World Cup Skateboarding To Be Held In Alabaster Park
The city of Alabaster has landed a national skateboarding event. The Pat Wachter Pro Bowl Contest will be April 28-29 at the city’s skate park at Veterans Park off Alabama 119. Wachter, of Florence, is one of Alabama’s first professional skateboarders. The event will bring some of the top skateboarders in the nation to Alabaster, said Larry Vann, director of the Parks and Recreation Department. The event is expected to draw fans from within and outside the state, he said.
World Cup Skateboarding competitions consist of participants performing certain basic elements and more innovative moves that add points to a participant’s score, Vann said. The event will be part of the World Cup Skateboarding series, which Vann said is the skateboarding equivalent of the PGA Tour in golf. This year’s event will not count toward world rankings, but the city hopes to put on a good showing that will lead to future tour stops and events, said Brian Kelly, whose company, Ride Skateboards, operates the skate park for the city and helped the city lure the event to the park.
“It’s going to be a classic,” said Kelly, who has been involved in skateboarding for 30 years. “It’s a historic day for us in skateboarding in Alabama.” Kelly said the event is expected to draw 1,500 to 2,000 fans per day. Tickets will be $10 per day. Alabaster’s skate park, a state-of-the-art facility with a 10-foot-deep bowl, was built by the city and Shelby County. The park opened in April 2006. “Our bowl is considered one of the best in the country,” Kelly said. Hosting the competition will give youths who use the skate park every day a chance to see people they know through video, television and magazines, Vann said.
“It’s just as much for them as anything,” Vann said. Participants are expected to arrive early in the week of the competition, which will give the youths a chance to interact with them, he said. Brazil, Australia, Los Angeles, Orlando and Phoenix are among this year’s tour stops for World Cup Skateboarding, which puts on the popular X Games that are televised on ESPN.