03.18.07
Skateboarders demonstrate skills
545-SkatePark1.embedded.prod_affiliate.25Originally uploaded by andynoise.
Skateboarders demonstrate skills
Announcement of local park’s expansion kicks off contest
BY LOUIS MEDINA, Californian staff writer
e-mail: lmedina@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Mar 17 2007 10:05 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Mar 17 2007 10:09 PM
(years ago, i helped get the skate park built)
Dianne Hoover, Bakersfield’s Recreation and Parks director, got a dose of teen skateboarder love Saturday after announcing the expansion of Beach Park’s skate park and the building of more skate parks in the city over the next few years.
Photos:
Photo by Brian Drake
A skateboard flies through the air during the open skate time at the skate park festival as Beach Park Saturday.
Photo by Brian Drake
Cody Anderson, 13, ollies over the pyramid during his run at the skate park festival at Beach Park Saturday.
“The kids rushed her and were cheering at what she said,” is how Mark Hahs described the happy moment lived at Beach Park. “She went away moved that there is that level of excitement for kids to have skateboard parks here in Bakersfield.”
Hahs, who works for Fleur de Lis X Productions, was the local producer of Future Nature, a skateboarding contest series taking place in Bakersfield and five other California cities through late April.
Hoover’s announcement provided the opening for the Bakersfield event, in which more than 100 youths competed before a crowd of about 350 spectators, according to Todd Larson, the Orange County-based director of Elemental Awareness. The nonprofit connects young skateboarders to nature through educational programs and a 10-week summer skateboard camp in Kings Canyon National Park.
Elemental Awareness is affiliated with skateboard manufacturer Element Skateboards, which together with Fleur de Lis X was a major sponsor of the event.
First-, second- and third-place winners in Saturday’s competition in the 13 and under, 14 to 17 and 18 and up categories received such gifts as skateboard decks, T-shirts and backpacks, and the first-place winner in the 14 to 17 category received a scholarship valued at $600 to attend the Element YMCA skate camp, Larson said.
