Planned NE Bend skatepark design gets mixed reviews
A 36-acre multi-use park in the works for Bend’s northeast side. Rockridge Park, on the corner of 18 th Street and Egypt Drive, will feature a disc golf course and youth bike trail. But another feature is stirring up mixed feelings in one segment of the community.
It will also have a 10,000-square-foot skate park. But some in the skating community aren’t sold on the design.
“Well, I’ve seen the plans, and the plans are kind of out there,” skater Noah Daniel said Friday.
Catherine and Billy Coulon are the owners of Evergreen Skateparks. The husband-and-wife team created a new concept, calling it “a lunar landscape-type skate park.”
“There isn’t anything like it in Oregon,,” Catherine said.
She said the design is meant to provide a different experience.
“It’s more about the ride, and just kind of the way everything is built and designed and shaped. It just provides the user with a really fun ride,” she explained.
Jim Figurski, architect for Bend Parks and Rec, said they know the project won’t make everyone happy.
The district hosted a meeting Friday night, where they explained the concept and reasons behind it.
“The style at Rockridge is more flow. It’s a different type of skating, and that’s purposeful — as we build the system, we want to have diversity in it,” Figurski said.
Aside from added variety, he said the park’s location, by a middle and elementary school, means they need to appeal to wider demographics.
“It offers opportunities for young kids to learn to skate, but it also offers a lot of challenge to advanced skaters,” Figurski said.
The skaters we talked to were reluctant, but willing to give the park a shot when it opens in the spring of 2017.
“Yeah I’ll go there, if it’s like worth going,” one said. “But if it’s just like little bumps and stuff, I’m not going to try to like crash into some kids and like, you know, cause this ruckus.”
The Park and Rec District is also working on another smaller skate project. They’re calling it a “skate spot” in Hillside Park on Bend’s Westside.
More information on both projects can be found at bendparksandrec.org.
