Napier Skating Club president Matt Cooper and riders at the Sk8 Zone park for the last time yesterday. Photo / Paul Taylor
Four-time freestyle scooter world champion Dakota Schuetz rates the Sk8 Zone in Napier the 15th best skate park in the world.
The 20-year-old from San Diego told that to the legion of Napier Skating Club members and their families yesterday after joining them for demonstration at the park along Marine Parade.
"It's a shame they're tearing the park down," a globe-trotting Schuetz said, before catching a flight back to the United States late afternoon to compete and fulfil other professional commitments with 18-year-old brother Hunter.
"When I came here I thought they were tearing this down forever but at least they're working on building another one," he said, after conducting "Kota Kamp" for 35 riders, covering not only his tips and tricks but also cover the basics of equipment and park safety as well as etiquette and fitness and nutrition.
"I'm sure once they build the better one in 10 to 15 years they'll keep building on and on to make it even better," said the American, who arrived here on Tuesday to fulfil a promise he made to 9-year-old club member Thor Larsen after his mother, Trish Kearns, contacted him via social media.
"Your city seems pretty keen on supporting this kind of stuff so, hopefully, they'll continue doing that in the future," Schuetz said, vowing to return once the new park starts humming.
However, club president Matt Cooper said the mammoth task of dismantling the ramps at the existing location from today, following an eviction notice from the Napier City Council, tampered the spiritual fillip from Schuetz's visit to end a 61-year occupation.
"They are evicting us so we have to be out by Sunday."
Cooper said keeping the facility intact and in its place still remained the club's preference in the face of the relocation to the former Marineland site along the parade.
He said it was a million dollar property and the ramp was worth $500,000 but council wasn't forthcoming.
"I don't see any cranes outside helping us get the 10 [ramps] of the best that were meant to come out."
The rest of the ramps, close to 20 odd, Cooper will start dismantling from today.
Napier mayor Bill Dalton could not be reached for comment last night.
In his opinion, a more reasonable time would have been two to three weeks from the council "without an army".
Cooper is hiring a crane from Diack Bros Ltd.
"I know Chris Diack, who is a cane operator, so it's a favour for a favour," he said.
So who is Cooper sending out an SOS to to help dismantle the ramps?
"It's called Facebook. I've just been pulling all my favours out of there."
He was intending to post the request for help overnight and was expecting a group of hearty and loyal souls to turn out.
The weather, if forecasts are anything to go by, will serve up rain-whipped galeforce northwesterly and cold southerlies for good measure to test the mettle of the working bee in the next four days.
Cooper was reluctant to even offer a ballpark figure of the number of hours required to perform the task.
"I'm more likely to know what it'll be like next week after we're done on Sunday."
Having a forklift to lift some of the bigger ramps would have been godsend.
"It would help in picking stuff up, stropping it up. I've done a lot of construction work in my youth so I know the ins and outs of what needs to be done."
The 10 ramps earmarked for the crane will be moved sideways to the adjacent carpark although there weren't any allocated spots for them and he wasn't sure what the plan was for them from there. He was assuming it would be left there in a makeshift capacity to engage children.
About 10 per cent of the ramps are headed for the Salvation Army pop-up store along Farraday St.
"They still own the winery there so they have a huge warehouse which I'm going to lease off them."
Cooper said the cost of moving those ramps would come out of the club's coffers.
On the flip side, he was delighted the council was involving him and the club in the construction of the new park.
"We're going to ensure there's pigment in the concrete."
Jenny McIvor, an ex-artistic rollerskater and the mother of former Sk8 Zone manager Pat McIvor, used to skate at the venue in her heyday.
"She now has melanoma in her legs but it has been reasonably cut out so we've suggested to put a pigment in the concrete to stop the glare from coming up," Cooper said, emphasising that's why all the ramps had a dark coat of painting to deflect the glare.
"I'm wearing sunglasses 24/7 when I'm here, even on non-glarey days so once you put a few coats of paint on them they are much nicer on the eyes."