Skating Away
By John Swartz
It was a beautiful, sunny and warm, fall day Saturday – perfect for a bit of skateboarding. Kids of all ages flocked to the Orillia Recreation Centre for the opening of Orillia new skatepark south of the building.
When you think of kids, understand some of those kids were teens when the Kiwanis Skate Park on the waterfront opened 25 years ago.
Along with the new pickleball courts, the project cast $1.2 million dollars, and for once a construction project looks like it’s worth a million. The concrete is polished smooth, all of it flats and ramps, the pipes boarders scrape along look like they’ll last longer than the Kelvinator out in the garage that still keeps the beer cold after 40 years of use. The quality of workmanship is obvious, our road builders could take some notes.
Mike Best has been instrumental in organizing fundraisers to supply the $100K the Orillia Skateparkers pledged to raise for the facility. There’s more work to do on that count.
“About 50 (thousand dollars), we’ve done four of those skateboard auctions, we did a carnival, we’ve done four golf tournaments and all our merch sales with all the blah, blah, blah stuff (logos), and we started a Gofundme, and just people buying stickers and we had donation boxes all around the city that looked like skateboards,’ Best said.
Dylan Court was on hand as one of the original Orillia Skateparkers members to take his turn around the park.
“I always thought it would happen, but I did expect it to take a long time. A lot of skateparks take about ten years to prove it’s needed and to make it so people will think the money’s worth it,” Court said. Orillia’s happened quicker.
“I think it’s been at least 8 years. In 2018 was when we formed our group.”
Court said the process involved a lot of people and the result is impressive.
“Our group helped with three public forums with New Line Skateparks, so everyone had a say in the design. It’s perfect, I have zero notes. The park is beautiful. Someone said to me today it’s the best park in Ontario,” Court said.
New Line has built skateparks across Canada and the United States.
Benson Brunette, at 8-years-old, appeared to be the youngest skater. He was quite excited.
“I kind of just started,” boarding, he said. He has used the waterfront park but likes this one better.
“Yeah, and it’s more slipperier.”
At he other end of the scale. Mike Bento, who lives in the Junction in Toronto, at 57-years-old was zipping around in the bowl.
“There’s photos of me skateboard when I was 6 or 7-years-old,” Bento said.
One wonders how he manages Monday mornings after a weekend of skating and crashing.
“You mean this Monday morning, or any Monday morning? I get up and go to work.”
One also wonders what someone from Toronto was doing in Orillia on a Saturday risking his extremities.
“Mike Best is one of my best friends. We still get to skateparks,” Bento said.
He said he’ll spend most of his time using the bowl and using the flats and ramps doesn’t interest him.
“I rely on gravity to get me back up the other side. None of that interests me (the rails and ramps) and it’s a good way to hurt yourself. I really like this. It’s really smooth and fast. It’s not too tight and steep, so you’ve got time to think. This is really nice. There’s some I don’t like.”
He thinks the new park is great and a far cry from the self-made parks of his youth.
“Now every new housing development seems to have a concrete skatepark. When we were kids we’d steal the from the construction site on Friday night, spend all day Saturday building a ramp, skate it Sunday , Monday they’d tear it apart, the next weekend repeat. This is fun,” he said.
Mark Watson, a more than 50-year-old skater himself, and a member of Orillia Skateparkers, cut the ribbon with the help of Court and Best to the cheers of the several dozen skaters enjoying their new playground.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia) Main: The ribbon cutting for the new skatepark at the Orillia Recreation Centre.
