Last week I decided to pound shoe leather and revisit the Ceres skate park, in an effort to sniff out a story.
The last time I visited the large concrete structure was decades ago when I took my camera in search of kids doing breakneck things on skateboards and bicycles. I remember how eager the attention-starved kids were to show off in hopes of getting some ink in the Courier. One young man on a bicycle played to my camera and bravely completed a 360-degree flip on his bicycle. My camera caught him as he was completely upside down, all while I was feared his stunt would result in a bloody crash or head injury.
I wasn’t sure many “kids” would be out there given after 1 p.m. on a Wednesday but it wasn’t as it would become this past weekend. As I made my way across the grass from the parking lot, I heard the familiar sound of board slapping concrete and the sideways sliding of wheels.
On the board was a young man who fit the part of the garden variety skater. He had so many metal body piercings in his face I cringed at the thought of how his face might rip open should he do a face plant into the unforgiving slab. He was determined as he practiced flipping his board underneath his feet as he jumped into the air – and land back down on it. At least that’s how Elijah Estrada wanted it to work.
Skaters belong to a mostly adolescent male world but do include young adults into their thirties. The public largely views skateboarders with negativity, considering them to be lazy, careless, risky, devious and unsavory mostly because of the disregard shown for rules in prohibited places like shopping centers and anywhere where they can grind on a railing or stairs. That’s precisely why then Ceres Mayor Louis Arrollo wanted to create a space in Smyrna Park so kids would refrain from other places where they were often chased away.
The project came about after years of planning. The city allowed local skaters like Matt Sexton and Adam Cowell to help design features of the park as part of a committee that included at least one mom, Jill Hunt. The city used $400,000 in redevelopment funds for construction costs. That was years before Gov. Jerry Brown did away with redevelopment agencies in California which benefitted cities throughout California.
On dedication day in February 2002 I snapped a photo of a 16-year-old Schuyler Ricketts taking a flying leap off the eight-foot ledge. In the background was the late Councilman Rob Phipps and Councilman Ken Lane who looked on in amazement. Perhaps as older and wiser folks they admired the courage, risk-taking and teenage sense of immortality as they engage in death-defying stunts.
Watch them long enough and you’ll know skateboarders seem impervious to danger and pain as they practice away the clumsy landings.
Elijah Estrada looked every bit the skateboarder as I watched him. As a subculture, skaters value creativity, risk, and freedom. Whereas traditional sport is organized and run by adults, skateboarding is not. There are no referees, no penalties (other than injury), no set plays – but there are established moves they attempt to accomplish.
I watched Estrada place one foot on the board while the other foot propelled him across a flat part of the concrete and manipulate the board to leap up with his body in hopes of landing back down together. The 61-year-old teen inside me admires such dexterity but just as soon dismisses it as an unnecessary risk, perhaps some life experience of not liking pain. I watched him fall down a number of times before interrupting him for questions.
Elijah is 18 and lives in Keyes and comes to Smyrna Park occasionally during the day since he holds down a nighttime job. The 2022 Turlock High School graduate told me that he prefers the Oakdale skate park but Ceres is closer.
“I busted my ear once,” Elijah told me.
No thanks.
This facility has seen more bone breakage and ripped elbows in the 21 years since the cement hardened at the 16,000 square foot facility within Smyrna Park than anywhere in Ceres, but youth feels invincibility for lack of experience in life.
Generations have been challenged at the park, navigating flights over stairs, leaps off of ledges and just rolling through the bowls.
The skate park has not been without trouble and every rule posted on a sign designed to protect users of the park probably has been violated. Skaters, for example, scoff at the requirement to wear helmets, and elbow and knee pads.
Over the years there have been understandable conflicts between the helmeted little kids on scooters and bicycles – another park no-no – getting in the way of helmetless skaters who move much faster. Ceres Police have also dealt with a variety of the typical problems associated when young people gather – including fighting and drug use. But it’s mostly a peaceful place.
In no time along came another young man appeared. I watched as 16-year-old Justin McClure rode his skateboard up and over ramps. He maneuvered out of one “half pipe,” landing on the top near me. I stopped him to explain I was with the newspaper and out to get some photographs of people using the skate park. He lives across the street and visits the park often, he said, and did not hold back his sense of approval that I was aiming my camera his way. He repeated tried his attempt a “boneless” trick whereby he grabs the middle of his board, plants one foot on the ground to pop the board up, and then land back on the ground with both feet on the board and roll away clean.
I confess I don’t understand the risk that skateboarders take. Weeks ago I accidentally drove my elbow into the window sill at home closing a window and it’s painful. But you know the saying, “with age comes wisdom.” There aren’t many 60-year-olds out there skateboarding – and if you see one, they have the helmets and elbow and knee pads for sure.
But part of me wants to get on a board and see why it’s fun for them.
The other part? Not on your life.
