Park Board OKs Sites for Portable Skating Areas

THOUSAND OAKS — Sidewalk surfers used to getting dirty looks and being told to “Beat it!”--usually by store owners sick of scruffed-up pavement--are stoked that they will soon be able to ride penalty-free in Thousand Oaks.

The Conejo Recreation and Park District on Thursday night approved two sites for installing portable, easy-to-assemble skating areas.

The decision was made after months of study. In November, park officials attended a seminar where their counterparts from San Luis Obispo and Atascadero talked of their cities’ successful temporary skating areas, said Jesse Washington, the park district’s recreation and community services administrator.

But Washington said park district leaders moved with greater speed after several teenagers came to them last month to plead for a legal area to “ollie” in the air, “nose slide” off curbs and “50-50” from railings--without being ticketed by police officers, fined by the city attorney’s office or having their boards confiscated.

About 6,000 square feet at the Borchard Community Park basketball courts near Newbury Park High School and nearly 4,700 square feet at the Thousand Oaks Community Park near Thousand Oaks High School were deemed suitable for a test run of the new portable parks.

The Thousand Oaks Teen Center was discarded as a possible third site because it did not contain enough storage space for the skateboard ramps, and because equestrians protested that their horses could be frightened by noisy skateboards flipping in the air.

The approved sites, which will serve both skateboarders and in-line skaters, will probably be ready in four to six weeks, Washington said. They will be staffed during after-school hours, and the skating schedule should not conflict with basketball or tennis practice at the two high schools, Washington said.

The use of helmets, pads and other safety gear will be strictly enforced, the board said.

Start-up costs for the two sites are expected to be about $2,750, which includes ramps to be set up for possibly two or three hours each afternoon. Another $2,000 might be needed for a storage shed, a heavy tarp cover, rule signs and other items, such as a grind rail for sophisticated maneuvers.

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Washington, who used a slide show to present ideas to the board, said the cost could be underwritten by vending machine money and through potential donations from store owners and merchants.

“We think it’s a cool idea,” said 14-year-old Kris Escobar of Thousand Oaks before the meeting. While talking, Kris proceeded to twist and fly in the air, showing off his expert kick flips.

He said he hoped to donate a “fun box,” which is an 18-inch high wooden box the length of a car with a rail on the side used for skateboard tricks. He said he’s giving it up because his neighbor complained about the noise he made careening off the metal bar. In-line skaters or “aggressive bladers,” as they like to be called, took the mike at the meeting and offered to donate ramps and other equipment, too.

Kris’ baggy-jeaned buddy, Mike O’Donnell, 15, also liked the idea of having two skating sites. “We need places to skateboard. People are always kicking us out of places, but there’s nowhere for us to go.”

The board agreed to the portable park plan because it was cost-effective and met the needs of its young constituency, said board member Susan Holt.

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“We’re testing the waters,” Holt said, adding that the board may consider a permanent site if there is enough demand.

Kris’ mother, Sharon Lopez, said she’s supportive of her son’s hobby--although she jokingly calls him a skateboarding “hoodlum.” She said he and his friends need a place to go “without getting in trouble.”

Officials need to respond to the fact that “skateboarding is booming now,” Lopez said.

In July, the Camarillo Park District approved plans to build a permanent 10,000-square-foot, $175,000 skateboard park. And three permanent mini-parks will be built in Ventura.

When they’re not skating illegally at the Thousand Oaks High School courtyard or the Carl’s Jr. parking lot on Moorpark and Janss roads, local teens said, they enjoy going to Skate Street, a privately owned skateboard arena in Ventura. But they said it was a drag to ask Mom or Dad to carpool, and they complained about its $11 admission fee.

Concerns about liability, which have been the main stumbling block for creating public skating sites sooner, were resolved at the meeting. Although board members were wary about lawsuits, they concluded that the easiest thing to do was to expand the district’s self-insurance to cover the temporary skate parks.

The board decided to scrap the idea to charge skaters an annual insurance fee ranging from $4.90 to $9.10 depending on their age, or else 55 cents every time they used the park.

But what was most important, said the teens, was having a legal place to ride.

“We think [the plan] is a super deal,” said 13-year-old Jesse Kahn, a skinny kid who was swallowed up by his oversized T-shirt and ankle-length jean shorts. “But even if it didn’t go through, we would have just kept on skating anyway.”