Qualicum Beach officially opened its newly desiged skatepark, behind the town's Community Park, right behind the civic centre.
The facility has received some glowing comments from many visitors some calling it one of the best they've seen on Vancouver Island.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Saturday morning, June 14, attended by Mayor Teunis Westbroek and council, Qualicum First Nation Chief Michael Recalma, along with QB Skaters, the group that played a key role in convincing the town to rebuild this facility and also the design of the park.
A huge number of eager skateboarders, young and old, with most coming from all over Vancouver Island and some travelling from the Mainland, couldn't wait to try all the many features of the new park. The consensus was unanimous. They said it's an "awesome" facility.
"It took three years to get this done and it was all worth it," said Westbroek. "The old skateboard park helped forge a community of skateboarders whose families were involved in designing this one. It's unusual to think that in a community like ours with the average, oldest population in Canada, have a skatepark."
The skatepark cost $1.2 million, funded from the town’s Community Amenity Contributions and a grant under the provincial Growing Communities Fund. The Qualicum Beach Skaters raised $130,000. There were also donations received from local contractors and suppliers who provided discounts and donations to help bring this project into fruition.
"The youth who raised the money and their families, $130,000, to do this, the community support, the people who helped in kinds with whatever is needed whether it was a backhoe or porta potties, or staffing, they came out in force," said Westbroek. "This is not a $1.2-million park. This is from people who know parks. This is a $2-million park. I want to thank the people who carried on in promoting this to the council."
One of the local skateboarders from Qualicum Beach, Brian Carto, was excited to see the skatepark finally built.
"It's great," he said. "It's bringing everyone back out. There's a lot of people with their kids and stuff. It's a growing thing to really kinda start a whole and community and get it rolling. The design of the skatepark is wonderful. It is such an improvement from they had before. It's safer and there's lots of stuff for beginners, for advanced people so it's cool."
Another local skateboarder, Aaron Pedain, said they have been waiting for this day to happen.
"To have our on bowl locally, it's awesome," said Pedain. "There's a lot of transition skaters that had to travel quite a ways to ride that sort of discipline. When we started initially, talking about the design, we had a very clear image in mind in what we wanted. We wanted a park with a bowl in the centre, with elevation protecting it from stray boards and then having laneways on either side that when it's busy, you can focus on a single lane or a single feature. And when it's empty during the off-season, you can just do laps and flow around and really utilize the full space. It keeps it organized for everyone involved."
