On any given Sunday morning at Lakewood Park, you’ll see a cross-section of Lakewood residents, from birdwatchers and couples on benches at the lakeshore to families at the playground. Lakewood Park is filled with natural areas for picnics or contemplation and activities, and one of the latter is tucked away between the ball fields and the Oldest Stone House Museum. It’s the Skatepark, a feature since 2005, and newly expanded to include a bowl and a shade feature to be added later this summer.
All the features of the concrete and metal skatepark mimic the features of the built landscape that skaters most enjoy, including banks, curbs and rails. The bowl looks like an empty swimming pool, inspired by the empty swimming pools that California skateboarders used decades ago.
This morning’s skaters look typical from a distance; coming closer, you see they’re not teens, but mostly men in their middle years. These are the skaters who originally advocated for a skatepark in Lakewood, and they’re passing on their legacy to a new generation of skaters.
Skateboard Camps
For eight weeks in the summer, mornings find the skatepark filled with younger skaters participating in skateboard camps that are run through the Lakewood Recreation Department. Vince Frantz, one of the original advocates for the Skatepark and now one of the instructors for the camps, told The Land that the camps are filled within a day or two of registration.
“One of the reasons the camp is so popular is the novelty of the sport for the parents,” Frantz said. “The parent is watching their kid learn something at 8 years old, that [the parent] may never, ever do and has never done. They’ve thrown a ball in a hoop. They’ve hit a ball with a bat. They’ve thrown a football. They have never rolled down a ramp on a skateboard and may never, ever do that, and their 7 year old just did that.”
Tim Moran is one of the parents whose daughters, Ruby and Paige, attend the skate camp. Both kids said the ramps are their favorite thing about skating, with Paige adding “You go fast!”
Moran said that they enjoy the skating, and the location means that the family can continue to enjoy the summer day at the park. “The kids come down to the skatepark, then go to the pool and they get some outdoor time that’s not in the backyard,“ Moran said.
The Origins
The Public Square Group, a nonprofit organization started by Frantz and others to advocate for skaters, was instrumental in getting a skatepark built in Lakewood Park. The group is named after Public Square in downtown Cleveland, a favorite skating venue. In the early 2000s, skateboarding was one of the extreme sports popularized in magazines and on TV, but before that, skaters were literally breaking the law when they skated in Public Square.
“You would really have to be a punk to skate. You would be breaking the law every time you set your board down in almost any city. So you had to be okay with that, and dealing with that, and that’s definitely our generation,” Frantz said.
When Lakewood started talking about building a skate park, the skaters wanted to give their input. At first, they were told to get petitions, but the group soon learned that Lakewood already had support for a skate park, and then found out that, because of the reality of politics and budgeting, “Demanding a skate park was the slowest way to get a skate park.” Frantz said.
Instead, they started organizing skating lessons and skateboarding events in Harding Middle School’s parking lot. They also had booths at community festivals, where the politicians of Lakewood noticed the popularity of skating among both children and adults. Soon afterwards, Madeline Cain, then-mayor of Lakewood, announced an architect was hired to design a skatepark. Frantz’s group was asked for input, and one of the big decisions was where to put the park.
“Some wanted it in Madison Park, but the decision to put it in Lakewood Park was a win for the whole community,” Frantz said. “It has to be in the Crown Jewel of Lakewood, otherwise, you won’t feel comfortable dropping your kids off.”
They wanted a spot where you could meet up, not just a place to practice, but a place to socialize and talk about skateboarding and the culture around it.
Frantz said it’s easier for the current generation of skaters to find community.
”[They] can just go to their local skate park, meet other skaters, and they feel comfortable. That whole cohort of new skaters has benefited from skateparks and social media,” he continued. “You can find so many clips of some little 5-year-old girl learning to kickflip, which is something we didn’t learn until we were 12 or so. and it’s awesome. They’re getting the same feeling that we got, but they’re getting it at 5. in their parents’ garage, and the parents are all filming and going, ‘Yeah!’. Nobody was supporting us. We had to hide from our parents.”
The skatepark is hard to see from the main entrance to the park, almost hidden in the midst of the baseball field and the basketball and tennis courts. The skatepark will become more visible this summer with the addition of a cantilevered shade that will also alleviate some of the heat from the summer sun, the last piece of the additions to the 20-year-old park.
Lakewood Skatepark is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., weather permitting. Lakewood Park, 14532 Lake Ave, Lakewood,Ohio 44107
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