To Skaters, Conejo Park Planner Is Big Wheel

When Loren Pluth stands in front of a crowd of 60 anxious young skateboarders, the first question he’s asked is always the same: Are you one of us?

For most landscape architects and park planners, the answer would be no.

But Pluth, who sent away for his first “Roller Derby” board by cutting out coupons from Popsicle boxes when he was 4 years old, has a spirited passion for the sport and the subculture. He knows as much about “ollies” and “grinds” as he does about setbacks and irrigation lines.

So when dozens of board-toting 14-year-olds told him they wanted Thousand Oaks’ first skate park to include bowls with metal copeing, quarter-pipes and fun boxes, he knew exactly what they were talking about.

“It’s nice to be able to understand what the skaters are asking for without requiring a translator,” joked Pluth, 35, who joined the Conejo Recreation and Park District last year from a private landscape architecture firm.

Pluth grew up in the San Gabriel Valley in the 1970s--where “sports with wheels took precedence over sports with water”-- and he often used skateboards to get around town. Though he denies being a trickster, he admits having dropped into his share of empty swimming pools.

And he hopes that background will contribute to the success of the 8,500-square-foot, $183,000 public skateboarding facility he has designed and planned for Borchard Park, which the district will begin building today.

About 10 weeks from now, the dirt lot on the corner of Borchard and Reino roads promises to be shaped into a concrete paradise of curves and edges for thousands of suburban skateboarders in and around Thousand Oaks. A grand opening is envisioned for late February or early March.

The district established a need for two skateboard parks in the area a few years ago. The only other public facility east of the Conejo Grade is in Moorpark at Arroyo Vista Park. In the meantime, the district has tried to set up makeshift parks, such as temporary ramps at the Conejo Creek Teen Center.

Pluth said the site at Borchard Park arose from a need to reconfigure the parking lot outside of the community center. Because of the proximity to Newbury Park High School--a favorite spot for skateboarders to practice their stunts--the district decided to make room for a skating facility.

La Canada-based Withers, Sandgren & Smith was the firm hired to design the Borchard Road skate park, and at the time, Pluth was employed there. While working on the project, he found out about an opening at the Conejo parks district.

“Basically, this park was instrumental in me coming to the district,” he said.

Pluth--a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona and soon to hold a master’s degree from there--decided to make skateboard park planning his specialty about three years ago.

State legislation that took effect in 1997 enabled more public agencies to build the facilities. Prior to that, liability concerns prevented many cities and park districts from providing open-air concrete ramps and bowls, despite a rapidly growing demand for them.

“Because I’ve been an off-and-on hobbyist skateboarder since I was about 4, it was a good move for me,” Pluth said. “The skaters have such a clear vision of what they want, and they are absolutely the most energetic group of people you could ever work with.”

He said he starts the planning process by surveying the youngsters to find out what tricks they are practicing and what kinds of streetscapes they are skating now.

Next, he sits them in a room and tells them to put on paper their vision of a perfect skate park. At the end of a workshop process, Pluth said he’s gotten everything from sketches to computer-generated images to magazine cutouts--even Play-Doh models--depicting the will of the young skating population.

Taking bits and pieces from the collage of suggestions, he comes up with a few alternative plans, which are further narrowed to one proposal.

One design challenge is making the facility attractive enough so that skaters choose it over street skating.

“To a certain degree they don’t need it, because they have the whole world to work with,” Pluth said. “On that note, you want the skate park to be a place where skaters want to go.”

Marc Smith, owner of Thousand Oaks-based Navigator Truck Co.--which manufactures the metal “trucks” that hold skateboard wheels and decks together--said he worked with Pluth to suggest design features of the park.

“You really can’t have someone design a park who doesn’t know about skateboarding,” he said. “It definitely helps that he did.”

Smith’s main concern was making sure the concrete bowls in the park had edges with metal copeing, which prevents chipping and breaking.

A poorly built skate park is just a lonely sea of concrete, he noted. “We were in [other parts of Southern California] and the parks were so bad kids weren’t skating in them.”

Smith also confirmed the need for a facility in Thousand Oaks, which he said is teeming with young skateboarding enthusiasts looking for a safe and legal place to practice the oft-misunderstood sport.

“The more parks there are, the more kids are off the street and the better off they are,” he said.

Pluth is already working with local skaters on plans for a second facility, for which he’s exploring a new approach.

Because the most popular style of skating among amateur teenagers is street skating, he hopes to create a park that better emulates a typical suburban street.

“The concept would be to make it much more linear, so you’re not changing the elevation so much,” Pluth said. “It’s very exciting.”