VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., - A long-awaited skatepark is finally opening in Virginia Beach and people are flipping for it.
"I love it, love it, love being out here with my friends getting some turns in. That's what it's all about," said skater, Mark Ferolino.
While the skating is top-of-the-line, the snake runs and two-level bowls aren't the only thing people are excited about.
The project has brought a wealth of improvements to the heavily utilized community park, including upgraded amenities and a 5.2-million-gallon wet weather offline storage tank that provides the base for the brand-new, 30,000 square foot skatepark facility while also helping to reduce sanitary sewer overflows.
"It's not often that you get to deal with a wastewater issue and have folks have a lot of fun at the same time. HRSD had a need to build an equalization tank for wastewater," said Bruce Husselbee, Director of Engineering for the Hampton Roads Sanitation District. "We're standing on top of a 5.2 million gallon storage tank. This equalization tank is designed to hold flows during a storm event and then slowly discharge that flow back into the sewer system after the storm has passed. The benefit of that is we get to minimize the number of over flows in the sewer system while we hold that flow during a rain event."
After two years of construction, the Woodstock Park Improvement Project, a partnership between Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation and HRSD, opened on Wednesday.
"It's not only an environmental achievement, but it's also providing a 30,000 sq. foot skatepark, brand new playground, restroom facility, new shelter so it's really just a beautification of this park," said Julie Braley, Public Relations and content manager for Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation. "You have young kids that are just getting started, you have older people who have been skating for a very long time, all races, all ages, all walks of life."
The state-of-the-art skatepark was designed and built by the creative minds at Team Pain Skateparks with community input gathered online and at two design workshops. The park showcases a mix of transitional and street elements including premium features such as:
- Snake run and two-level bowl with waterfall, five corners, and two hips
- Quarter pipe with extension
- Ledge runs, stair sets, wall rides, snake run, banks, hips, rails, and other custom ledges
- Warm-up area
- Shaded viewing spots
"We have other skateparks but this snakerun is just - there's just nothing that compares," said skater, Spacy Kelley.
