and other users.
“There's lots of different styles and sizes of skateparks,” he said. “There's really no magic bullet for what's the right plan.”
Penhold council has thrown its support behind the construction of a new skatepark and has discussed the possibility of building a well-designed facility south of the multiplex.
Morgan said Canada has been on the forefront of skateboarding since its infancy and noted the terrain parks are increasingly the recipients of provincial and federal grants, in part because once the recreation facilities are built they have a very low maintenance budget.
“There's a lot of science that goes into the mix design of the concrete,” he said. “The general engineering of these parks is not to create a bunker and hope that it never moves, but to create it lightweight and floating and make sure you have consistency.”
Newline Skateparks recently built parks in Airdrie and Sylvan Lake. Morgan said incorporating the skatepark into the fabric of the community helps keep the atmosphere of the extreme sport playground healthy.
“How do we make it a great place so that when you're done skateboarding or BMX'ing you don't feel like you have to get the heck out of there because it's such an unwelcoming and toxic environment?” he said, noting the construction of every skatepark changes with the needs of the municipality. “It's really going to be dictated by the demographics of your community.”
Wylie Reitmeier, 17, said he hopes a new skatepark could act as a force for promoting Penhold's cultural community by finding a creative way to incorporate street art.
“I'm more interested in the architecture,” he said. “It's a neat idea.”
Members of the Boys and Girls Club said they'd rather have a formal place to bike and skateboard rather than going to out-of-the way spots like the dirt hills by Jessie Duncan Elementary School.
Clayton Jones, 15, has been skateboarding for four years now and has travelled to different skateparks to test them out.
“It's something we really need,” he said, explaining the wear and tear at skate spots like the old town hall creates animosity between the youth and town officials. “It doesn't seem fun any more.”
A new skatepark would also keep Penhold youth from having to get rides to the skatepark in Red Deer, he added.
Morgan said a Newline-built park would appeal to a wide range of users.
“Our philosophy on any public skateboard park is you have opportunities for the beginner all the way to the pro skateboarder,” he said. “A lot of times you find that the feature itself stays consistent but what changes is the difficulty of manoeuvre that is tried on the feature.”
In the case of a two-set of stairs, the feature doesn't change, but the activity performed on the surface would differ depending on the skill of the user.
“A beginner skateboarder would just come and roll off and that would be a huge accomplishment,” he said. “Professional skateboarders would spend three hours on that two-set and they would come in manualing – they're balancing on their back wheels – do a 360 flip, land on their back wheels, and do another flip trick out.”
The next step is to select a size location and begin fundraising, he said.
“You're establishing that there is will in the community for this,” he said, thanking the skatepark committee members for attending. “And you're willing to be organized to champion the effort at a grassroots level in conjunction with the town.”
