Skate Park upgrades at Crellin Park in Chatham

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CHATHAM — During these times of COVD19 when being outdoors is the healthiest, safest and easiest solution as to where to recreate and enjoy summer, we are excited to announce the newly renovated and improved skate park at Crellin Park.

Skate Boarding and BMX are now both officially Olympic sports which has towns and cities around the world scrambling to create and build skate/bike parks for their communities. There is a huge, mostly underground, worldwide movement to create more and more places for kids and people of all ages to enjoy skateboarding and BMX biking.

Due to zoning restrictions, funding and politics, delays in forward progress of skate parks has scores of young adults, most of whom have skateboarded for years, taking their own initiative to build places to skateboard. They collect used or discarded building materials, find open lots or backyards and build their own jumps and skateable /bikeable features. In fact, every major city in this county has skate boarders building their own skateboard surfaces. These places tend to be the most fun to skate and create innovation in the sport. So many cities have spent a lot of money on cookie cutter parks which ultimately lack the personality and originality of locals coming together to create something special. Skate boarding is rooted in a history of not waiting, doing it yourself and loving the sport.

It’s local passion and skill like this that came together over the past two weekends to create the upgrades and renovations to the skate park in Crellin Park. The genesis for this project came from Chatham Area Recreation Project, CARP a local non-profit, who in talking with and listening to some of the veteran skaters in the area came up with several modifications to make the current park much more open, enjoyable and skateable.

The skate park which was created and funded by The Crellin Park Foundation in 2008 has been a wonderful addition to the community needed some upgrades and improvements. CARP with the help of local skate boarders reached out to Justin Smith a local skater who has created skate features in the Albany skate park for the past three years. Justin, having skated for decades, has traveled the world with skater friends to seek out the best skate parks — knows what folks enjoy skating. He and his team have the know-how and skills to build skate park features as their full-time jobs are in concrete, welding and construction work. Justin’s newly formed company Titte, for Throw in the Trowel East, is a formalization of a group of friends who have been working together for years. He and his fellow skater/construction team have been creating and building skate features just to see them torn down, often overnight and before they were ever skated. Now he and his team are getting hired to build things to last. Justin having skated the park quickly made a few simple suggestions for ways the current park could be upgraded.

With the support of Town of Chatham and the funding by of The Crellin Park Foundation, CARP worked with Bonded Concrete, Herrington’s, ACP, Dan Crellin and Sam Gleason for the donations of materials and equipment to make the improvements possible.

The park is now open and ready to use. Park hours are sunrise to 9 p.m.

CARP’s vision is to continue to expand and upgrade the skate park, Justin and his crew are already brainstorming the next level features. If you would like to volunteer your time or ideas or wish to fund or donate supplies to future skate park expansion projects, please email chathamarearecreationprojeect@gmail.com.

Photo from left:Tiger Coleman, Matt Fischer, Justin Smith, Mike Cerqua, Eammon McBride