Skateboarders are now in the final countdown…it’s mere weeks until they can begin carving-up the town’s new million-dollar skatepark in Commemoration Park.
“Look at the backdrop! Look at the scenery around it—the features, the open bowl concept,” Jesse Hale from New Line Skateparks told the Jasper Local recently.
“This is going to be a destination for people to come to from all across the world. Another reason to come to Jasper.”
Hale is part of the team constructing the new park. The New Line Skateparks team describe themselves as artists, engineers and passionate skateboarders, and over more than two decades have built more than 400 skateparks across the country.
They’ve brought their expertise to Jasper’s long-awaited skateboard (and scooter, BMX, rollerblade, etc.) park and are packing what they know into a suite of features, the flagship of which include a skate bowl, a grinding feature with specialized diamond coping, multiple steps, a Euro Gap, and a grandstand/barrier-style feature.
The man who has led the project locally—since before many of the skaters who will be first to drop in were born, in fact—is Darrell Savage. Savage is a passionate skateboarder and passionate Jasperite, a long-term local and father who has been the driving force behind the new park for a decade.
Now the decade-long grind is finally paying off.
“It all started when a local kid began a petition to see if people wanted a skatepark, and it ended up snowballing from there,” he said.
“We formed a committee, made a society registered in Alberta, worked on fundraising and grant writing and meetings with the municipality until we had land allocated.
“COVID happened, costs went up – it’s been a bit of a challenge to overcome but we’ve found ways to get around those hurdles.”
Savage believes it will bring about a skateboarding and scooter revival in the town.
“I think Jasper has a lot of kids that haven’t really discovered how fun skateboarding is, yet,” he said.
“They can be excited about finally having a smooth place to roll along and having features that aren’t too scary – they’ll be able to learn how to ollie and do their first grinds on things that are a few inches high instead of several feet. It just makes it easier to learn,” said Savage.
“That’s been our vision with the whole thing: to get people off their phones and back into skateboarding and self-motivated exercise.”
Funds for the park—which will ring in at more than $1 million, all told, by completion—have come about through the generosity of the Municipality, local businesses, local philanthropists, foundations and organizations like the Jasper Fire Brigade and the Jasper Freemasons.
“All around the board there’ve been lots of donations and lots of fundraising – in fact I just got back from collecting money from recycling bottles,” he laughed.
The new skatepark is expected to open in early September.
