Dream: More skate parks
By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer
Skateboarding has magazines, televised competitions, and even its own language, yet it still hasn’t become a mainstream activity – much less a school sport in many areas, including RSU 21.
But Tom Noble of Kennebunkport is hoping to change all that by giving school students a place to skate.
“You don’t get a varsity letter for skateboarding, you don’t get that award at the end of the year,” Noble said.
Many towns, including Kennebunk, have existing skate parks. Kennebunk’s park is on Factory Pasture Lane near Kennebunk Light and Power. The wooden skate park is small and hasn’t been updated in a few years.
Old Orchard Beach had a skate park on E.E. Cummings Boulevard, but it was torn down last year because the wood park required much maintenance.
Kyle Hill, 12, learned to skateboard at the Kennebunk park two years ago, but now he and his father travel as long as an hour to visit indoor and outdoor skate parks across Maine and into New Hampshire.
“It’s got some street and vert [vertical structures] in it. It has a little bit of everything and it’s fun to ride,” Hill said. “It could use a few rails or something – just add some new stuff.”
Noble has bigger dreams than just adding to an existing park. He hopes to build bigger, better, parks across the country, starting in Kennebunk.
“Biddeford and Kennebunk are at the forefront of all these skate communities,” Noble said. “They helped make Maine be a forefront for skateboarding, but a lot of things began to fall by the wayside in Maine, for whatever reason. Things ebb and flow but Kennebunk always stuck with keeping a skate park and maintaining it.”
Although Noble is in the early stages of planning, he soon will start a skate park advocacy group that he said will work with towns to bring more new skate parks to Maine. Noble hopes towns will donate a parcel of land and a base sum of money and the program will provide more funds to build additions to the park.
Instead of going to businesses and asking for $20,000 every year to build a new park, Noble said he’ll try a different route. His plan would be to ask well-known companies to commit to smaller sums of money each year over the course of five or 10 years. Similar projects have been done in California and other Western states but this is the first of its kind in Maine, said Noble.
“There’s a difference between being a skater and making a skater,” Noble said. “How do you learn to play tennis without a tennis court? You can’t really. Somehow the [skate] industry has survived and thrived in Maine but we need to advocate for it more to make it grow.”
When he’s not focusing on additional skate parks for Maine, Noble has his own skate park engineering business called Who? Skates that specializes in concrete parks.
Who? Skates, based in Kennebunkport, has been in business since 1987. Noble and his team have built parks in Windsor Locks, Conn., and Astoria, Queens in New York City along with many other parks across the country.
Noble, an engineer and skateboarder, said given the chance to build any park, he would build a large concrete street park with a large drop-in bowl attached. A bowl looks like an empty swimming pool.
Noble knows people may jump to the conclusion he’s starting the advocacy group to bring in business to his engineering company. He also knows he may get some business from his advocacy efforts, but he said all new construction will be put out to bid and Who? Skates would submit proposals along with other skate park-designing firms.
Old Orchard Beach is a few steps closer than Kennebunk to getting a new park. Jason Webber, town recreation director, said three community meetings have helped gather ideas for what local skaters want in a park.
“So far the location directive is the Ballpark property area,” Webber said. “Right now we’re searching for grants and requesting information from companies like Tom’s to see the reality of what we can afford.”
Webber said the idea to build a new park came from local skateboarders, many of whom are still in high school. The town hopes to get a new grant named after one of the most famous skateboarders in the world, Tony Hawk.
The Tony Hawk Foundation grants awards up to $25,000 to build and maintain concrete skate parks with input from local skaters in the planning, fundraising and design processes. A committee of skaters and community members has met in Old Orchard Beach every week to finish the grant by the Oct. 1 deadline.
“There are so many tennis courts, parks and Little League fields,” said Noble. “We have enough of them and none of them have waiting lines. The Little League fields are always empty. Skate parks are busy with no scheduled times. It’s really the only sport I know of where kids just go without a schedule, without a coach, without scoreboards and we’re not talking four or five kids here either.”
Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.
Staff Writer
Skateboarding has magazines, televised competitions, and even its own language, yet it still hasn’t become a mainstream activity – much less a school sport in many areas, including RSU 21.
But Tom Noble of Kennebunkport is hoping to change all that by giving school students a place to skate.
“You don’t get a varsity letter for skateboarding, you don’t get that award at the end of the year,” Noble said.
Many towns, including Kennebunk, have existing skate parks. Kennebunk’s park is on Factory Pasture Lane near Kennebunk Light and Power. The wooden skate park is small and hasn’t been updated in a few years.
Old Orchard Beach had a skate park on E.E. Cummings Boulevard, but it was torn down last year because the wood park required much maintenance.
Kyle Hill, 12, learned to skateboard at the Kennebunk park two years ago, but now he and his father travel as long as an hour to visit indoor and outdoor skate parks across Maine and into New Hampshire.
“It’s got some street and vert [vertical structures] in it. It has a little bit of everything and it’s fun to ride,” Hill said. “It could use a few rails or something – just add some new stuff.”
Noble has bigger dreams than just adding to an existing park. He hopes to build bigger, better, parks across the country, starting in Kennebunk.
“Biddeford and Kennebunk are at the forefront of all these skate communities,” Noble said. “They helped make Maine be a forefront for skateboarding, but a lot of things began to fall by the wayside in Maine, for whatever reason. Things ebb and flow but Kennebunk always stuck with keeping a skate park and maintaining it.”
Although Noble is in the early stages of planning, he soon will start a skate park advocacy group that he said will work with towns to bring more new skate parks to Maine. Noble hopes towns will donate a parcel of land and a base sum of money and the program will provide more funds to build additions to the park.
Instead of going to businesses and asking for $20,000 every year to build a new park, Noble said he’ll try a different route. His plan would be to ask well-known companies to commit to smaller sums of money each year over the course of five or 10 years. Similar projects have been done in California and other Western states but this is the first of its kind in Maine, said Noble.
“There’s a difference between being a skater and making a skater,” Noble said. “How do you learn to play tennis without a tennis court? You can’t really. Somehow the [skate] industry has survived and thrived in Maine but we need to advocate for it more to make it grow.”
When he’s not focusing on additional skate parks for Maine, Noble has his own skate park engineering business called Who? Skates that specializes in concrete parks.
Who? Skates, based in Kennebunkport, has been in business since 1987. Noble and his team have built parks in Windsor Locks, Conn., and Astoria, Queens in New York City along with many other parks across the country.
Noble, an engineer and skateboarder, said given the chance to build any park, he would build a large concrete street park with a large drop-in bowl attached. A bowl looks like an empty swimming pool.
Noble knows people may jump to the conclusion he’s starting the advocacy group to bring in business to his engineering company. He also knows he may get some business from his advocacy efforts, but he said all new construction will be put out to bid and Who? Skates would submit proposals along with other skate park-designing firms.
Old Orchard Beach is a few steps closer than Kennebunk to getting a new park. Jason Webber, town recreation director, said three community meetings have helped gather ideas for what local skaters want in a park.
“So far the location directive is the Ballpark property area,” Webber said. “Right now we’re searching for grants and requesting information from companies like Tom’s to see the reality of what we can afford.”
Webber said the idea to build a new park came from local skateboarders, many of whom are still in high school. The town hopes to get a new grant named after one of the most famous skateboarders in the world, Tony Hawk.
The Tony Hawk Foundation grants awards up to $25,000 to build and maintain concrete skate parks with input from local skaters in the planning, fundraising and design processes. A committee of skaters and community members has met in Old Orchard Beach every week to finish the grant by the Oct. 1 deadline.
“There are so many tennis courts, parks and Little League fields,” said Noble. “We have enough of them and none of them have waiting lines. The Little League fields are always empty. Skate parks are busy with no scheduled times. It’s really the only sport I know of where kids just go without a schedule, without a coach, without scoreboards and we’re not talking four or five kids here either.”
Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.
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