San Luis Obispo Skate Park opens after years of anticipation

Matt Tyler and his scooter leaped from the 10-foot-deep bowl after deftly performing an aerial flare flip, quadruple tailwhip and a few other stunts that elicited a low “yeah” of appreciation from other riders.

“This is definitely a sick skate park,” Tyler, 19, said. “I live a block away, and I’ve been watching it being built. I’m definitely going to be coming here every day.”

A few yards away, 6-year-old Ryder Baudoin mounted his skateboard and tipped over the edge of the bowl, working up speed on his three rides down and back, down and back. “It’s great,” he said quietly when he regained the top. “It just feels really good.”

Skateboarders, scooter riders and inline skaters have been waiting a long time for those rides, but their day finally arrived Saturday with the grand opening of the $2.2 million San Luis Obispo Skate Park.

And so they came, by the thousands from across the state and beyond, to try out the 15,500-square-foot concrete facility at Santa Rosa Park. All afternoon, the roll and thwack of skateboards on concrete competed with the happy bedlam of a live band and a DJ booming tunes at opposite ends of the skate park.

But first came the ceremonial ribbon-cutting, with city officials giving speeches and thanking residents for years of support to bring the skate park to fruition.

“It’s taken eight years of community support, tough decisions, $2.2 million and hard work — and now it’s a reality,” Mayor Jan Marx said as a jubilant crowd applauded.

The park is designed with street skating elements — ramps, stairs and rails — plus three bowls of varying depths to accommodate aerialists from beginners to pros. Public art in the form of 24-foot concrete and steel trees provide shade for a small stage at one end of the skate park.

The city struggled for years to find the money to build the facility, beginning in 2007, when 200 skateboarders headed to City Hall, complaining that the decrepit wooden skate ramps at Santa Rosa Park needed to be replaced with a large, modern park.

The City Council quickly jumped on board, and numerous design workshops were held over 18 months as skaters brought ideas that were incorporated into a master plan approved in 2009.

“Then came the recession,” said Shelly Stanwyck, the city parks and recreation director.

Eventually, funding was cobbled together when the City Council made the skate park construction a major goal in the 2013-15 budget and allocated $1.2 million in Measure Y revenue, money from the city’s half-percent sales tax increase. Other funds came from a grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation, parkland fees and donations.

On Saturday, Nick Walters said he lives nearby and plans to bring his 1- and 3-year-olds to the skate park as they grow. His oldest girl is already curious about the sport, he said.

“This is the first place I skated when I was 12, and now I’m 31,” Walters said. “I watched this whole thing from the beginning, so it’s awesome to see it finally happen.” The unfenced skate park is free and open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Users can be ticketed if they aren’t wearing helmets, and elbow and knee pads. 

This story was originally published February 28, 2015 at 6:19 PM with the headline "San Luis Obispo Skate Park opens after years of anticipation."