On Saturday, the city will add another skatepark to its resume, this time a 10,000-square-foot indoor facility off Broadway past the airport.
Donations to build the $100,000 nonprofit facility came from construction companies, local mom-and-pop stores, and of course, skateboard companies.
The Fiftytwo Skatepark has a 2,000-square-foot bowl with a 5-foot-deep section and a 9-foot-deep section. Its 6,000-square-foot street course includes a quarter-pipe ramp, a vert ramp, loading docks, a hubba, a pier 7, an A-frame, a wally-box, Euro and a few rails.
“It was a lot of work,” said volunteer builder Rob Marema, whose 11-year-old daughter Rayla had been skating the area all morning on Thursday.
“You should have seen these guys when they built this bowl,” Marema said. “Every piece is different.”
The other 2,000 square feet of the facility consists of a lounge and skate shop, which will sell boards, trucks, wheels and bearings, and do tune-ups on skateboards.
“This town is very progressive and you have a great outdoor park,” said pro skater and co-founder Jayme Erickson. But “kids need something to do in the winter.”
Erickson has ranked in the top 10 for female professional skateboarders, but has not competed for about a year and a half because she and Tucker, her husband and the park’s co-founder, just had their first child, Aydan.
Erickson said she’s going to try to get back into competitions soon.
“Hopefully I can get back into shape,” she said.
She seems like she is getting there, but when skating on Thursday in the newly minted park, she took it easy. Besides, she was wearing someone else’s skate shoes.
Erickson has also worked as a stunt double, most notably as Lindsay Lohan’s in “Herbie: Fully Loaded.”
“We’d stand there next to each other wearing the same clothes,” Erickson said. “It definitely made you feel famous.”
Because of her connections to the pro circuit, Tucker and Erickson plan on bringing plenty of pro skaters to the park for demos and contests.
Tucker is no slouch himself: He was once a sponsored skateboarder and has taught at two premier skate camps, Woodward West and Lake Owen. He’s been skating for 24 years.
The Fiftytwo Skatepark is the second largest indoor facility in town, but the other is housed inside the SHEC Church and is only open four days a week because it shares its room with the church’s chapel.
Tucker worked for a time at the SHEC skatepark, but didn’t like turning kids away. He wanted to offer a full-service skatepark where kids could be taught and could rely on to be open.
“Skateparks in Missoula are a home away from kids’ problems or bad home life,” Tucker said. When the SHEC park was closed, “they would come and shake the door.”
To skate the park, it cost $12 per day for non-members and $6 for members. Memberships are $49 for six months and $79 for a year. Hours are 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 3 p.m. to midnight on Friday and noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
If a kid can’t afford those fees, Fiftytwo has a sponsor-a-child program, where someone can sponsor a membership, or shell out for a kid to get the whole deal, a board, helmet, membership and lessons.
The donors who helped finance the park really liked this feature, Tucker said. One of those donors, Real Skateboards, will be creating a unique Fiftytwo Skatepark board for Tucker and Erickson, who is sponsored by the company.
Check it out:
The Fiftytwo Skatepark holds its grand opening Saturday from noon to 9 p.m. at the 8404 El Way, off Rollercoaster Road, past the airport. It costs $12 to skate for a day. Memberships are available. For more information, call 542-6383.
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Codi Filcher wrote on Nov 14, 2008 9:10 AM: