Castlegar Rotary Skatepark is the location for the 2012 Summer at the Skatepark Free Skateboard Coaching program. It is managed by local non-profit Kootenay Family Place, supported by Castlegar and District Recreational Complex and funded by BC Gaming.

Skateboard instructors have been available since June 25th honing the skateboarding skills of 150 participants as of August 14th. Ages have ranged from 3 to 60+. People from Vancouver, Northern BC, Calgary, Castlegar, Salmo, Rossland, Nelson, Winlaw and Slocan City have all be thrilled by helpfulness of the skateboard instructors at the skatepark.

Utilizing the Skaters for Public Skateparks/Drop In To Skateboarding Curriculum, skateboards learn the basics such as warm up, stance, falling properly, stopping, navigating the skateboard. Once these foundation skills are achieved instructors move skaters into the fundamentals such as understanding the skatepark layout, pumping and kick turns on transitions, carving , ollie and the drop in. The expertise level is creative and skaters and instructors challenge themselves with grinds, airs, slides, plants and technical trick combinations.

According to Ty Smith, the coordinator, the success of this program has been due to it’s ability to accept all participants of all skill levels providing boards, helmets and pads at a non-cost, in a completely drop in program format (10am to 4pm Mon to Fri).

Support for skateboarding in Castlegar, BC has come from Skull Skates, S-One Helmets, skatepark.org, Drop In To Skateboarding Curriculum, Spectrum Skatepark Creations along with Mountainfm.net, Central City Shoes, sk8shoes4kids.org.

If you are interested in following Castlegar Skateboarding click over to

facebook.com/FriendsOfTheCastlegarSkatepark