Some youth and children in Portage la Prairie got their chance to try out the new Rotary Skate Park in Portage's north end at Simplot Central Park before it snowed Thursday. The warm weather had kept the park cleared after any snow previously fell. Wth the snow melted again this weekend, it gives them even more opportunities before it comes to stay. 

Mitch Moar brings his three children, and says he was vying for a skate park back in the '90s, and is glad to see that one is finally here.

"Back in the '90s, we used to do fundraisers trying to get ourselves a skate park.," says Moar. "We'd have the benefit concerts and things like that, and make $50 or $100 and put it toward something that never ended up coming to fruition. But it's really nice to see this has finally happened in this town."

His children with him Thursday were aged five years, eight years, and an eleven-year-old.  

"They're all going to be able to use this for years to come, so it's really exciting."

Marco Capetillo is visiting from Texas, and is a skateboard enthusiast. 

"I really like skating. I did a little digging on Facebook. I was browsing through community pages, and then I saw that the Rotary Club was working on making a new park. I think the plans were suggested a good while back and it looked like funding was pretty slow. Then I recently checked it again and I saw that they finished building it. So, I was just like, 'Whoa, I'm super stoked for it.'"

He notes it is a good skate park, and far better than the smaller version next to the Tupper bridge. 

"There are some ledges here, there's a euro gap there's a curb, a six set, a couple of quarter pipes, and a couple hips. It's really good," says Capetillo. "It's good for beginners, and people in the intermediate stages of skating. Overall, it's really good."

Capetillo adds he's been skating for about 13 years now, and encourages those using it to keep it clean.

"It's a new park and things like this don't really come by that often," notes Capetillo. "It'll last longer if people just take care of it more. No graffiti, try to sweep off the rocks and stuff because you could get stuck on a rock while you're skating, and you'll fall, really bad."

Lincoln Moar was there with his father and was using his scooter in the park. 

"I like hitting the ramps," says Lincoln. "I could jump over a box. I could use the roller coaster. I could use quarter pipe, boxes, and stair gaps."

He adds he'll definitely be using the park a lot more in the future. 

Liam Allanson is 11 and says he mostly enjoys jumping and going up and down ramps with a scooter.

"I'd say the best part would be all the drops. One of the cool features is the volcano right there. The mini ramp is kind of a very steep ramp. The volcano is for doing jumps, riding over it, or riding along its side."

Kane Zacharias is also 11, and says the fun part for him is getting lots of speed easily.

"It's really fun because there are lots of obstacles you can do tricks on.  One of my favourite parts about this is probably this ramp,"

Daycen Campbell is 11, too, and enjoys the drop-ins.

"They're just really fun to go down. There are little humps, like the little ramp kind of thing, a huge ramp, the volcano, and the sushi."

Qyran Ghitale is 11 and he enjoys the drop-in most of all. 

"My second favourite part is mostly the Bump Hills where you just go faster."

 

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