Skateboarders are not often associated with high caliber organization and Kent Dahlgren, executive director of Skaters for Public Skate Parks, is out to change that misconception.
Dahlgren's organization is a "skatepark advocacy organization, international in reach, dedicated to providing the information necessary to ensure safe, rewarding, freely-accessible skateparks are available to all skateboarders."
This summer, SPS chose the Wood River Valley as the perfect, model skatepark community for their first annual summit.
Andy Gilbert, local skatepark advocate, is excited for the upcoming weekend, seeing an opportunity for "spreading the knowledge" that goes into building proper skate parks.
Gilbert is psyched, also saying that it's "nice that they chose this place for their first meeting of the minds."
Saturday's main event will feature talks, workshops, and, of course, lots of skating by some top level athletes.
The keynote speaker for the summit will be Miki Vuckovitch, executive director of the Tony Hawk Foundation, a grant giving organization that supports park building around the country.
Saturday's events will start with skating at the Hailey Skate Park from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., leading to the evening workshop. The workshop will be held at Hailey's Community Campus opens with a 6:00 p.m reception featuring "heavy hors d'oeuvres" followed by informative talks from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
For more information, go to the SPS website at skatersforpublicskateparks.org. The agenda for Saturday can be found there under the "forum" tab.
