Skirtboarders

I just watched a clip on Global News about the Skirtboarders, a group of women who show off their skateboarding in an attempt to demonstrate to girls that skateboarding can be enjoyed regardless of gender.

An interesting detail from the story came from a Swedish skater involved in the cross country tour who mentioned that the park in her hometown was built by New Line Skateparks, the same folks who built Station 1 in Saint John.  It’s good to know that our park was put up by world class skatepark builders.

Skateboarding entrepreneur comments on “misunderstanding of skateboarding”

A letter to the editor of Here (August 20) from Ross Smith, an entrepreneur who works with skateboarders, responds to criticisms of skateboarders in the Moncton area.

Highlights:

“It's frustrating to read articles that set out to comment on how we fit into traffic, but end up clearly being about simply disliking skateboarders.”

“In this age of concerns over overuse of automobiles and rising obesity rates, banning a viable form of active, green transportation is ludicrous. Many people don't simply skate for transportation, but practice tricks.”

“Moncton is home to many skilled skateboarders”

I commend this writer for his willingness to stand up for his sport and community.

Brave Heart Skateboard competition finals (April 26, 2009)

The Brave Heart Skateboarding competition finals were today.  Some great skateboarding was demonstrated and a group of guys left with prize money in hand.  The Saint John Skatepark website is supposed to have photos and videos from the event posted over the next few days.  Here are some of my photos from today.

(Above: Prize sponsor John Campbell with the winning team from the clan competition)

Saint John Skateboarding Competition

I checked out some of the skateboarding competition at the Saint John skate park.  It was a pretty cool event with lots of people.

 

Station One Skate Plaza

Newline Skateparks, the company that designed the Saint John skate park, has on their website a photo album of their work in Saint John.  They refer to the park as the Station One Skate Plaza – a pretty cool name for the frequently used skate board attraction.

Link: www.newlineskateparks.com/projects/Featured.aspx?r=Ontario&p=108

Skate Park - dusk users

Here are a few photos I took of people trying out the skatepark being built under the throughway in Saint John.

Here's a photos of another popular skating destination: the concrete area in front of city hall.

Vancouver Skate Park

I read that the Saint John skate park being built under a bridge wasn't alone: there is a skate board park in Vancouver that is also under a overhead bridge. I recall the park from a 2006 trip to Vancouver. Here's a shot of the Vancouver "under the bridge" skate park.

More Skate Park Coverage

By no means am I the only blogger following the Saint John Skate Park.

The Saint John Skatepark blog features some photos of workers building the park. The site also announces a Halloween opening for the park. There is a call on the site for volunteers, to participate in the opening day, and for help supervising the park.

The Ride Blog also has a post about the October 31 noon opening. The author points out how the parks fits in well with the Harbour Passage trail. He also wonders if BMX and other cyclists will be able to use the park for trick riding.

An international blog that focuses on waterfront development, appropriately named Waterfront Development News, has a post calling Saint John's construction of the skate park development part of the city "going in the right direction."

Skate Park - looking good

The skate park being built off the Harbour Passage (under the through way) in uptown Saint John is taking shape.

There are some cool stair, brick and ramp components.

When I was down taking these photos there were around five skaters looking anxious to use the park.

Skate Park

Local Realtor and blogger Ann-Marie Clements has posted her excitement and renderings of the skate park that is under construction. Ann-Marie points out the cool locational attribute of a harbour view.

Her post is at http://activerain.com/blogsview/589415/WOW-WOW-WOW-We

Skate Park work started

Work on the site of Saint John's future skate park has begun near Harbour Station.

X-fest

I found this photo in my archive. The shot is of the Saint John x-fest, a skateboarding and bmx biking festival that acted as a fundraiser for the skate park that will finally be built this year.