Skate park rolling with fun
The new skate park at the Spokane Valley YMCA has been drawing between 70 and 100 skaters a day in its first three weeks of operation.
“It definitely seems to be weather-dependent,” said assistant manager Pat Estes. “These guys will come and they’ll stay for three, four hours at a time.”
Tuesday’s warm weather didn’t deter nearly a dozen skaters from assembling in front of the gate, waiting for it to open at noon. “You get so excited you can’t wait to get in,” said Brandon Schneider, 11.
The gates opened promptly at noon to release a flow of skaters who dropped into bowls and ground on rails. Good skateboarding etiquette reigned, with kids calling out “I’m going into the bowl” before they tipped over the edge. There were plenty of spills and runaway boards, which generated a lot of “Board!” warnings.
For a while, Schneider was the only one wearing roller blades. “I did skateboard for one day, and I fell a lot,” he said.
Schneider is a YMCA member and has been coming nearly every day when he can.
“I’ve been grounded for a bit,” he admitted. “I think it’s fun. You get lots of other people and you can make friends. You can do tricks and show off.”
Most people seem pleased with the park, said Estes. It’s unique in the area because the park is enclosed and supervised. There’s a charge to get in and helmets are required. “When I’m talking to the parents, they just love the fact that it’s supervised,” said Estes. “No one has complained about wearing helmets. It’s been nothing but smiles out there.
“It’s actually everything I expected and then some. I’m just thrilled to see how many kids are coming. I’m thrilled at the behavior of the kids. There have been basically zero issues.”
Estes said the YMCA’s park is frequently compared to the publicly owned Hillyard skate park, where there’s no admission fee. Both were designed and built by GrindLine, considered one of the premiere skate park construction companies in the country.
“We do have more grind rails than Hillyard,” he said. “The word on the street is that we have a little bit better flow.”
The Y park also offers lessons, something the Hillyard park does not. Derrick Lund usually skates at the Hillyard skate park, but comes out to the Valley park for lessons.
“It’s pretty good, but it’s kind of small compared to Hillyard,” Lund said. “I like all the bowls there. It’s huge.”
Not to worry – the Valley YMCA is already planning phase two. Two acres located just to the north of the current park will be developed into more features, including a large bowl in a natural depression.
“We’ve still got $10,000 in debt to retire,” said Estes. “We’re really looking forward to wrapping up the funding for this and starting to raise money for phase two.”