Excitement is building for Nipomo’s skaters anxiously awaiting the opening of the town’s long discussed skate park.
The San Luis Obispo County Parks and Recreation Department issued an alert on Dec. 21 declaring that the not-yet-completed skate park is being damaged by local skaters who were using it before the site was ready. Parks and Rec urged the public to wait.
“I’m glad they’re super excited, and I remember being a kid, so I get it,” Parks and Rec Director Nick Franco told the Sun. “But they should hold off for a few weeks.”
Roughly a week before Christmas, the contractor assigned to build the new skate park noticed changes to the bottom of the finished skate bowl. The rocks and gravel placed there to discourage skaters from using it until the project was complete were gone in the mornings and skating marks were left behind.
Parks and Rec officials are concerned that continued premature use will impact the expansion drainages and grout edges. While the concrete must cure, grout edges have to stay vacant and clear for a while too, in order to avoid erosion in the future, Franco explained.
“The issue is that the expansion joints are not yet cured or grouted and skating on them at this point will damage the edges leading to weak grouting in the joints when the bowls are completed,” the Parks and Rec statement read. “This will lead to spalling and quicker deterioration of the surfacing of the bowls and shorten the life and condition of the bowl.”
Originally expected to open this winter, the revamped skatepark is expected to make its debut in February. Construction plans aren’t delayed yet, but Franco said it could happen if the skating continues.
Nipomo’s residents have been waiting for an official skate park for more than a decade, advocating for the project at county meetings and raising money to help fund it. The town’s youth used to freewheel at “the Rec”—a makeshift skate park built on the remains of the old recreation center, which burned down in 2008. In April 2021, the DIY skate park was torn down to pave the way for a shopping center housing Grocery Outlet and Tractor Supply Company.
Community members sympathized with both skaters and Parks and Rec when the department posted the damage alert on Facebook.
“Skaters are constantly searching for spots. They should let this finish, but it should have been something that was expected. Those fences aren’t too hard to get into right now,” Nipomo resident Rocky Logue commented. “Also, Nipomo skaters had their natural skate park sold and demolished … no place else to go. But hopefully they can hold back until the job is done. So far it looks fantastic.”
This article appears in Dec 29, 2022 – Jan 5, 2023.