Skatepark of Athens

by Phonshia Nie | photos by Muzel Chen

On the east side of Athens in the Southeast Clarke Park lays a bare piece of land that recently received attention from both the city and the skateboarders of Athens. It is the future site of the Athens' free public skatepark.

This is the most recent development to Athens' skateboarding scene and is anticipated to encourage and increase the skateboarding population in Athens.

For the past two years, many dedicated advocates for the skatepark worked to raise money and approached the city for aid in the construction and design of the skatepark.

Everyone has seen the skateboarders rolling down hills or grinding a ledge around campus late at night and it seems these sightings have increased as the skateboarding scene in Athens continues to grow.

Jason Thrasher, main coordinator for the Skatepark of Athens and local photographer, explains that the need for this skatepark has come from both the growing interest in skateboarding and the limited areas to which skateboarders have access.

"Skateboarding has moved into the mainstream," Thrasher says. "Seeing skate stars like Tony Hawk, kids are interested in that, whether they have a place to do it or not. When I was a kid we were building our own ramps and skating street spots. Now, five to ten years later, it's almost impossible to find legal places to skateboard."

According to Athens-Clarke County ordinance Sec. 3-10-3, it is illegal for people to skateboard on any public streets or sidewalks located within the downtown district.

Campus rules, however, follow state laws which are more lenient toward skateboarding. The University allows skateboarding as long as it does not damage property or interrupt class flow, but this often still deters people from skateboarding. These drawbacks to street skating created the business for privately-owned indoor skateparks.

"...it's almost impossible
to find legal places to skateboard."
- Jason Thrasher, coordinator
for the Skatepark of Athens

Glowing Rock skatepark, a privately-owned indoor skatepark and the only skatepark in Athens, closed its doors in November. Glowing Rock featured a 9,000 square-foot skatepark open to skateboarders and BMX riders. With the demise of Glowing Rock, many people feel this even increases the need for the Skatepark of Athens.

Seattle-based Grindline, one of the founding companies and industry leaders of design and construction of public concrete skateparks, has been contracted to design the park and will probably build it as well.

Ryan King, a sophomore from Cumming who has been skateboarding for six years, is excited that Grindline will be involved.

"Anything those guys do can't be bad," he says.

Thrasher says when he began the Skatepark of Athens movement, his original goal was to bring Grindline to Athens to build this skatepark.

"I think by having Grindline, we're going to have one of the crown jewels of this area," Thrasher says. "People will come to Athens [from] four or five states away to skate this park just because Grindline built it."

Andy Sandford, a skateboarder from downtown Atlanta, says that he went to Glowing Rock a few years ago when it was previously owned and operated as Skater's Xtreme, but he does not come to Athens often to skateboard.

"Once the Skatepark of Athens is built, I'll probably come up to Athens to check out the new park a few times," Sandford says. "I've heard a lot of hype about the design and size, but I'm not sure what exactly it's going to be like."

The park will feature a bowl with an oververt extension and a portion of a street course. It will probably be a dawn-to-dusk park; helmets will be required and pads recommended. It will be open to skateboarders and BMX riders. Southeast Clarke Park will house the skatepark, which is located on Lexington Highway across from Wal-Mart.

The project broke ground in December and construction is estimated to take about 6 to 8 weeks to construct. If all goes as planned, phase one will be completed by spring 2005.

Thrasher says it takes about $400,000 to $500,000 to build a 15,000 square foot skatepark, and Skatepark of Athens currently is designing and building with about $187,000. He says that Athens-Clarke County's Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, has funded about $165,000 to the skatepark. The Skatepark of Athens was also awarded a $10,000 grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation in November. Supporters of the skatepark have raised $22,000 through various fund-raisers including benefit concerts, art shows, T-shirt sales and a special CD compilation. Planners hope for additions to the skatepark as more money is raised.

"Personally, I had no idea what kind of support we were going to get," Thrasher says. "I knew people were interested and people wanted it. The support we have gotten has really blown me away."

For more information about the Skatepark of Athens, visit www.skateparkofathens.com.