Chairmen of the board

By Nichole Livengood  

APRIL 24, 2011 11:50 a.m. (0)

Clay Kreiner was on a skateboard by the time he was 7.

“Somebody told us about a park where we could take our rollerblades,” he said. “I saw the skateboarders and got my first skateboard two weeks later.  I haven’t stopped since.” Now 14, Kreiner recently competed in the X Games and   of the 2009 Gatorade Free Flow Tour.

He plans on going pro one day and traveling the world skating, following in the footsteps of skating legend, Tony Hawk, who by the age of 16, was the best vertical skater in the world.

Kreiner and four other skate team members call No Name Skatepark home base.  Mikey and Leona Crouch opened the park five years ago as a safe, family friendly place for their son Max and his friends to skate.

The 38,000 square foot facility is the third largest on the East Coast and draws people of all ages from across the Southeast to skate their 12 foot vertical ramp and 6 foot and 8 foot bowls.

Their oldest skater is a 70-year-old gentleman who comes down from Brevard with his board. The Crouches are looking for sponsors to make No Name a free public skatepark.

“Skateparks have gotten kids off the streets,” said Max Crouch.  He teaches lessons and summer camp at the park and is on the skateboarding team. “If they are on the streets, they get in trouble with the police.”

Miki Vuckovich, executive director of Tony Hawk Foundation said, “One in six youth today ride skateboards.  Since 2002, the foundation has awarded 467 grants to help build free, public skateparks in low-income communities.

The foundation conducted a study in 2009 among police officers who patrol the communities where the organization built skateparks.  Eighty-five percent said that their departments received fewer calls complaining about skateboarding in unauthorized areas as soon as their skateparks opened.

Hotspot Skatepark opened in Spartanburg in 2009. Skateboarding is illegal in downtown, so the community joined together and championed for a place where kids could safely skate.

“The really neat thing we’ve seen is that it has provided a place for a wide range of kids to have a community,” said Vivian Jordan, the executive director of the Coalition for Active Youth that helped plan, raise money for and build the 21,000 square foot concrete park.

The skatepark is supervised and run by the City’s Parks & Recreation department.  More than 2,500 skating waivers have been signed since the park opened.

“Over the past 10 years or so there has been a huge boom in skatepark building all across the U.S. They are good skateparks too. That’s the best part,” said Jaime Owens, editor of Skateboarder Magazine, the oldest skating magazine in the world that was started in 1964 to cover the birth of skateboarding in California.

The number of free public skateparks has grown from less than 100 in the late 1990s to more than 3,000 in 2011.  There are 141 skateparks throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, according to Scotty Batson, event producer for OlliePalooza Amateur Skateboarding Competition being held at No Name Skatepark in June.

“The effect of the skateboard park boom has been a diversification of skateboarding’s demographics as well as a growth in the number of skaters during a period when many traditional team sports are experiencing a decrease in participants,” said Vuckovich.

There are approximately 9.3-million skateboarders in the United States. Eighty percent are ages 5 to 24.  Twenty-five percent are women, according to the Tony Hawk Foundation statistics.

“It’s very common to see entire families skating together. One if the fastest growing segments of skaters is the 45 - 54 age group,” said Vuckovich.

Ryan Cockrell is the executive director of Pour It Now, a nonprofit based out of Charleston whose goal is to build a skatepark in every neighborhood.  His organization is responsible for Owen’s Field Skatepark in Columbia and is planning  additional parks in Columbia, Charleston and Blythewood.

“Cities and counties already pay for and maintain baseball, football and soccer fields and tennis courts.  There is no reason why they shouldn’t budget for skateparks as well,” he said.

“There is a misconception that skateboarding is dangerous,” he said, but according to the Canadian Amateur Skateboarding Association 5 percent of skateboarding injuries take place in skateparks. “The danger is with skateboarders being out in the streets. We want to help cities provide facilities to lure kids out of public areas like schools and into the park. “

“Skating gets kids off the couch, away from the television and away from video games,“ said Mikey Crouch.

The sport helps develop focus, balance, patience, and it is good cardiovascular and strength building exercise.

“Socially, it provides a lot of camaraderie.  The skaters teach each other, support each other and cheer each other on,” said Leona Crouch.

Twelve year old No Name Skate teammate Robert August said, “Skating makes me work harder and makes me want to do better.”