SK8 Charleston

<a href=”https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/18773751/?claim=u5ejaa3qjcf”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

The much anticipated skate park has opened in Charleston! SK8 Charleston is a part of the massive Charleston County Parks System. Luke has been showing me videos of the construction for months. I’m not a skater myself and had never been to a skate park so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It was impressive.

Skating and surfing have historically been labeled as counterculture. They have lost this label as they’ve gained popularity. As those little “skater punks” have gotten older, they now have grown up jobs and families. They can’t be so easily labeled as punks anymore.

The grand opening of SK8 Charleston was on Saturday. They had music, food trucks, professional skaters and video cameras. Overall, it drew a large crowd. We didn’t make it to this event which was fine as I heard that it was really too crowded for kids to skate. We went Sunday morning around 10:30 am. It was a beautiful day, sunny skies, high 70’s temperature. There was a good crowd made up of mostly families. All ages and skill levels were represented. It was a great scene for all parties involved. I felt really comfortable with my kids skating around, though they had to look out for the faster skaters and vice versa. Here are some pictures and videos of the day. Scroll to the end for all the details of the park.

Overall view of the park. There are three main “bowls,” a snake bowl (most of our time was spent here), an intermediate bowl and a professional bowl. There is also a large area to the left where you can just skate around and practice tricks.

This was the bowl with the most vertical drop. It was awesome to watch guys ride it. The drop in alone was terrifying.

The boys all geared up and taking it all in.

Here is Fleet “dropping in” . . . that’s him in the background.

It’s been a while since Luke has gotten to skate at a park or even on a ramp. He had a blast. I had to drag him out of there after about 3.5 hours! He went back Wednesday night with a friend and skated til 10pm. There were a lot of really good skaters there at this time of day. You can see lil Luke for a second at the beginning in the bright yellow helmet.

I didn’t even consider sunscreen so we all got sunburned. This little bit’s face is so red!

The Details:

SK8 Charleston – Charleston County Parks – website

Where:

1584 Oceanic Street Charleston, SC 29403

Cost:

Skater/BMX bikers: $3 per person
Annual Pass for skate/BMX $40. Purchase here.
Spectators: $1 per person or free with Gold Pass and children 2 and under

Hours:

January & February Monday-Friday 2-8pm, Saturday & Sunday 10am-8pm
March-December Monday-Friday 2-10pm, Saturday-Sunday 10am-10pm
Open to BMX on Tuesdays

Facilities:

Skate shop, concessions, covered viewing deck, bathroom facilities and picnic tables

Equipment:

Helmets are required. You can rent one for $5. I also recommend, knee, wrist and elbow pads. We had some gear but Luke came home and ordered everyone a nice set of pads. He has had lots of injuries related to skating so he takes the safety gear seriously. We even saw this awesome and hilarious “old guy” hip pad shorts thing. We joked about it but then Luke fell and hurt his hip Wednesday night!

Tips:

Thankfully they have a water fountain and concessions but I would take TONS of water. I had to refill our water bottles about 5 times each. Tons of snacks! Don’t forget your sunscreen. It’s probably a good idea to take a first aid kit too.

Negatives:

The only negatives of the park are the hours and the cost. Most skate parks are just open- come and go at will and are free. As a parent I feel better about having hours and staff but my husband wishes they didn’t have theses things for himself. And the cost, it’s not bad for one person but to buy all of us a pass would be $190 ($40 for each skater plus $70 for spectators. The spectator or Gold Pass will get the entire family into any park). I wish they had a family pass option, especially since the park is largely (if not exclusively) funded with tax dollars. One day I will probably have 5 skaters wanting to go!

Here are the boards, helmets and pads that we have. Luke is a serious researcher and safety geek so I feel good about recommending these things. Click the images for details.