Vancouver Skateboard Coalition

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years today since the ribbon cutting took place at the Hastings Skatepark on May 25th, 2001. Were you there? You can see in this photo that I shot of Sluggo on that opening day, there was barely any graffiti on the walls at all, she was still a new born babe. And, she’s standing the test of time, looking better than ever and that’s mainly because of that guy up there, Sluggo. He took it upon himself to paint the whole bowl a few weeks ago to make it killer smooth. Thanks a million for that Sluggo. There’s a very long list of others that need to be thanked for making Hastings a reality all those years ago, but you know who you are.

Every time I think of Hastings, I think of Josh Evin, just one of the many, many rippers that have unlocked Hastings’ potential – just look at that air – RIP Josh. Photo taken from Louis Feller’s Flickr page.

Do you have any pictures or videos from the Hastings Park? Put them up in our Facebook group gallery (or post the videos to our wall). I have a bunch of photos from the opening day on a disc somewhere… I’ll try to dig them out and put them up in the gallery sometime soon.

Now get out there and carve a few lines in the bowl, and show it the respect it deserves.

Leo Romero nosegrinds the rail at the Wild in the Streets Emerica demo a couple years ago.
Photo by Miss Kim

We’ve received word from the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Park Board that the downtown Vancouver Skate Plaza will be temporarily shutting down for some much needed repairs. We don’t have the official closure dates yet, and aren’t totally sure how long it’s going to be closed for, but we’ll let you know as soon as we get that info in. What we do know is that they’re waiting until after our BC Youth Week event, which is happening Sunday, May 8th (Mother’s Day – so save the date if you have/know younger skaters) which is a relief to us so we don’t have to move the event to another park. We’ve been holding the Youth Week event at the Plaza for years, so we’d like to keep it there.

The Park Board started engaging the skaters a few months ago to gather input on what we’d like to see fixed, and made a list of priorities that came out of the online surveys and meetings. First up is that the ground needs resurfacing in the prime landing areas, as the surface there has been deteriorating more over the last couple of years. The second thing up was that the granite ledges are to be swapped out/flipped over/replaced as needed. That’s a pretty good start to the repairs that are needed.

Newline Skateparks, who originally designed and built the park has been awarded the contract for the repairs, so we know it’s in good hands. Sweet.

Kyle and his crew at Newline Skateparks really have the pedal to the metal at the new skatepark/pool going into the ground at Kensington Park at Knight Street & 37th. Check out these pics of the progress as of early June. Rumours are this is all going to be finished, and the grand opening celebration going down in the first few days of July. We all can’t wait for this one to finish.

We’ll keep you updated with the grand opening dates and info – but until then, enjoy and share the pics around.

Kensington Park Skatepark Open House

A skateboarding facility, similar to the ones in place in Strathcona and Quilchena Parks, is planned for Kensington Park, at Knight & 37th Ave. The public is invited to an open house to view preliminary design ideas and to make comments. Please join us.

This new skatepark has been proposed to be for more of a ‘bowl’ style park since the last couple of parks we’ve built (Quilchena and The Plaza) have been more street style. As mentioned above, this park is more of a ‘community’ skatepark, not a ‘destination park’ like Hastings. This park won’t be huge, so we should be realistic in our expectations for the design of this park. That’s not to say it can’t be amazing – so hopefully we’ll see you out at the meeting.

Kensington Community Centre
5175 Dumfries Street
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 – 5:30pm to 7:30pm
In the Seniors’ Lounge

For further information contact:
Curtis Link, Project Manager
604-257-8476  or email curtis.link [at] vancouver.ca

The VSBC is happy to report that a brand new indoor skatepark, The Dry Spot is opening it’s doors November 7th at 12pm thanks to Ben Chibber and the Monke crew. Congrats!

UPDATE: The Dry Spot’s website is now up at www.skatethedryspot.com – there’s a few more pics on the site too. Age break-downs/hours can also be found on their site.

SKATEPARK FEATURES:

1,375 square ft
3 ft high x 12 ft mini ramp
2 ft platform with a 5 set, interchangeable hubba and step up gap
8 ft granite ledge
Mannie pad
Flat bar
MJ Ledge
5 ft Quarter pipe
5 ft flat bank

For more info please contact Ben Chibber bchibber@shaw.ca
or call 604 324 4962.
Located at 312-8494 Ontario St., Vancouver

Frank Daniello posted an “In The Park” article on the Push.ca website about the history of the Leeside tunnel, and it’s ramped up progress in the past year. He talks to VSBC’s good friend Seb Templer who gives us the good word on what’s happening down in the tunnel, and gives special nods out to VSBC President Michelle Pezel for her unwavering commitment to Leeside. The coalition has been working with the City of Vancouver and Park Board to get the tunnel officially recognized as a memorial to Lee Matasi since his untimely death.

You can read the article here.

Looks like trouble’s a brewin’ over at the Park Board. Some staff members aren’t happy, and now we aren’t either. Why? Because on Monday (March 10th) at 7pm, the Park Board is holding a meeting to approve the current draft of the 2009-2011 Capital Plan… a plan that doesn’t include any funding for a new skatepark (look at page 3 near the bottom). What happened to the Park Board’s Skateboard Strategy?

When the Skateboard Strategy was approved in October 2005, Quilchena (Vancouver’s newest skatepark) had already been built. In 2006, when the Park Board told us that they were “leaning towards” bulldozing the bowls at China Creek, we were repeatedly assured that China Creek would be quickly replaced by the new skateparks that the Skateboard Strategy would be bringing to the city. And now they’re proposing a budget that completely cuts us out until 2011?

Want to do your part to help out Vancouver’s skateboard scene? Of course you do. So come to the Park Board Administration Office (2099 Beach Drive) on Monday, March 10th at 7:00pm. You also want to personally tell them what you think, so register to speak by calling the Board Secretary at 604-257-8451 before noon on the day of the meeting. The Vancouver Skateboard Coalition will be there and we’d love to see as many of you out as possible.

MSN conversation

Carlo says: so tired and bored sitting around. i am restless.
Carlo says: i might scream.
Sarah says: yhea me too
Carlo says: days like this i wish there was an indoor skatepark!

I’m an immigrant and I just moved here to Vancouver from England in March via Montreal. I don’t have a lot of friends nd it’s days like this that I’m missing going to the skatepark and skating the bowl or vert ramp and just drifiting around and slashing the coping. Occasionally I’ll dump a 5o-50 or 5-0 down a wee hubba.

PS. check out my mate weasel on myspace and his sketchgueststance zine, it’s sick. Plus I’ll be drawing in his gueststance zine. Neckface (Thrasher Cover) is also gonna be in there. It’s sick. Get me on myspazz.com fwd slash skateknife.