Hammond skate park drawing crowds

Aimee Yee

Daily Star Staff Writer

Thrills and spills happened at the Hammond skate park during the weekend.

Former professional skateboarder Shannon May lined up his deck to ride with amateurs he'd competed with across the South in skateboard competitions.

The park was filled with young men wearing professional skateboard clothing, decks and no knee pads, elbow pads or helmets.

However, the skaters were aware of the spills they would take as they practiced and perfected their moves.

Baton Rouge resident Kyle Cox, 22, paused to watch May, a Lafayette resident, ride the quarter pipes and pyramids before heading to the bowl at the south end of the skate park.

May competed professionally in the early 1990s.

Cox said by 3 p.m. Friday, when local elementary, junior high and high schools let out, there would be too much activity at the park for the older and more skilled boarders who have to keep an eye out for kids just picking up the sport.

"It gets really overcrowded," Cox said. "The kids take over and sorta get in the way, even the good ones, so we clear out."

But at 2 p.m., with the sun beaming down, a group of young men from Austin, Texas, who had been calling Recreation Director Joey Keener to check on the status of the park's completion, said the wait and the ride were well worth the fun they were having.

Cox recognized several people from skateboard competitions. He was glad the park was still empty enough for the older guys to use, since so many were there.

A truck parked behind the bowl blared music that was all but drowned out by passing cars, but it filled the park with tunes to pump up the tempo and the tricks.

"The Texas guys are really good," Cox said, adding they were spending as much time at the skate park as they could, but still planned to hit Lafayette's music show, Festival International.

"But the coolest thing I saw today was some guy almost grinding his trucks on the capsule."

Local skateboard film maker Brody Fontenot, 23, of Baton Rouge, was also on the scene, boarding, but still recording fancy moves that caught his attention.

Much attention was focused on the skate park last weekend, and even before it opened two weeks ago.

Police reports show several teens were asked to leave the park before it was officially opened, but they explained to the officers that they simply couldn't wait to check it out.

People are probably going to be coming from all over to check it out, said Fontenot.

"Dreamland Skate Parks just grabs people up," he said. "Anything they do, they're gonna go for it. They're not gonna be able to keep 'em away."

But local skateboarders are managing to stay away from bank parking lots and the college campus where they're not allowed to board, according to police reports, which show a decline in the number of complaints of damages made by boarders using handrails to slide on their trucks.

Built by Dreamland Skate Parks of Lincoln City, Ore., the 10,000-square-foot concrete park was a long time coming to the city and maybe even the state, boarders said.

Some said they think Hammond's skate park is the first, public concrete skate park. The Chicken Coop on Old Baton Rouge Highway is mostly made of ramps, one boarder said in passing before kicking the end of his board to snap it up in his right hand near the bowl.

By 4 p.m., as boarders predicted, the park was showing signs of being swamped with kids released from school for the weekend.

Helmets and knee-pads suddenly dominated beanies, skull caps, sweat bands and bandannas.

The older guys packed things up after a while and turned the park over to the younger kids, with several parents showing up to watch and sit on the bleachers beneath the shady trees.

Just before noon on Saturday, the park was again packed, with parents, onlookers, skateboarders, rollerbladers and teenaged girls, who also carried their decks to ride.

Helmets and knee-pads once again outweighed skate clothes donned by the older guys, who said they didn't plan to return Saturday because they knew it would be too packed with younger kids to skate comfortably.

At least three teenage girls waited their turns in various lines only to change their minds at the last minute and go check out a different part of the park.

One girl said she was looking for the least risky trick to try, but losing nerve when crowded in by the guys who made it all look easy.

The three finally decided on the bowl, where they started boarding cautiously.

Some of the older kids waiting in lines shouted out instructions and made sympathetic sounds when elementary kids fell and slid down after their boards.

By midmorning, tons of juice and water bottles flowed out of the trash can where a group of guys stood on the dirt mound, watching a boy seemingly surf in midair, slide on a rail and catch his deck to stop near them and wait to go again.

Just minutes later, a city maintenance worker arrived in a city truck, watched the action for a few minutes and dumped the overflowing garbage into bags he threw in his truck. He replaced the garbage can with a new liner, which started filling up with more empty bottles as the sun blazed down on the blinding white cement.

The park is drawing crowds in excess of 30 to 40 during weekdays. On weekends the crowds of 75 include both locals and visitors who've been anticipating the park's opening since having heard it was a potential dream for the city of Hammond.

© Hammond Star

Original Article at The Daily Star