History

It all began at a little makeshift set of ramps behind an abandon restaurant in 1995. The local kids had set up a bank, a rail and some small ramps to skate on until thrown out by local law enforcement. After being thrown out kids went back to the street to skate. Still being harassed by the cops the kids had nowhere to go. This is when the Village of Greenport and local parents did something for the youth. In 1996 local parents got together and bought wood and donated there time to build 4 ramps and a rail which were placed at the Moores Lane Fireman's race track. Now they had a place to skate. No one ever knew how much use the ramps would get. They soon found out. The ramps had to be resurfaced about every 6 months. Some people would come from out of town but not many. About a year and a half went by and the ramps were still there with people skating them every chance they had. The Village knew they were going to get a lot of money for selling the water department and when that was finalized Mayor Dave Kapell asked a few skaters what they wanted to see for the youth of the community. Of course the answer was a new skate park. Mayor Kapell took this idea to the board and it was approved to do some research on building a skate park. Mayor Kapell contacted Mr. Kessler from the New York City Skate Park, Riverside. Mr. Kessler agreed to meet with some skaters, and the Mayor to draw up some plans and get an idea on some prices. Mr. Kessler helped the kids design the park to their specifications. When that was complete bids had to be put out for building the park. It was decided that the street course would be built with concrete. And the mini and Vert ramps would be built with wood and metal. The bids went to Rick Carje for the concrete and Tim Payne for the wood. After all legalities were worked out preparations for Rick to start had to be made. First the spot had to be picked. Second the ground had to be cleared. Third a drainage system had to be installed. After a few months of site preparations it was ready for Rick and his crew to start the work. In April of 98 Rick brought out 5 guys and with the help of local skaters work was underway. It was a long process with a few obstacles to overcome like rain, flooded trenches, heat, and legalities. But by the end of July the concrete part was finished. Now it was time for Tim Payne to come out and work his magic. Tim brought out 4 guys and with the support of somewhere between 10 and 20 locals a day the wood was taking shape. Some of the steps in building the ramps were setting a foundation and making it level, cutting a ton of cross beams for the frame, cutting out the frames, and nailing everything. Every day you drove past the park you could see some kind of progress. The Vert ramp was getting bigger, the mini ramp was getting wider, and wood was piling up. That was the easy part. Next came the ply wood and metal. The metal had to have holes drilled to match the cross beams in the frames. The metal was very heavy and very reflective. After all the metal was installed it had to be painted. The paint took a few days to dry and then it was useable. The first day it was able to be used was October 9th 1998. And Grand opening was set for October 31st 1998. And now between 50 and 120 people come on weekends to use our park.