Skate king: Bring back the park
Skateboard superstar Tony Hawk says Scots venue has huge future
The world’s most famous skateboarder has backed calls for a historic West Lothian skate park to be returned to its former glory as one of the best in the world.
Board legend Tony Hawk says Livingston Skate Park, built in 1981, could become an international attraction and a training ground for the future Olympic stars of the sport if given an upgrade.
And hep raised a group of children at the centre of the drive to have the park revived. Hawk, who pioneered modern skateboarding, says the Livi, as it was known to generations of skaters from around the world, could draw global skate stars to the once-revered location.
Speaking to The Sunday Post ahead of a new documentary about the skate park, the actor and stuntman said: “If nothing else, Livingston should be honoured as a historical landmark, because it really is a legendary spot. “The fact that it has even remained through all these decades
of skating is something special and it would be amazing to give it an update.
“I think there’s probably a respectful way to do that, by resurfacing it and making it smooth, honouring the original design and updating it in parts so that it’s more in line with what modern skating looks like.
“I don’t think it would be a huge expense, although I don’t know for sure. But the park is something tangible and important, and it could really become a destination skate park.”
Hawk was speaking ahead of a screening of a documentary about a group of children who want to see the park given a new lease of life.
The film Long Live Livi, will be shown at Glasgow Film Festival on Tuesday, followed by a screening on BBC Scotland at a later date.
It features unseen 8mm footage of skaters at the Livi, including Hawk, and recalls how the bowl was the brainchild of Iain and Dee Urquhart in 1981. The film then follows a group of nextgeneration girl skaters dubbed the Snagglerats.
Californian Tony – who drew huge crowds to the Livi when he skated there in the late 1980s – also appears in the documentary and recalled his visit to West Lothian.
He said: “It was already an old design by that time, but it was such a legendary place we were just excited to go there. “Back then the skate community was relatively small, so
any facility that survived the run of the 1970s was something you knew about if you were into skating.
“So I knew Livingston, and the legend of it, but I didn’t expect as huge a reaction or crowd for our visit there.”
Now 51, Tony sees the desire of the kids in the film – and their parents, themselves former Livi skaters – to have the bowl improved.
He said: “I identify a great deal. I grew up next to one of the last remaining skate parks in the US, Del Mar Skate Rodeo in San Diego. Even though it was outdated, we were just happy to have
a place
to go. If you were into skating then you were already set aside as an outcast and it was hard to find your own community.
“So to have the skate park was to find a place to converge and a place you could share ideas and improve your skills.
“That sense of community was so important, especially when the scene got small because there was no support system, there were no companies or magazines… this was the only place we fit in.”
Skating devotees Iain and Dee Urquhart were pivotal in nurturing the Scottish skate scene in 1970s and created the Livi in 1981 – the first purposebuilt skate park in Scotland. They brought leading skaters Steve Caballero and Mike McGill to the park, watched by thousands. Tragically, Iain died from lung cancer two years after it opened. His niece Parisa Urquhart and colleague Ling Lee directed Long Live Livi.
Having seen a pre-edited cut of the film, Tony is heartened by the desire of the children featured. He said: “It gives me a lot of hope and it shows there’s a new generation, especially of girls, who are inspired to try to skate and aren’t coming up against any sort of prejudice.
“In my day, skating was an outcast activity. To be a girl on that scene it was really difficult to get any sort of validation.
“As skating started to grow like it has in the last 20 years, girls were still the minority, but weren’t treated with respect.
“Now we’ve come so far. These girls in Livingston know skateboarding could be a career. There are opportunities. It’s an Olympic event. I just love that their future is so bright and that they won’t have to overcome those stigmas.
“The film shows the new generation wrestling with old terrain but wanting to keep the heritage and how it’s a place of community and belonging.”