Wee Wong rides at Bonsor Skatepark In Burnaby, B.C., on July 1.
Wee Ming Wong stands in the deep end of the empty bean-shaped pool at Kensington Park, in east Vancouver.
He's 46, and has been waiting most of his life for this, a pool that is the first of its kind in Canada. When the concrete is set, he'll be back for opening day with his kids. But instead of their swimsuits and towels, they will be bringing their helmets and skateboards.
The new skate park at Kensington Park is creating a lot of buzz in the skateboarding community, mostly for its feature bowls that have been built based on a swimming pool design. "The pool is nostalgic for old-timers like me and appeals to youth looking for new skating terrain, looking to get back into the past," said Mr. Wong, who grew up in east Vancouver and started skateboarding when he was nine.
Skateboarding in the form we know it was started by Californian surfers looking for something to do on flat-wave days in the late 1940s or early 50s. And by the mid-60s they had identified empty pools (during water shortages or drained when parents were away) as a perfect terrain for their sport.
Meanwhile, in Vancouver during the 1970s, Mr. Wong was skateboarding on his Cal-240 plastic board, purchased from Woodward's. He had little company and public skate parks were a mere twinkle in the city's eyes.
So when Mr. Wong saw magazine pictures of Californian skateboarders carving in empty pools, he knew it was something he had to try. There weren't many empty pools in Vancouver, especially ones that welcomed skateboarders. But with persistence and some fence-hopping, Mr. Wong found some opportunities. He got hooked on the weightless feeling of carving around a pool, which is over-vert (past vertical) thanks to its elliptical shape, and the rush of knowing if you don't make it, you're going to drop 10 feet. "It's a rush when you carve the tiles [traditional on the top of outdoor pools]and you get that 'dudududu' feeling," Mr. Wong said.
But Mr. Wong and the other old-schoolers are not the only ones excited about Kensington Park Skatepark.
While the highlight of the park - which opens to the public on Sunday, July 4, and will have a grand opening on Saturday, July 17 - is undoubtedly the pool, there are other features that will appeal to skaters of all levels and styles, says Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Sarah Blythe, who is also a skateboarder and one of the founding members of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition.
Ms. Blythe notes that skateboarding has come a long way in Vancouver. A decade ago, skateboarders were being ticketed or having their boards confiscated. Today it's a celebrated sport in the city (in 2009, June 15-22 was officially declared Skateboarding Week) and, with seven skate parks, Vancouver has become a Mecca that attracts skaters from all over the world.
Jeff Cole, a skateboarding instructor and vice-president of the Vancouver Skateboarding Coalition, agrees that the culture has evolved considerably. "Growing up in the 80s, skateboarding was a very not-cool thing, so it's interesting that now it's cool," said Mr. Cole,
Despite Mr. Cole's excitement over the new skate park, it won't keep him off the streets. Like many other skaters, a big part of the sport for Mr. Cole is interpreting the cityscape.
"Skateboarders look at the world differently," he said. "They look at everything in terms of lines and obstacles and in reference to what tricks can be done."
Peter Ducommun, who skateboarders know as P.D., is the founder of the iconic brand Skull Skates. The owner of the oldest skateboard shop in Canada has a different take on the mainstream world embracing skateboarding.
"In my experience of skateboarding, it's no more mainstream now than it's ever been," he said. "Yes it's being used to sell underarm deodorant, and the U.S. Army places ads in skateboard magazines, as does Ford trucks, so the impression is that it's mainstream. But because a large corporation co-opts something and uses it to market and sell their product doesn't mean that they're down with skateboarding."
Nor does he think there's been a big shift in the anti-establishment sentiment among skateboarders. The sport speaks to a certain kind of person, and for those who view it with skepticism, he takes a philosophical view.
"I think we live in what's known as a democracy and the idea is that one of the things we really celebrate in that is freedom.," he said. "…Whereas skateboarders just do what they want, they're out there really expressing that freedom that we can all intellectualize but don't always experience. For some people, that's too much freedom, [but]it's actually completely embracing what our culture is supposed to stand for."
Special to The Globe and Mail