DORIAN GEIGER
Sports Editor

In Saskatoon, a place that boasts no shortage of cold but a notable shortage of mountainous terrain, those of the city’s skateboarding community are left scratching their heads when Jack Frost makes the prairies his bitch during winter months.

Some skaters transition into snowboarding for winter months but since the closure of Blackstrap Mountain just outside the city, snowboarding skaters are left with few options other than making the trip to the Rockies hundreds of kilometres away — others just flat out migrate to warmer climates so they can keep skating.

Jason Gordon, owner of local skate shop Nine Times on 8th Street is frustrated by the fact that Saskatoon doesn’t have an indoor skateboarding facility because a large skateboarding scene exists in the city.

“Everybody has nothing to do all winter if there isn’t one. It doesn’t snow enough to snowboard and we don’t have mountains. Skateboarding is the only thing we do — we don’t play hockey, we don’t play basketball.”

The main problems Gordon faces in his struggle to get Saskatoon its own winter-proof skate facility range from finding a place to do it and lack of city support, to organizing a large body of Saskatoon skaters who are interested in joining the movement.

Gordon optimistically attended three city council meetings in spring 2008 to voice his concern over the matter but was soon discouraged after discovering the city was on the fence about more skate parks in Saskatoon. However, the city did vaguely explain to Gordon that he needed to establish a non-profit organization to set the wheels in motion. Before sending him on his way, Gordon put statistics from Regina’s indoor skateboard facility in the city’s hands so they could see how feasible the project would be if they had the required support.

Reportedly, Regina enjoys quite a nice and cozy indoor skatepark to shield them from winter’s backlash. This is where Gordon becomes irked — he’s convinced Saskatoon possesses a noticeably more active skate scene than our province’s capital, and at the rate Saskatoon is expanding and diversifying he knows the city should be able to stack up to Regina.

“The Saskatoon scene is probably bigger than Regina’s. Saskatoon has so many skate shops,” remarked Gordon. “There’s us (Nine Times), Undergrind, Clothes Cafe, Momentum and Duna’s, which just closed down. Regina has one or two. I think that alone says that our scene is a lot stronger if it’s supporting all these stores.”

Regina’s indoor facility stays afloat through a budget whose costs are split by the City of Regina and the skateboarding community.

A great difficulty lies in not only finding a location for a facility in Saskatoon but also the need for organizing matters such as insurance, chaperones, waivers and volunteer involvement. Being an owner of a busy skate shop who organizes sponsored skateboarding competitions in his spare time prevents Gordon from spearheading this movement alone.

This also leads to the issue of the financial sustainability of the indoor skate park when the seasons change and what the venue would be useful for in summer. Gordon says Regina’s park manages to survive by shortening park hours in summer and by using the space as a venue for musical performances, skate competitions and other forms of entertainment people are willing to dole out money for.

“There’s so many different things that it could be used for in the summer time. People could throw shows; you can generate a lot of money for renting it out for an evening,” said Gordon.

Gordon also revealed that an anonymous group of Saskatoon’s skateboarders have taken things into their own hands and set up their own, makeshift but exclusive indoor skate facility this fall. Gordon wasn’t able to elaborate as to who is behind this temporary fix or the whereabouts of the secret indoor park because of the exclusivity. However, he was well aware of the ups and downs the group undergoes in trying to skate in winter.

“They love having something private but it sucks driving out of town every night in the cold,” said Gordon. “And they don’t even know if the heater’s been running. When they get there sometimes there’s frost built up everywhere. They have to turn on the heater and let it warm up for an hour and then spread out the water so it evaporates faster.

It’s a lot of work and they can’t afford to leave the heater on all the time because it’s a really big quonset that isn’t insulated. It sucks — but it’s awesome.”

The mobilization of Saskatoon’s skate scene is needed if any real steps for an indoor park are to ever be taken.

University of Saskatchewan student and skater Justin Stokes also thinks having an indoor skate establishment is important for a number of reasons.

“Skateboarding is crucial in my schooling,” said Stokes.

“When my brain gets worn out from hours slouched over a desk I go outside and skateboard to escape the madness. Winter comes and my daily routine is broken and I’m at a loss for an exercise I enjoy. An indoor skate park would provide us with an escape from the daily grinds of school.”

Manager of Leisure Services for the City of Saskatoon, Catherine Gryba, played a key role in bringing about the Victoria Park skate park in Saskatoon’s downtown a few years ago. Gryba worked extensively with the skateboarding community and Saskatoon’s Lions clubs to make the park a reality and said the overall construction costs were $500,000. In addition, Gryba said the five Lions factions in Saskatoon generously chipped in $85,000.

“They were terrific,” said Gryba. “There’s five different clubs and they all joined together. This was their primary fundraising program for a few years and they did a lot of research into what skateboarding can do for the community and how it keeps young people interested and involves them in the community.”

When asked what the city’s position was on getting an indoor skate park going in Saskatoon, Gryba seemed optimistic.

“We’re willing to look at the information. As long as there’s demand we for sure have to look at it.”

To get involved with bringing a real indoor skateboarding facility to Saskatoon, Gordon invites anyone with ideas as to where the park should be located to drop into Nine Times to chat.

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photo: Robby Davis