"How much longer untill they make the skatepark?" We at the LSA are inundated by this question everyday. Parents and skaters are anxiously awaiting the skatepark and phase one of the construction has been planned for spring. But we are still short of the total estimated cost of the park and the city needs help raising the extra $100,000 needed to complete our design. To help defray the cost of construction, a Recognition Board is being constructed in the skatepark to honor the contributers that helped make this project happen. Click here to see how you can help.

Bobby Koestler hit the streets to sell our static cling donor decals on the day we annouced the contest. Over the next few weeks, Bobby estimates that he probably spoke with nearly 100 potential donors. He sold 22 decals thereby raising $220 for the skatepark fund. For his prize, Bobby picked out a complete skateboard donated by Mike and Danielle Masters.

Saturday, August 9th - The Mosaic/Swiss Grid premiere was a blast! We had over 240 people show up and we raised over $2,500 for the park. Except for a VCR getting screwed up in between showings, everything went well. Thanks to the Agora for having us and helping out at the door and Greg the sound guy for putting up with our picky sound preferences. The LSA would like to thank Chris Carter, Tony Heitz, Chris Sullivan, and Joe Castrucci at DNA Distribution for hooking us up with the premiere. For anyone that missed it, you can pick up a copy in stores in the near future. The best all around video of the year!

Saturday, August 2nd - Our first Lakewood Arts Fest Booth was a huge success! We held a bake sale and raffle for Gravity Games Tickets, Gravity Games T-Shirts, and a skateboard deck donated by West Side Skates.

Friday, July 25th, 2003 - Dale Busta and the Busta Family threw a ramp jam benefit for the Lakewood Skatepark. Donations were collected from the riders and an impromptu contest was held on the ramp. But this was no ordinary backyard mini-ramp. In an effort to save the environment, Dale refused to cut down a tree to build his ramp. The result is quite interesting.

Saturday, July 19th, 2003 - We held our first ever Skateboard Clinic at Harding Middle School parking lot. Despite baseballs raining down on our heads from the nearby game of "Home Run Derby", we had a great turnout with about 60 skaters and we raised over $500 towards the park. Thanks to all who showed up to help or learn and pay the STEEP $15 for 3 hours. Someday we'll hold a free one at our new skatepark. Special thanks to our sponsors: West Side Skates, Schneider's Bike Shop, Village Boards, Speed Freaks, and Ohio Surf & Skate.

Saturday, June 28th, 2003 - As the first offcial LSA fundraiser event of the summer, the Softball Tournament was a grand slam! We had 7 teams play for what must be the most unique softball trophies ever. Many others stopped by to watch as skatepark supporters from around the area spent about 6 hours in typical double elimination tournament style competition.

This project has been 10 years coming and a few months ago there wasn't even a hint of a design. All we knew was that we had 12,000 sq ft of space next to the pool. 2 public meetings, 2 trips to council, 2 Wake N Skates (1, 2), one Skatepark Design Committee and about 30 variations later we have settled on this design for the Lakewood Skatepark. If you want to ride this design, pitch-in and help us raise the money!

As part of the Department of Human Services' Helmet Saturday event, the LSA will be holding a small workshop with young skaters (10 and under) to show some basic safety tips. Come down to City Hall at 11am on Saturday, 31st and learn how to:

• Put on helmet/pads/wrist guards
• Stand on the board properly
• Pushing and stepping off

As a result of our fundraising meeting on Saturday, May 10th, we are proud to annouce some super fun events that will be geared toward getting skaters together and raising money for the new park.

We'll post more information for each one as we get it.

The Symposium is holding Friday night Rock shows all through May to benefit the Lakewood Skatepark Fund. Admission is free for 21 and older and the LSA will be on hand to raffle of prizes like decks, backpacks, artwork, gear, and instruments from:

All shows start at 10pm every Friday in May. For a list of bands, check the Events Schedule page.
Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, April 1st, 2003 was the second public meeting held by the Mayor's Office for input on the Lakewood Skatepark Project. Architects from Brandstetter, Carrol, Zofcin brought designs based on our initial input from the 1st public meeting held back in January. This meeting presented the skaters of Lakewood with 3 different scenarios utilizing the obstacles that we submitted as well as the site and landscape specs for integration into the existing space.

The 2nd Wake-N-Skate was a success. We had more people, more pizza and pop, and more items to raffle off! Now that the weather is clearing up, this will probably be the last one we hold indoors for a while. Check the Event Schedule for new events and sessions.

Monday evening at the Committee of the Whole meeting, city council voted to create a skate park committee based on the resolution proposed by Councilman Tom George. The committee consists of 3 members of city council and 3 appointed members from outside council. Councilman George proposed that LSA members Vince Frantz, Mike Larkey, and Jason Kucharski be appointed to the 3 outside positions. The Skate Park committee will serve to help bring in external sources to the design process and help with guidance on the various issues that will help make the Lakewood Skate Park a success. Mayor's Assistant Keith Benjamin and Director Bill Boag were both on hand and both expressed their appreciation and approval for how it has been working with the LSA and it's members so far. The council voted unanimously to create the committee and to appoint the 3 outside slots to Vince, Mike, and Jason.

Black Label premiered their latest skate video "Black Out" at a few showing's here in Lakewood and at Rollerworld in Parma. The LSA was on hand to raffle off some complete skateboards donated by Black Label. Label Pro Kristian Svitak flew out from Oceanside, CA to skate with his old home town friends and fans. He also brought lots of free goodies to give out at each one. The raffles raised over $350 towards the LSA! Thanks to everyone that turned out to watch the video, skate, and support the LSA!

Mayor Cain and Public Works Director Bill Boag kicked off the skatepark planning phase Saturday, January 18th with the first of what will most likely be several planning meetings for the Lakewood Skatepark. Held at the Women's Club Pavilion, lots of skaters, parents, and community members showed up to hear what the city has planned and to give input towards the direction we need to take in making the skatepark a success. Over 95% of the attendees were already LSA members!

Bernie Zofcin of Brandstetter, Carroll, & Zofcin, Inc. is the lead architect and started the design meeting by getting input from the skaters on what materials, obstacles, and skill levels need to be included. The LSA brought the ideas and notes that we had been compiling from the last several months and presented them to Mr. Zofcin as a start. We then began to prioritize the types of obstacles based on what the skaters wanted and ended with a discussion on operating procedures and rules & regulations. City engineers Bernie Madison and Tom Kilgore raised structural and construction issues and all agreed that an experienced skatepark contractor will need to handle the concrete work. We have been actively researching the skatepark design issues and collecting input from the skaters of Lakewood. We provided the architect and the city with a short report of our findings to date. This packet can be found in our Downloads page.

Watch this site for future updates or sign up as a member and you will be notified of any new meetings or events!

The LSA held its first Wake-N-Skate Session on Saturday, January 11th, 2003. We rented out Rollerworld Skatepark for our own private session for the skaters of Lakewood. We held two raffles in which we gave away a ton of gear and hard goods like decks, trucks, bearings, hardware, etc. - all donated by AWS, Habitat, Seek, Black Label, Tracker, Sixteen, and Matix. Pizza was donated by Roman Fountain Pizza and the LSA picked up the drink tab. Over 60 people showed up with about 51 skaters. This was just the right amount for a good session at Rollerworld. Click the "Read More..." link below to see the photos and video clips.

Next time you order pizza from Roman Fountain, be sure and thank them for hooking us up with lunch!

Our goal with city council was to let them know who we are and that we are concerned with the current process that has unfolded for the skatepark. About 30 LSA members and supporters were in attendance. However, the West End Development was a hot topic of the night and so we were forced to wait for a few hours while city council heard comments regarding that issue. But it was well worth the wait! Board Member Kim Bezak took the floor to present our comments and city council was very receptive. Councilman Thomas George proposed that a committee regarding the skatepark design/construction process be formed and to include a representative from our group to work with the members of the city government for input and consultation. Director of Public Works, Bill Boag met with us afterwards to let us know how we can work with him. He noted that our input is very valuable in this process and that he has learned a lot so far in speaking with us. We all agreed that the administration has no experience with skating and that they really need our support and input. Now that they are aware of us, they are more than happy to include us in the process!

Thanks to Ben, Tina, Ted, Alex Bezak, Mike, Brandon, Mason Fenton, Dave Peachick, Brian Jules, Michelle Billow, Cathy Frantz, Becky, Ryan, Mike Larkey & Hannah, Chris, Jason Kucharski and Family, and everyone else that I forgot (or didn't know their names). Showing up and sticking it out made a great impression on all involved and it lets city council know that we are serious about getting this done right!

Lakewood City Council has given Mayor Cain the power to get started on a skatepark for Lakewood as part of the Lakewood Park Master Plan. While this seems like good news as far has getting our skatepark going, it is a huge blow to our efforts as it shows that so far the mayor isn't interested in working with us for input. The mayor is quoted in the Lakewood Sun as saying "We hope to get as many potential users of the park involved to ensure it is something they will use. - It's their park." Yet the mayor has made no effort to contact us even after being invited to our events and meetings. If skater input is valuable, then it would seem logical to consult with the skaters of Lakewood in meeting their needs for a skatepark. Here is an article detailing one such example.

Overall, this is good news for a skatepark in Lakewood as it is at least getting some attention and some action. It is good to see that steps have been taken to move ahead. A community workshop has been scheduled for 10 am to noon Saturday, January 18, 2003 at the Women's Club Pavilion at Lakewood Park. This is to gain some input from the skaters to "create and revise a wish list for the architect to follow". So now is the time to be determining what we need in a skatepark. Please use our Contact form to email your ideas and designs. We will be holding a public skatepark design meeting at our Wake-N-Skate Session at Rollerworld in early January. (check the Events page for dates and times)