Pacifica, California * — Skateboarders outnumbered surfers along Linda Mar Beach on Sunday, December 4th as the city officially opened its $650,000 skate park.

City officials hope the skate park, seven years in the making, becomes a regional attraction and holds enough appeal to keep local skaters from practicing their moves around shops or other unlicensed locales.

“I’ve been to all the local skate parks and this is the best one I’ve seen,” said Jared Tynan, 21, of San Francisco, one of several hundred skaters to converge on the park in the short time it's been open. “Now you can surf and skate in the same area.”

The park was designed by professional skaters and has already won industry accolades. “It’s the best around here for at least 45 to 50 miles,” said Jake Phelps, editor of San Francisco-based skateboard magazine Thrasher *. The Web site www.caliskatz.com gave the park a maximum 10-star rating, compared to three stars for Half Moon Bay’s park, six for Redwood City’s, and seven for Menlo Park’s.

The only objections to the park so far have come from BMX bikers who city officials barred from the park for fear their bikes would damage the skating surface. “It’s kind of a raw deal,” said Tracy Barrell, a partner of Pacifica’s Gearhead bike shop. “Now we’re trying to form our own committee to build a bike park.”

Pacifica is just the latest in a skate park building boom throughout the Bay Area.

Since 2002 *, new parks have opened in Redwood City, Menlo Park and East San Jose. For cities like Pacifica with little available space for larger sports facilities such as new baseball or soccer fields, skate parks offer an opportunity to fill a recreation need in a comparatively smaller space, said Mari Brumm-Merrill, Pacifica’s director of parks and recreation.

The 14,000-square-foot skate park in Pacifica sits across the street from Linda Mar Beach in what was formerly an underused, city-owned bocce ball court.

While finding a site proved easy, coming up with the $650,000 price tag took years. The city spent about $180,000 on the project and collected $400,000 in state grants and more than $80,000 in local contributions.

With pro skaters in charge of the design, the skate park is the area’s most vertically daring, with a bowl that measures 11.5 feet deep, said designer Chris Cook, a Pacifica native and nationally ranked skateboarder. “We wanted more bowl riding so kids have an outlet to practice and mature into skating,” he said.

The park was the brainchild of Leonor Gomez and Jim Crotty, who formed the Skatepark * of Pacifica Committee in 1998 *. “We got tired of driving our sons to skate parks all over the place,” she said. “Now that it’s finished, I’m just thrilled.”

This article was originally entitled "Pacifica opens new skate park" and was found at http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/ 2005 */12/05//peninsula// 20051205_pe01_skate.txt

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