Amid recent reports of crime and turbulence at the St. Petersburg Regional Skatepark circulating social media, local skaters are teaming up to invite at-risk area youth into the skateboarding community in hopes of mitigating safety concerns through positive action.
St. Petersburg residents Tyler Blair, Forrest Buhrmaster, Madison Davis, James Kendall, and Dylan Methot began the process of establishing non-profit organization The Ollie Up Foundation in February 2019 in direct response to personal experiences at the skatepark located in the Campbell Park neighborhood. The group expects the diversity within the skateboarding community and the low barriers of entry to the sport to bridge the gap between the skatepark users and nearby youth residents.
“Skateboarding is the universal friendship facilitator,” explains Ollie Up co-founder Forrest Buhrmaster. “If you have a skateboard and someone else has a skateboard, you can have a conversation for hours.” Acknowledging the soon-to-be Olympic sport as a means for communication, Ollie Up aims to offer a program in which interested youth can take home their own skateboards through reaching achievements by practicing and learning skateboarding tricks and life lessons.
“I personally feel like skateboarding changed my life. [It] Gave me a different kind of outlet that team sports couldn’t provide,” says co-founder Tyler Blair.
Blair and the rest of the team hope to provide the same outlet to kids in need through skateboarding clinics, board making and designing workshops, a youth mentorship program, and personal finance fundamentals and other life skill classes open to all St. Petersburg area kids. Other potential programs include music production, freelance art, and screen printing.
While already in contact with City of St. Petersburg officials, St. Petersburg Police Department, St. Petersburg Police Athletic League, and St. Pete Skatepark Alliance, the group is in the preliminary planning phase of startup with plans to partner with other organizations including schools to expand their reach.
The St. Petersburg Regional Skatepark, opened on June 2nd, 2018, is located at 600 12th Street S. Currently home to the deepest skatepark bowl in Florida, the $1.25 million park also features a street course, snake run, and intermediate bowl.
