Serious Recreation In Nipawin

FTLComm - Nipawin - Thursday, August 2, 2001

Situated beside its two skating rinks and the swimming pool is the skateboard and roller blade park in Nipawin. This is a community that clearly takes recreation seriously. The skateboard which looked like it was a hoola-hoop type fad in 1975 has hung with the development of a whole subculture with its own language icons and heroes Banned from the streets and parking lots of many communities the skate board has developed a whole series of knee banging, elbow scraping, fall on your seat tricks. Tisdale set up a mini park on the site that is now being cleaned up for soil contamination and the various obstacles in that park were literally wore out proving the enormous popularity of the sport and the tireless fun its followers enjoy. Nipawin has taken its park a step further by constructing a series of outstanding elements including the giant double ramp seen at the top of the page. Recreation is the key to a community dedicated to developing a positive generation of young people and clearly Nipawin is leading the way with this super project. In June we CBC listeners heard two boys from Maple Creek who took their proposal to city hall to get their community's support to construct a park like this one, if you happen to know how they made out let us know because it was interesting to hear these young fellows explain the need for the facility.