By SHANDELLE BATTERSBY
A lone skater pauses at the top of a ramp in Auckland's newest skate park and surveys its concrete and wooden terrain before bending and taking off.
The sound of his board swooshing up and down the wooden ramps and grinding along the steel and concrete surfaces is muffled
by the roar of traffic on the viaduct overhead.
Victoria Park's new $160,000 facility, which opens today, is one of many marked for the Auckland region as councils move to provide dedicated skating areas.
About $1 million of ratepayers' money is going into skateboarding.
North Shore skateboarders will have a new park in Devonport by the end of the summer, while Manukau City has three new facilities in the pipeline: at Mangere Bridge, Clevedon and Manukau central.
The Auckland City Council is considering facilities at Waiheke Island and Panmure-Glen Innes, and upgrading one in Glendowie.
Two big projects under way in Waitakere City are a skate park in Te Pai Park, Lincoln, and transforming the existing facility in Jack Pringle Park, Te Atatu, into a street skating arena.
Franklin is planning an area at Patumahoe, and the Papakura District Council is looking at portable ramps that can be moved every few months.
Rodney also expects to dedicate money to skateboarding parks over the next few years.
The Auckland council team behind the facility at Victoria Park hope it will ease the problems that skaters have had with city shop-owners who claim skateboarders jeopardise pedestrian safety, damage public property and drive away shoppers.
"It may not solve all the problems, but there was a real need for this facility," says project manager Jim Fraser.
David Porter, a former professional skater, has helped design and build the skate park.
He believes councils are acting because of the sheer number of people demanding places to skate, and the fact that they get kids off the streets.
"Skateboarding is huge at the moment. It's the most popular it's ever been," he says.
Mary Gardner, of the Skateboarding Association, says it is encouraging that councils are providing facilities and involving local skaters in their planning to ensure designs and locations are right.
This involvement is important, says Ken Dyer, of the Franklin District Council, "because we don't know what they want. The skaters won't use the facility unless they are happy with it."
The first stage of the Victoria Park skate park features elements such as wedges, quarter-pipes, a stair grind, a pyramid funbox and banked ramps, in an area the size of two netball courts.
Mr Fraser says the second stage, which includes a vertical ramp and a mini-ramp, will begin when more non-council funding is secured.
The skate park's official opening at 2 pm will feature demonstrations by pro-riders, entertainment and spot prizes.
By SHANDELLE BATTERSBY
A lone skater pauses at the top of a ramp in Auckland's newest skate park and surveys its concrete and wooden terrain before bending and taking off.
The sound of his board swooshing up and down the wooden ramps and grinding along the steel and concrete surfaces is muffled
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