Whitefish skatepark expansion will break ground in June

Activity at the local skatepark is ramping up with the warmer weather and this summer the expansion project will add features and even more fun.

Matt Holloway concisely summed up what is going on at the skatepark and then extended an invitation.

“We’re in the final days of fundraising but we’re breaking ground at the end of June. It should be a three-month project. The skate camp is still going on,” Holloway said. “And come watch it be built. You can come and watch all summer long.”

The expansion project will add about 7,000 square feet to the existing park and include features that new skaters might find appealing.

Holloway and Leland McNamara are members of the Whitefish Skatepark Association, a nonprofit organization created in 2022 by a group of local skateboarding enthusiasts who saw the need to expand the Dave Olseth Memorial Skatepark, which was built in 2006, for safety purposes.

“The majority of the park now, you have to carry so much speed to skate it because it’s so big,” McNamara said. “It's meant to be carried with speed, so that makes it kinda wild with a lot of people in it…

“This area will be able to slow the park down a little bit, which will be inviting for the younger people, we’re hoping,” he said of the new addition.

He said the expanded area will still have technical aspects like handrails, ledges and quarter pipes that will continue along the edge of the park. There is going to be a small stair set and some embankments that are a little friendlier than the existing ones.

“It’ll be a little more friendly and a little more inviting place for the kids to come and gather,” he said. “It is a great park to learn in but this will create some more atmosphere the kids are into – more street features intertwined with the original Dreamland-esque park.”

While construction is underway, the popular SK8Fish summer camp program will go on. McNamara directs the camp that runs Monday through Thursday, from July 3 to Aug. 3, this year. Registration occurs through the City of Whitefish’s Parks and Recreation website.

“It’s an operation we run every year and we usually have about 40 kids,” McNamara said. “It’ll be a little different this year because we’ll have a little section of the park shut down, but we’ll still have a lot of the park open.”

Holloway suggested folks sign up soon because the camp fills up quickly. Skaters often return summer after summer.

“We have a lot of returning kids every year, so it’s pretty nice,” McNamara said. “They all skate pretty good by the end of summer, then they return the next summer. Maybe they’ll all be ready to skate the bowls this year.”

They hope the expansion will be completed in time for the skatepark to host its annual A-Rob Memorial Skate Jam, an event that remembers and honors local skate and snowboard legend Aaron (A-Rob) Robinson who passed away in an accident in 2011. The event is typically held the second or third Saturday in September.

McNamara says it involves music, raffles and tons of food. The event is a fundraiser for the Plant a Seed Project which provides underprivileged kids with snowboards, season passes and coaching.

The proposed expansion area will add a beginner area, new street course, relocate the bench and sign, and add a walkway entrance. The fundraising goal for the project is at least $350,000. To donate or for more information visit https://www.skatewhitefish.org/