Friday, December 18, 2009

MTV Star Rob Dyrdek's Amazing Safe Spot, Skate Spot Program

Dyrdek and the city of LA work together to keep kids safe:
Rob Dyrdek and the city of Los Angeles are 2-for-2 in giving skateboarders a place where they can ride challenging obstacles without getting chased away by the police.

Dyrdek, the pro skateboarder and MTV star, unveiled a $350,000 skate park Thursday that is the latest in his Safe Spot, Skate Spot program.

Dyrdek contributed $75,000 from his foundation and Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar came up with the rest of the funding for the 14,000-square-foot, tri-level skate plaza at Hollenbeck Park just east of downtown.

Tired of seeing street skateboarders treated as nuisances, the Midwestern-born Dyrdek started the Safe Spot, Skate Spot program to give them a legal place to ride handrails, ledges and stairs.

His first skate park, in Lafayette Park, was dedicated in February, when he and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa rode the world's largest skateboard, measuring 38 feet, 6 inches.

"They've bought into what I'm trying to do," Dyrdek said by phone. "I think conceptually, when you say, 'Hey, it's not that expensive. If you give me a little piece of it, I'll make a really cool, unique, skateable surface that enhances the park and looks gorgeous.' And even for all that, if skateboarding dies tomorrow, they still have this great plaza, and they can turn it into something else.
THIS is the future of skatepark design:
It's the idea of not putting just a fence around a bunch of bowls. It's designing and developing a really beautiful plaza that happens to be perfectly built for skateboarding. It's a necessity to the future of the sport that kids have a place to do it."
AP: Dyrdek unveils latest skate park

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