Theobald suggested that the unincorporated University Endowment Lands west of Vancouver might be a good place to put a track. “Everybody has a very positive feedback that there is actually something that exists,” the vice-president of sales and marketing told the Straight in a phone interview. Ryan Theobald says that many of his colleagues at Vancouver-based longboard company Landyachtz have skated at the Kamloops facility. There’s a patchwork of municipal laws across the region dealing with longboarding, which is legal in Vancouver on secondary streets. Longboards are similar to skateboards in that each has four wheels, but they’re much longer and travel more quickly. “We love skateboard parks, but it doesn’t suit everybody,” Cation said. He suggested that other municipalities should consider setting aside parts of their skateboard-parks budgets to build something for longboarders. “It’s a great start,” Cation told the Straight in a phone interview about what he saw. One previous visitor at the Kamloops track was Lee Cation, a Vancouver-based longboard-event organizer, advocate with the Longboard Coalition, and director with the International Downhill Federation. Putnam added that with Kamloops’s status as Canada’s “tournament capital”, having a longboarding site is a “natural fit”. “The exciting thing is, it’s something that’s being used for a healthy and safe activity,” he said about the facility that was opened in October last year. “It’s definitely an excellent investment,” Putnam told the Straight in a phone interview about the $140,000 cost to build the facility and the $2,000 annual budget to maintain it.Īccording to Putnam, there were a number of close calls involving street longboarders after the sport took off in the Okanagan city.
He related that when the town acquired a piece of land a few years ago, the local longboarding community came forward with a proposal for the plot. According to him, visitors from Vancouver and places like Whistler have been coming to the track. In Kamloops, Jeff Putnam, manager of parks and civic facilities, gets a lot of inquiries from around the world about his municipality’s longboarding facility. “We should have one in Vancouver for sure,” Blyth said. As someone who started her civic career by advocating for youth-oriented spaces, Blyth said she believes that the city should consider building a longboarding facility.īlyth, who likes to skateboard and longboard, suggested that Creekside Park may be a good place when it finally gets its long-awaited expansion and redevelopment. “That will bring longboarders away from public roads and give them a spot,” Toxopeus said.įormer Vancouver park board commissioner Sarah Blyth told the Straight by phone that she saw many people riding down that hill when she lived nearby.
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Last fall, Kamloops opened the world’s first dedicated longboarding park, featuring 350 metres of track on public land, plus amenities like a drinking fountain, toilet, picnic area, and benches. That’s why Toxopeus thinks it might be a good idea for the city to look at what one Interior municipality has done. One of those skaters is Aaron Toxopeus, a high-school student who lives in the neighbourhood.Īt the top of the slope, the 15-year-old told the Georgia Straight that cops show up sometimes to say that some residents don’t want people skating around. There’s a hill at Vancouver’s Prince Albert Street and East 23rd Avenue down which longboarders like to ride.
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