In skateboarding, youth is often an advantage. The Hailey Skate Park, in only its second young summer of operation, is proving this maxim true not just for skaters, but for their parks as well.
Designed by Dreamland Skateparks, one of the nation's premier concrete skate park builders, Hailey Skate Park is turning heads and luring riders from near and far. Credit its wide appeal to its deep end and fluidity of design.
This weekend, the Concrete Rodeo Skate Tour, a regional series based in Salt Lake City, is coming to town, hosting a Friday qualifying event in Ketchum and the series championships in Hailey Saturday.
Registration ($25, includes a t-shirt) is from 9-11 a.m. on both days at both parks. Entry forms can also be found at www.concreterodeo.com and brought to the event.
Cash prizes have yet to be determined, but are likely to be hundreds of dollars for the men's and women's categories, said Konrad Rotermund, managing director of the Concrete Rodeo Tour.
To members of the underground skating community, it came as little surprise that the tour chose Hailey for its finale.
"Hailey is considered one of the greatest skate parks in the country, definitely in the top five," said Rotermund.
At concretedisciples.com, a Web site devoted to parks, Hailey sits in eighth place in a ranking of the nation's best.
"We're getting some recognition outside of here," said longtime Wood River skate advocate Andy Gilbert. "People want to come throw events here because of how good the parks are," he said.
On the organizational end, Rotermund has been determined to make his Rodeo succeed as the "only full championship-based series that takes events right to skate parks where kids live" as opposed to some distant venue.
The Concrete Rodeo, like the Hailey Skate Park, is making noise in just its second year.
From a test series with five stops last summer, Concrete Rodeo has grown to a regional tour with 12 events throughout the Intermountain area and Pacific Northwest.
This weekend, the two-day local rodeo begins at Ketchum's Guy Coles Skate Park on Friday morning. After the 11 a.m. registration deadline, the competition will run until roughly 3 p.m. with music playing throughout the day.
Rotermund stressed the fact that the Rodeo features women's divisions of all ages, despite the fact that many girls shy away from competition.
"There are a lot of girls out there who skate and get intimidated," he said.
The tour's top performing girl is 14-year-old Ashley Anderson of Reedsport, Ore. Like the Hailey park and the Rodeo itself, this year is Anderson's second doing the skating.
At her first event last summer, "she could barely drop in and was nervous and now is one of the best young girls," said Rotermund.
Anderson will be skating this weekend in Ketchum and Hailey, along with a number of traveling skaters making the trip from around the region.
With athletes from Boise, Twin Falls, and one top skater from Medford, Ore., Rotermund is expecting as many as 75 skaters this weekend.
Each skater is allotted time for two, one-minute runs; the best run then determines qualifiers for the larger elimination bracket and dueling rounds.
The Rodeo has been earning high marks for its "dueling finals" where two skaters drop into the park for a simultaneous, head-to-head run. The format is exciting for fans and useful for judges as well.
"The closest thing you can compare it to is a dual mogul event in skiing," said Rotermund, who hosted an dueling finals at a small park in Lincoln City, Ore. last weekend.
This weekend, prizes from tour sponsors Smith Optics, Dakine, and Skull Candy will be widely awarded and distributed, including some "give-aways thrown to the crowd," said Rotermund.
