Skatepark almost ready after ten years of hard work

Skateboarders are now in the final countdown… with just a few weeks left before they can conquer the city’s new multi-million dollar skate park, Commemoration Park.

“Look at the backdrop! Look at the landscape around it: the features, the open bowl concept,” Jesse Hale of New Line Skateparks recently told Jasper Local.

“This will be a destination that people from all over the world will come to. Another reason to come to Jasper.”

Hale is part of the team building the new park. The New Line Skateparks team describes itself as artists, engineers and passionate skateboarders, and has built more than 400 skateparks across the country in more than two decades.

They’ve taken their expertise to Jasper’s long-awaited skateboard park (and scooter, BMX, roller skate, etc.) and incorporated their knowledge into a series of features. The most notable of these are a skate bowl, a grinding feature with special diamond-shaped edges, multiple steps, a Euro Gap, and a bleacher/barrier-like feature.

The man spearheading the project locally, even before many of the first skaters to arrive are born, is Darrell Savage. Savage is a passionate skateboarder and passionate Jasperite, a longtime local and father who has been the driving force behind the new park for the past decade.

Now decades of hard work are finally paying off.

“It all started when a local boy started a petition to see if people wanted a skate park, and from there it just kept growing,” he said.

“We formed a committee, registered an association in Alberta, worked on fundraising and grant writing and meetings with the city until we got the land allocated.

“COVID came along, costs went up – it was a real challenge to overcome, but we found ways around those obstacles.”

Savage believes it will spark a revival of skateboarding and scooters in the city.

“I think there are still a lot of kids in Jasper who haven’t discovered how much fun skateboarding is,” he said.

“They can be excited about finally having a smooth place to roll and features that aren’t too scary — they can learn how to do ollies and their first grinds on things that are a few inches high instead of several feet. It just makes it easier to learn,” Savage said.

“That’s always been our vision: get people off their phones and get them back to skateboarding and doing self-motivated exercises.”

Funds for the park, which will total more than $1 million upon completion, have been raised through the generosity of the city, local businesses, local philanthropists, foundations and organizations such as the Jasper Fire Brigade and the Jasper Freemasons.

“There’s been a lot of donations and a lot of fundraising all over the board. I just got back from a recycled bottle fundraiser,” he laughed.

The new skate park is expected to open in early September.