Not Just a Pipe Dream

If skateboarders in Santa Clarita get their wish, they’ll someday be maneuvering through a public skate park at the Metrolink station on Soledad Canyon Road.

For more than a year, city staff has been studying the possibility of a place to accomodate skateboarders, in-line skaters and roller skaters. The Santa Clarita City Council has publicaly discussed several issues including how the facility, estimated to cost $60,000 to $300,000 will be funded.

Santa Clarita already obtained a grant from Los Angeles County Proposition A funds for nearly $33,000 for the park, said Johnathan Skinner, city recreation coordinator.

Parks and recreation staff will lay out different options--admission versus free, basic versus state-of-the-art and supervised versus unsupervised--at a March 25 City Council meeting.

“It’s a high priority for the council,” he said.

Some of the nearest skate parks are as far away as Huntington Beach and Temecula. Later this month a private indoor skate park is expected to open in Ventura. On Thursday afternoons, Bouquet Baptist Church in Santa Clarita opens their courtyard to skateboarders and a handful of in-line skaters.

“They’re not out there to destroy things, they just need a place to skate,” said Jonie Blinman, 20, of Santa Clarita, who was instrumental in starting the church skate session.

Aside from raising the ire of shopkeepers who complain they damage property and drive away potential customers, skateboarders risk injury by skating in potentially unsafe places.

Three weeks ago, a 15 year-old Newhall boy was struck by a car and killed while in-line skating across busy Lyons Avenue in Santa Clarita. Last October, an in-line skater died after being hit by a car on Valley Circle Boulevard in West Hills. And a 4-year-old boy was run over and killed in May on a skateboard in the driveway of a South-Central Los Angeles apartment.

Santa Clarita has a rarely enforced ordinance prohibiting skateboarding and roller-skating on a grade greater than 3% on any city road, street or highway, said Sheriff’s Lt. Tim Peters.

“They like to use the areas that have stairs and handrails, but most of those areas intermix with pedestrians,” Peters said. “It’s quite dangerous.”

Skating the perfect line

What are skateboarders looking for in a skate park? A design that has smooth transitions from one element to the next, allows a skater to gain speed with minimal pushing and has plenty of variety, according to Craig Glover, 24, who started skateboarding at age 5.

It should have a good number of elements within a fairly large space that can accommodate many skaters at the same time so there won’t be long lines. The concrete should have as few seams as possible to provide a smooth and safer ride.

Before taking off, skateboarders imagine a path, or line, they will follow. “A good skate park allows you to create a million lines in your mind,” Glover said. “Your line can go on forever as long as you stay on the board.”

And being able to skate a line one way one time and another way the next keeps a skateboarder challenged.

“It should have endless possibilities,” he said.

“People don’t realize our sport is as important to us as baseball is to some,” avid skateboarder Craig Glover.

“Having a skateboard park isn’t a guarantee it’s going to stop what we are seeing in the shopping areas.” Jan Heidt, Santa Clarita councilwoman.

A look at the elements that make up a skate park

1. BOWL: One of the basic elements in a skate park. The bowl originates from the days when skaters would drain swimming pools in order to skate in them. The style of skating in a bowl is called “vertical” or “vert,” because most of the moves are executed at the lip of the bowl as the skateboard comes up in a vertical position.

2. LEDGE: A concrete block that skaters can perform moves on or “ollie” over. An ollie is a no-hands aerial where the board is propped up from the tail.

3. HANDRAIL: Essentially a handrail that is lower to the ground. Skaters usually grind, or slide down, the rail using some part of the skateboard to maintain contact with the rail.

4. FUNBOX: A pyramid-like structure with flat top that skaters can perform a variety of moves over. A funbox can be used as a ramp where the skater approaches at a considerable speed and executes an ollie at the top of the funbox. While in the air, more experienced skaters can flip the board with their feet, or change direction in midair. The funbox is one of the most essential elements in a skate park.

5. QUARTER PIPE: As the name implies, this structure is essentially one-quarter of a pipe. Skaters travel up the face of the quarter pipe, perform maneuvers, and drop back down the face and on to another element.

Sources: City of Santa Clarita, staff reports

Researched by STEPHANIE STASSEL and ROGER KUO / Los Angeles Times