around town Community
k r a P X a i c i n Be Skatepark , s e ik b , s d r a o b e t a sk d n a s e t a k s , s r e sc o ot
s k c i r t f o s lot n Mary Hand
The best part about Community Park is my grandpa, Mike Alvarez, retired Parks & Community Services Director was part of the design team for creating this great park…which makes it even more special — 10 • Benicia Magazine
Ethan Belcher
Benicia’s skatepark hosts scores of kids, young adults and a few oldsters every day. They are on skateboards, scooters and bikes, each challenging the various sections of this amazing park. These very popular sports have often been seen as extreme or outside the “normal” kids sports. They have of course been legitimized by being included in the Olympics. In fact, Nikita Ducarroz, from Santa Rosa, did much of her practicing at the Benicia skatepark, and earned a bronze medal in BMX freestyle in the Tokyo Olympics. Participants of these sports are often individualist, competing against themselves by perfecting a trick or move, or likewise watching and competing against each other. It is a cooperative sport, in that they take turns; sometimes it’s bikes, then skateboards or scooters. To see these kids defying gravity, and sometimes realities, is a fun and inspiring thing to watch. There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of skateboard/BMX/scooter tricks that have actual names, probably even more that don’t. In fact, riders are inventing more on a daily basis. The skateboard trick list can be broken down into basic tricks: flip and shove-it tricks, grind and slide tricks, air, pool, ramp and grab tricks, footplant tricks, balance tricks, and many others. BMX includes air tricks, grinds, flatland and scooters perform tricks on half-pipes, ramps, rails or bowls, all are part of Benicia Skatepark.
