Nearly five years ago, St. Pete skateboarder Nick Nicks recognized the need for a municipal skate park. Now, the city has nearly 30,000-square-feet of concrete in Campbell Park to shred. Nicks, 43, has been skateboarding for three decades and is a founding member of the St. Pete Skate Park Alliance, a group advocating for a regional skate park in St. Pete. The city has two other parks in its system, but neither are regional parks, which must be a minimum size to serve locals and skateboarders from beyond St. Pete alike. “We noticed trend of municipal skateparks popping up all over the greater Tampa Bay area — Lakeland, Bradenton, Apollo Beach,” said Nicks. “We just thought there’s no reason we can’t have a really nice, state-of-the-art skate park here in St. Pete.”
The Alliance approached the city with the idea for a regional skate park in 2014, spurred on by a news segment they had seen. Karl Nurse, former city council member for district six, which includes all of downtown St. Pete, was in the process of lifting the 20-year-old ban on skateboarding downtown. “This was all coincidentally going on right as we started meeting, and thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring up the park,” said Nicks.
City Approval
Nurse welcomed the idea of a regional skate park, and advised that the concept be presented to the rest of city council. From there, the Alliance had attended “at least 40 or 50 meetings over the next few years.” According to Nicks, the most important meeting was the very first public assembly they attended, where they invited local skaters and advocates to show their support for the park.“It was standing room only, we had so many people there,” said Nicks. “Men, women, kids, teens, to the point that the city couldn’t doubt there was any support for the project.”
City projects often hit a wall when it comes to funding, but the regional skate park had proceed waiting for it, thanks to Weeki Wachee Springs. The City of St. Petersburg used to own land in the tourist hotspot which was sold to the state, and the proceeds were set aside for parks, recreational, preservation, and beautification purposes. Because the money is a public fund, the park’s contract was put up for bid, eventually awarded to Team Pain Skate Parks, an Orlando based designer.
“Team Pain was ultimately chosen because they were local, they have a bunch of skateparks in Florida already and they have a relationship with the city,” said Nicks. “We weren’t involved in the process of selecting, but we’re happy with the choice.”
To the Community
While the finalists for the contract were required to submit a conceptual design prior to construction, the final product was partly molded by the community. “The conceptual build before they were awarded the contract was good, but public outreach sessions were also held for a while after for skateboarders and citizens to put in suggestions on the design of the park,” said Nicks. Team Pain started construction August 2017, pouring the skateable portions of the park until January 2018, and the city added other aspects such as the sidewalks and light fixtures.
May 26 was the park’s “soft opening,” when construction officially ended and skaters were allowed inside, two weeks before the grand opening ceremony June 2. The grand opening featured a best tricks competition, where skaters and BMX riders pitted their most intense tricks against each other to win a portion of the $2000 purse and prizes donated by local sponsors.
“The park has been years in the making, and there’s still so much community outreach to do,” said Nicks. “It’s a long process, but when you’re passionate about it, and have this much support, its not really work at all.”
The St. Petersburg Regional Skatepark is located in Campbell Park and will be open to the public free of charge, from 10am -11pm every day.
