For three hours, skateboarders took to the pavement of Beth Schmidt Park — setting up ramps and rails to get some tricks in on a rainy Sunday. But they are all waiting for one thing: a skate park.
It has been years in the making, but chairman of the Elon Skate Coalition Scott Ingalls said they hope to break ground on the skatepark this year — either late summer or early fall.
“Currently, we have the money for the skatepark,” Ingalls said. “We now have to acquire a little bit more money for the land development.”
At the March 11 town council meeting, Recreation and Parks Director Kim Brown asked the town council to approve the addition of the Elon skatepark project to the parking regulation.
“We have shrunk down the design of the skate park, so it is a little cheaper,” Brown said.
Ingalls said that donations help the skate committee and overall funding of the skatepark.
“Hit your grandmas and your grandpas, your uncles and aunties up,” Ingalls said. “Anybody. We would love the support.”
In the meantime, Ingalls said that the skatepark committee has had events, such as the Parking Lot Jam and “Go Skate Day.” These activities give skateboarders a chance to practice and show support for the skateboarding community.
“We set it up to bring people in, show the support, show we have a community here, and that we’re trying to grow that community, especially with a skate park,” Ingalls said. “That helps establish and grow a community of skateboarders from generation to generation.”
Local skateboarder and member of the Elon Skate Coalition Paul Stansberry said he got into skateboarding four or five years ago. 17-year-old Stansberry said that he came to the Parking Lot Jam to show support for the Elon Skate Coalition.
“My favorite part about skating is probably the people I’ve met,” Stansberry said. “All of my closest friends I’ve met through skateboarding.”
Local skateboarder and member of the Elon Skate Coalition Collin Flowers said he will do whatever he can to help get a skate park in Elon. Flowers said that financially he is not able to do much, but showing support helps immensely.
“We need a skate park, that’s pretty much it,” Flowers said.
Flowers said skateboarding has changed him as a person. He described loving the feeling of the wind as he rides, and said that feeling every crack in the pavement underneath his board is unlike anything else.
“It’s helped me be more persistent and really try to do things,” Flowers said. “It’s helped me meet a lot of cool people. All of the friends that I have today are through skateboarding.”
Accompanying Flowers at the Parking Lot Jam was his dog Petey. Though Petey is no expert skateboarder, he was running alongside Flowers while he was skateboarding and doing tricks. Flowers said Petey does not like to skateboard just yet, but he’s been trying to get him more into the sport.