Skaters rejoice – North Vancouver has a new park with features built by a skateboarding company with deep roots in the community.
As of Sept. 28, Mahon Skatepark is open for public use, located on the west side of Mahon Park.
Construction on the new skate park started in June, after the Lonsdale Skatepark was shut down to facilitate construction of a new Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre.
Commissioned by the City of North Vancouver, the park was built by Transition Construction, with two granite benches donated by Red Dragon Skate Supply, as well as more granite, road barriers and additional funding to expand the originally planned, smaller temporary park into the larger park that’s open today.
RDS, which opened its first shop North Van in 1996, also helped with the park design. They wanted to bring a more authentic street-style skate plaza look and feel to the North Shore, said RDS founder and CEO Moses Itkonen.
“Supporting Canadian skateboarding is our mission,” he said. “Skateboarders have supported our company all these years. It’s the best feeling in the world seeing all the young new skateboarders enjoying the Mahon skate plaza.”
As part of the Harry Jerome rebuild, a new skate park wasn’t planned to be finished until 2025. There would have been no skate park within city boundaries.
Outcry among the skateboarding community and city families who used to frequent the park prompted council to apologize for lack of communication and the impact of the scheduled closure.
A design workshop was held in May with members of the skateboard community. Feedback from the workshop and an online survey were taken into consideration in the final layout and features.
Mahon Skatepark is intended to have features and space for skaters of all abilities in a street-focused design.
The park has a quarter pipe, a long flat rail, and a hip with gap on the west side. On its north side, there’s a barrier wall, manny pad, fire hydrant and a kicker-to-ledge, among other features.
With files from Charlie Carey
