By Patti Edgar, Winnipeg Free Press

The Forks is planning a $1-million, world-class skateboard park that designers promise will draw board-toting tourists from across North America. An anonymous donor is putting up all of the cash for the skate park, which could be open by October.

Meanwhile, Transcona will also get a major new sports and recreation development. Unrelated to The Forks skateboard park, Transcona’s new regional park with 10 ball diamonds on 57 hectares will get $3 million of new government funding today.

At The Forks, designers promise the new skate park will blend in with the site, looking more like an urban plaza with skateboard-friendly benches and steps than a large, dull cement space.

"Skateboarding is a rather mature industry now," said Paul Jordan, chief operating officer of Forks Renewal Corp. "Kids that were 10 are now 30 and they still skateboard. They will travel all over the world to hit destination skateboard parks and this is going to be one."

The skate park will be west of the Scotiabank Stage, near Waterfront Drive.

A Vancouver team that has built skateboard parks across Canada and the United States is designing the project -- van der Zalm + associates and Newline Skateparks.

They are working with Winnipeg landscape architects Scatliff, Miller and Murray to ensure it fits with the vision of The Forks.

>From his office in Vancouver, Mark van der Zalm said only a third of the park will be a traditional cement bowl. The rest will be more like plazas, such as the one outside Winnipeg’s City Hall, that are already attracting skateboarders, irking security guards and pedestrians.

"The whole idea is to create a world-class destination park," he said. "You can make it humongous so it just becomes world-class, which we can’t do here because of constraints on real estate. But what we can do is offer unique terrain and unique materials that aren’t typically seen in a skate park."

Van der Zalm promises that when Winnipeg’s skate park opens, it will be the talk of Canada’s skateboarders.

"A lot of people are going to travel to come to this one. I go to towns across Ontario and people ask me what’s up with this project. People are getting ready to come to Winnipeg to check this thing out."

In a few weeks, the designers will have the park’s blueprints ready and The Forks will hold public consultations on the project. The size of the park is still under consideration.

Genico Aiello, owner of a Winnipeg skateboard shop called SK8, said The Forks park will be bigger and better than any of the existing or planned parks in the city, filling the void for Winnipeg’s more experienced skaters, while still giving beginners space to learn new tricks.

"A million dollars can build a lot of skate park," he said. "There will be no comparison. This city has crap as far as skate parks go."

Dozens of young people already skateboard at The Forks on weekends -- in places like Market Plaza where they get in the way of walkers and shoppers. This will finally give them a home, said Jordan.

"The benefactor came to us, but it has always been in our design concept. We have a 10-year plan and in there it was always contemplated to have a skateboard facility of some kind, but we’ve never had the money to do it," he said.

"This is something they would like to leave as a legacy."

The City of Winnipeg is planning to put $1.8 million toward new skateboard parks and expansions of the existing parks in St. Vital, Transcona, St. James and Fort Garry. It is also putting $2.7 million toward the redevelopment of Sargent Park Pool into a recreation complex that will include a skateboard park.

Another skate park is planned for Charleswood in memory of Michael Komenda, who died in a tragic accident in 2002. His parents believe he was looking for a more challenging place to skateboard when he toppled about four storeys from behind the upper deck seating of the empty Canad Inns Stadium.

Thursday, May 26th, 2005