The grind pays off

After much hard work, the Yachats Skatepark is ready to roll

Story & photos by Gretchen Ammerman

Oregon Coast TODAY

The Yachats Commons are not your common commons.

An especially vigorous community space, the handsome former schoolhouse, outdoor pavilion, large playground and ballfield provide space for almost every need a community might have.

And now, thanks to the efforts of local skaters, staff from the City of Yachats, the Yachats Chamber of Commerce and the Dreamland Skateparks company, a whole new demographic is being served.

What were once two small skating ramps on a tiny lot behind City Hall just north of the commons pavilion have been transformed into a small but state-of-the-art park.

On Thursday, Feb. 15, the official grand opening of the Yachats Skatepark will include a few words from the people who brought the project to completion, a ribbon cutting and of course, skating.

“I grew up in Yachats and didn’t have access to a skatepark so I’m very excited about this," said skater Katherine Rose, who now lives in Portland. “It was a community-driven project that started as a dream and we got the right people in the right rooms and made it all happen.”

As with any project of this size, funding was a primary issue, but Rogue Brewery served up some help. Rogue’s Dreamland American Lager is a brew that was created after the renovation of the skatepark in Newport. Because Dreamland Skateparks helped make the dream of the renovation a reality, the brewery decided to create a new beer to help fund the building and renovation of more skateparks around the world.

“The scholarship fund that Rogue has set up usually goes to help one park a year,” Rose said. “Last year the appointed park was ours.”

After more than a year of planning and community-driven design, the Dreamland Skateparks X Rogue Ales project included adding 25 feet on both ends of the existing park, which is open to people on most non-motorized wheels, not just skateboards.

"Roller skaters can totally skate there, too,” Rose said. “It will be a really fun little park for scooters as well. And the city is putting benches on so that people can watch. It's definitely a cool thing for the community.”

The project broke ground early last December.

“We looked at our footprint and initially wanted to dig an underground bowl but we weren’t able to do that,” said local skateboarder Kevin Kowalski, who has skated professionally since 2012. “So, we went back to the drawing board and were able to add more than enough features. We wanted some that you don’t see in other parks. For example, we have a whale tail shape that’s an extension that goes off of a quarter pipe, so it looks like a skate-able whale tail that you can do a variety of different tricks on. And on the other side of the park there is a more than seven-foot-tall clam shell. It’s rounded so it’s a turnaround part of the park and is cool because it’s got a clamshell look on the back but the way that it skates is going to be one of the best clam shells around. We also made a spine that is in a heart shape and tried to keep as much as we could of a mural that was already there that was painted by local kids.”

Before the final sealant was applied, Kowalski and Dreamland Skateparks owner Mark Scott took some time to try out the park’s features. I watched as Kowalski flew into the air, fell and got back up. Flew, fell, flew and fell — roughly 20 times as he tackled one part of the wall. If he was hurting himself, there was no sign of it in the huge grin plastered across his face, which grew even bigger when he finally landed the trick.

“It was great to see the design that we drew come to life,” Kowalski said. “I’m a professional skateboarder and I think this is going to be one of the best skate parks in the area. And that’s saying a lot, since Oregon has some of the best skateparks in the world. The Yachats Skatepark was recently featured in a video about some of the best new parks to visit in 2024 and some of the others were multi-million-dollar projects. I think it’s going to get a lot of good reviews but, most importantly, it will be cool to see some of the local kids have a great place to come and skate together.”

The Grand Opening of the Yachats Skatepark runs from 4 to 6 pm on Thursday, Feb. 15. The park is located on La-De-Da Lane, one block west of Yachats City Hall.