Ryan McFarland

Skateboarders show up to City Council meeting

Originally uploaded by zieak

I didn’t encourage anyone to show up for the meeting tonight - honest. There’s at least 7 kids here and a few adults to speak to the proposed increased restrictions on skateboarding downtown. I love that they brought their boards and leaned them up against the back wall.

Skateboards at Zoom

Originally uploaded by zieak

I stopped by the bike shop during lunch the other day and there were 8 skateboards on the ground outside. At least 4 of the kids bought stuff.

Hanging skateboard decks on the wall

Originally uploaded by zieak

Cena and I decided that we liked the artwork on these skateboard decks that we had a Zoom. We bought them and then did some research and learned that there is one other design in this style. I hung them by running some fishing line through the holes for the trucks and then tying a loop which is hung over a nail. We have room for the third design if we get it.

I also spent a good bit of time today working on framing art and images that we have had kicking around for a while. We hung a piece that we bought in Bali over the stairs too.

I whipped up a logo for Zoom Bikes over the weekend. Mike and i had a business meeting on Thursday and this was one of our highest priorities. Not that we really need it for the website (which we don’t have high expectations for) but for shirts and stickers and other merchandise.

On Monday one of my staff members called my office because someone wanted to talk to me about building a half pipe. I went down and met Will Coffey who is stationed in Petersburg with the USCG. He asked if i would mind him building a half pipe. I dragged him up to the ball fields, opened the container van and showed him the equipment we had purchased with grant money from American Ramp Company. He said he would have some friends get working on it Wednesday morning. By 5:00 Wednesday the container van was unloaded by hand by Will, Josh and me and pieces were staged in their approximate location.

Thursday afternoon i talked with one of the design engineers and got a walk-through of the steps to putting the system together. Matt Gerrits, Holly and Paul, Will and i worked on getting one ramp put together and the frames for the rest assembled.

Friday at 10:30 Matt and i met and started plugging away at the project. I called Earl Warner and he helped for an hour or so and when school let out kids started showing up. Word was out that the skate park was coming together. Will also showed up late in the afternoon and by 6:00 just about everything was bolted together and ready to ride.

As Matt said, he had been waiting 16 years for this day…

A huge thank you to the volunteers that put in the time to assemble the park. Future expansion is possible and with the interest that has been shown so far quite probable!