Photo courtesy of Ross Lavigne

By Scott Roblin

Location Found

Indoor skateboard park location announced in time for winter season

Oct 8, 2019 | 5:44 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Just as the snow began to fly in Medicine Hat, local skateboarders received some welcome news allowing them to continue the sport they love over the winter.

The Medicine Hat Skateboard Association has unveiled a location for a new indoor skate park at 1870 6^th Avenue Southwest, picking up where the former Summit Centre left off.

“It’s definitely long enough, the ceiling is high enough, we can do a lot of cool stuff in here,” said MHSA treasurer Logan Navratil. “So, it really ticks all the boxes.”

The new skate park will be located inside an old bus bay and will cover roughly 3,000 square feet of space.

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Navratil said keeping winter skateboarding in the community is big news for local skateboarders.

“Having a place to skate indoors is really important to the sport and being able to progress, as well for running programs,” said Navratil. “Offering one more thing for kids to do indoors this winter will be a huge point of the park.”

The announcement couldn’t have come at a better time for Medicine Hat’s skateboard community, as it follows months of uncertainty after the closure of The Summit Centre.

“It was pretty tough,” said Navratil. “Being unable to skate in the winter, it was a pretty big downer.”

In April, The Summit Centre permanently closed its doors after years of rising expenses and plateauing revenue due to a growing private lease.

It was the second closure of an indoor skate space in Medicine Hat this decade after snow collapsed the roof of the Central Neighbourhood Hub complex in 2011.

Like in 2011, seeing the end of a skateboarding era was crushing for those who formed a community in the North Railway Street space.

“It’s definitely sad that The Summit closed, but now it’s closing one chapter and we’re moving onto a new chapter,” said Eagles Nest Ranch community liaison Jeff Goring.

Along with MHSA, two community groups have jumped on board to make the project possible.

Eagles Nest Ranch will be helping to coordinate the build, while Tim Horton’s is providing the space for a below-market rate for MHSA.

“They’re giving it to us for a very, very fair price,” said Navratil. “They believe in what we’re doing in the community and it just means so much to come alongside other organizations on this.”

It’s not the first time the two organizations have partnered up, as Eagles Nest Ranch has run annual camps for local skateboarders and Tim Horton’s has sponsored MHSA’s Beat the Heat competition.

Medicine Hat Tim Horton’s co-owner Marlies Wirzba said it was a no-brainer to provide MHSA with the space to keep winter skateboarding viable.

“We just really see the value of it and how they’ve really impacted the community,” said Wirzba. “The whole program just seems like a really great partnership.”

Features of the indoor park will include a mini ramp and more street-influenced aspects such as stairs and handrails.

The park will be roughly one and a half times the size of The Summit Centre and will keep the heart of the old building during construction.

“We’ll be using the wood from the ramps to build new ramps to give it a new look, a new feel to the kids,” said Goring.

This is MHSA’s second major announcement in the past month, as they previously unveiled plans to construct a $125,000 skate spot in the Crescent Heights area, the second such project in the city.

A $10,000 fundraising goal has also been launched by MHSA ahead of the indoor park’s planned opening for November.

“We’re just hoping to see, whether it’s gifts in kind or cash donations for our materials, just to see the rest of this park be able to take place,” said Navratil. “We’re not going to be able to finish it all in one go, it’s going to be an ongoing project. So, just being able to count on our community for donations is huge for us.”

Money raised through the campaign will go towards ramp construction, purchasing skateboard and safety equipment, and funding insurance costs.

Once open, the primary source of revenue for the indoor facility will be MHSA’s ‘SkateSkool’ program which saw over 100 local participants in 2018 alone.

Even though the space will be perfect for landing new tricks, Navratil said the real growth will come from the skaters themselves.

“You get to do your favourite thing with your friends, which is skateboarding,” he said. “So, it’s huge for just building those friendships and just giving guys a place to call home.”

Navratil expects the space to be Medicine Hat’s home for winter skateboarding for at least the next two years, at which point they’ll revisit their options.