Tony Hawk drops in to inaugurate Salt Lake skatepark

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk skates at the Vans-Utah Sports Commission Skatepark at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. | Kristin Murphy

Vans helped fund the terrain park, which will host the Vans Park Series World Championships Friday and Saturday

SALT LAKE CITY — To those who’ve never dropped in a bowl or slid on a rail, the newly unveiled Vans-Utah Sports Commission Skatepark at the Utah State Fair Park looks like just another place to skateboard.

But it is, for many who skateboard, a sign of acceptance that is long overdue.

“It was really frowned upon, honestly,” said David Edminster, a lifelong skateboarder who attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the terrain park Tuesday afternoon.

“It still has a counter-culture stigma to it. But things like this are changing that. Skateboarding is so inclusive ... and it is projects like this by our legislature, the city and private companies that will challenge the stigma of skateboarding and show it has incredible and numerous benefits.”

Elevating the inauguration of the park and its position in the community even more was an appearance by skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who spent time with the Salt Lake skateboarders in attendance Tuesday.

The terrain park was a joint effort between Vans and the Utah Sports Commission. The shoe company started in 1966 and was quickly embraced by skateboarders. The company returned the love for the skateboarding community, and four years ago, that relationship took a much more traditional form in the Vans Park Series, a handful of competitions around the world that culminate in a world championship for professional terrain park skateboarders. Vans officials joined athletes and others in successfully lobbying the International Olympic Committee to include the discipline in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“We’ve never hosted the world championships on American soil,” said Bobby Gascon, global director of sports marketing at Vans, of the competition the new terrain park will host Friday and Saturday night. “I’ve had the privilege to travel around the world with Park Series, but there is no place that we’ve met partners like Salt Lake City, who shared the vision and the commitment that we wanted to provide for skateboarding as a legacy.”

That legacy is a very tangible gift to the community in the form of the Vans-Utah Sports Commission Skatepark, that some were still trying to comprehend even as officials gathered for the ceremonial ribbon cutting Tuesday afternoon that featured Hawk.

“I was amazed and super grateful, especially it being right here in downtown Salt Lake,” said Derek Robison, a social worker who co-founded PushingAhead.org, a non-profit that helps kids learn to skate, including making their own boards. “A lot of the youth we work with is right here near this area. And to have this Olympic-style skatepark here, right in their backyard, is going to mean so much for them.”

Hawk joined with Gascon, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and Utah Sports Commission CEO Jeff Robbins in touting the joint effort. The designer of the Salt Lake park is the same designer he used for his own backyard park. And as officials prepared for Tuesday’s ceremony, Hawk christened the park, and thrilled his fellow skateboarders, when he dropped into the bowl for a few minutes.

Several skaters got some tips from Hawk, 51, who put the sport on the map with his video game in the ’90s. He never had the benefit of a park like the one he skated in Tuesday, but he’s not resentful about that — at all.

“I love that I lived through a time when skateboarding was raw and alternative, and was something that defined kids who didn’t want to do mainstream sports,” Hawk said. “So I enjoy that aspect of it. But I feel like it’s come of age and it’s come to a time where it is ... something that is encouraged by families to do. Parents are encouraging their kids because maybe they skated in their youth.”

It’s addition to the Olympic program, he said, “is something that’s long overdue.”

Athletes who will compete this weekend have been training at the park and said it is an incredible venue.

Lizzie Armanto said it’s not just another park for skateboarders to use.

“I feel like if this was my home park, I would be really happy just because it’s the same park that the Vans Park Series comes to (for world championships),” she said. “And just having that at your disposal is such a big tool, one if you want to compete, but also just to be able to go and skate this awesome, world-class park.”

Herbert thanked Vans for its contribution and Robbins for his leadership on continuing to develop Utah’s sports and Olympic opportunities.

“We appreciate the fact that they’ve teamed up together here to provide a significant venue here at our State Fairpark, to show off some of our cool kids, where they can learn and practice, and maybe prepare for the Tokyo Olympics as skateboarders,” Herbert said at a news conference a couple of hours before the ribbon cutting.

Added Sen. Luz Escamilla, who represents the Fairpark neighborhood, “I shows that by the state and the city investing that we acknowledge the diversity in our community. ... To have a partnership with a company like Vans is even more powerful. This is an example of public-private partnership going well. I’m excited it is in my district. This is what the Fairpark is all about, bringing communities together.”

When asked what kind of boost it might give the sport to have Vans building these kinds of parks in communities around the world (five have been opened), Armanto said it really wasn’t about that from her perspective.

“I feel like it does more for the community,” she said. “It’s just a cool place for people to gather and skate and have fun.”

Robison, who started skateboarding at age 10, said the real gift is the beauty and world-expanding view it will bring to those who use the park and embrace the sport.

“It has impacted me so much in my life,” he said. “It’s taught me life skills; it’s taught me perseverance; it’s taught me dedication. It taught me to get back up when I fall, even if I get a giant bruise and a giant scrape.”

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/34lWJ4r