With the Greenport Skate Park festival set for Sunday, the village board took time out on Monday night to thank the efforts of some special young people who have shepherded the project to fruition.
The entire park, said Trustee George Hubbard, has undergone a makeover just in time for the Greenport Skate Park festival, which will take place this year on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. on Moores Lane.
Two skaters, Beau Pollock, 21, and Andrew Semon were instrumental in organizing the event, which was moved to Sunday this year because the young people helping to organize the event are older and have jobs.
This year, the event will be more of a “family day,” Hubbard said. “Not a true competition.” Instead, lessons will be given by older kids to younger skaters, with a full lineup of bands slated to play.
The event will also include food, raffles and giveaways for best trick, most creative trick, highest ollie, best trick on transition, best flatground trick, a game of skate and more.
The event and food are free, with donation jars set up.
“Come down and enjoy skating a newly paved skatepark along with a few other renovations,” the event’s Facebook page reads.
With an eye toward sprucing up the park, one jump that was not often used and has deteriorated has been revamped; the hand rails were removed and used to make something smaller for a skateboard, Hubbard said.
Also, the village worked to repave the asphalt at the park.
“It’s cool to see young people want to take over this festival,” Mayor David Nyce said. “In the past they’ve had their ideas of bands, and how the contest should go. It’s neat to see. That’s what was supposed to come out of this. It’s nice to see it grow into that.”
Pollack, who said he’s been coming to the park said he was five years old, is a Greenport “local.”
Pollock, who was busy at the skate park on Tuesday, rebuilding a ramp with his father, Charles Maltese, said the event will also include food vendors from local eateries including First and South and the taco truck from Lucharitos, with vendors also planning to attend. Local shops such as One Love Beach and Flying Point Surf Shop in Greenport also made donations, he said.
Along with his dad, Pollock said the plan was to rebuild the ramp, which had some rot inside; others will be at the park painting this week, gettng ready for the big day.
“Everything is starting to come together. The place is staring to look a lot better,” Pollock said.
Putting so much time into a park that means so much to him and his friends “feels good,” Pollock said, but he added that he’s worried that kids who come in the future “don’t destroy the place.”
Sprucing up the park, he said, is a labor of love. “The park needed maintenance,” he said.
Pollock said with no supervision, and “no one keeping an eye on the skate park,” injuries could happen; he said he’s been injured a few times himself.
The new improvements, he said, will go a long way toward young people’s enjoyment of the facility. “I’ve always had a good time here. My friends and I have always had a blast, and we still utilize this place every day,” he said. “I was just rolling around on the new asphalt myself — it’s awesome.”
In his experience, no kids have ever had fights or any other issues at the park, Pollock said, adding that he’s always urged kids to properly dispose of their litter and respect public property.
Skateboarding at the park, he said, has shaped the young man he’s become, Pollock said. “Skating turns me into a completely different person,” he said. “It’s awesome. It keeps me out of trouble.”
A sponsored skateboarder, Pollock gets new gear every month to promote.
Skateboarding, he said, never gets old. “It always makes me giggle, learning how to do a new trick,” he said.
At Monday’s meeting Hubbard thanked everyone for their hard work to get the skate park up to speed.
Both Hubbard and Pollock thanked all the local businesses, as well as the Greenport Fire Department and Peconic Landing, for donations that made the event possible.
