The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Skate Spot an outlet for youths
Group considering a location on high school campus
The ramps, rails and platforms at Vermilion’s Skate Spot remained active with a handful of BMXers and skaters.
Even on a blistering late summer day during a heat wave in early September, the ramps, rails and platforms at Vermilion’s Skate Spot remained active with a handful of BMXers and skaters.
With heat radiating from the tarmac and sweat beading off the riders’ heads, tricks needing perfection or test-trials of new stunts were always watched by an audience of fellow shredders perched atop the park’s ramps, shouting advice and compliments.
The riders on this particular day were letting off steam after a school day at Vermilion High School, which is a quick ride from the park at 5355 Devon Drive.
“We come here as often as we can,” said 10th-grader Gabe Holmes, 15, of Vermilion, adding that the crew primarily visits the park after school and on the weekends.
The purpose of the park for the riders is simply that “we get to ride it and have fun,” said 10th-grader Jacob Plas, also 15 and from Vermilion.
Holmes and Plas said that the riders are mainly self-taught, save for advice given by other riders.
Brandon Peters, 15, of Vermilion, prefers self-correcting his own mistakes over pressure from teammates and coaches.
“Unlike school sports (where) you get screamed at if you mess up, here you just, like, fix your mistakes yourself,” the 10th-grader said, who also wrestles at the high school.
Although the park is often utilized by Vermilion School District students, Skate Park Committee member Jim Shoene said that the age range can varying between “single digits to some in their 40’s.”
Vermilion Park Supervisor Dana Corogin said that the skate park garners many from outside the city and many families will plan summer trips
The Skate Spot has been open nearly two months since its grand reopening on Aug. 9 which revealed major repairs and add-ons that were built in an effort to revitalize the park.
Vermilion Schools Superintendent Phil Pempin said that he remembers when there was talk of plans for closing the park down due to safety concerns.
“The kids who were here that were a part of the skateboard park approached me about it five or six years ago, asking us if we’d be interested in possibly moving the skateboard park,” he said. “I listened and didn’t have any objection to the idea.”
Pempin himself was once a shredder.
He began skateboarding at the age of 6 in the mid1960’s, a time when the sport was popularized by removing steel roller skate wheels and attaching them on a board.
By the time he was 7, Pempin bought his first manufactured skateboard.
“I bought one of the first skateboard products at that time and I remember skating around the block with them,” he said.
“I wasn’t anything like these kids were. I would do my own (tricks), jumping over things, but nothing like these guys,” Pempin added. “There’s no way I would be able to even attempt to do things like that.”
Over the past few years, Vermilion’s Parks and Recreation Board worked with a group of skaters to apply for grants to revitalize and rebuilt parts of the park.
The Skate Spot received a total of over $19,000 in grants from the Parks and Recreation Board, Erie Metro Parks and Community Foundation of Lorain County’s beautification fund that was spent resurfacing ramps, building a new half-pipe, adding a new sign, trash receptacles and adding trees and other foliage to the property.
Now, the Parks and Recreation Board is working with the Skate Park Committee to potentially move the park to a part of the high school’s campus, rebuilt as a potentially larger concrete one near Route 60, according to Pempin.
“I know that when I’ve seen these skateboard parks in other cities that have them and they’re really busy,” Pempin said.
“If it’s in close proximity to the highway, that’s a plus.”
Pempin also said that since BMX cycling will be an Olympic sport in 2020 that having a skate park on campus may lead to schools competing against each other.
Additionally, students would be able to utilize the school for meetings about apparel and repairs when the park is inaccessible due to weather conditions.
Corogin said that relocating the skate park could
add a more “individualized athletic activity” option to the high school’s campus.
“It would be exciting and definitely add to the wellness of the campus if they would decide to make the park a feature of the school,” she said.
Whatever the outcome may be for the relocation of the park, Pempin said that he remains vocal with his support.
“When (students) come to me (about the park), I’m 100 percent encouraging and supporting it because I don’t see it as a negative stigma activity,” he said.
“I think that that type of activity offers an outlet for kids and young people and even older people to now get together in the same environment and to do something that they like.
“If it’s physical and an activity that they like, why not?”