Columbus Parks and Recreation will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the city’s newly-opened skate park.
Mark Jones, Columbus Parks and Recreation director, has confirmed that the ceremony will be at 4 p.m. Nov. 1 at the new Jolie Crider Memorial Skate Park 2.0, at Indiana Avenue and Marr Road in Clifty Park.
The new 12,000-square-foot concrete skate park replaced the 15,000-square-foot, mostly wooden skate park that had sustained considerable damage over the past 20 years.
The original Jolie Crider Memorial Skate Park was built in Clifty Park in 1999, the result of a dream that a group of skaters had to build a skate park in the city. The park is named in memory of Columbus North High School freshman Jolie Crider, who died at age 14 from bacterial meningitis on May 7, 1998.
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The skate park has since been a city attraction for thousands of local skaters.
The new skate park was built by Hunger Skateparks, a Bloomington-based design and construction firm, and is designed by Janne Saario, an architect from Helsinki, Finland.
This project will be Saario’s first skate park to debut in the United States. Saario has developed several skate parks in Europe.
“It was a collaboration with several different groups to put together a design that was first in class,” said Chip Orben, president of the Columbus Park Foundation, in an earlier interview. “We’re blessed to live in a community that is diverse in what they enjoy to do. We’re glad to be able to provide assistance in raising those funds and providing this new skate park for all to enjoy.”
The park is designed into three sections that flow together seamlessly, Hunger Skateparks officials said.
Using about 2,500 square-feet of the former skate park’s wood slab, the entrance section is also equipped with all new flat-ground features flanked with a new bank to cub and quarter pipe, the developer said.
The middle section had mixed transitions and street features, including a rainbow rail and quarter, a kong wall, jumps, bank to rails, hubbas and ledges with three elevation changes.
The third section is a long ditch-like bowl with two minis of different heights, extension and a large transfer into a transition hip area that flows riders back into the other two sections of the park.
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To learn more about the Jolie Crider Memorial Skate Park, visit columbusparkfoundation.org/projects.
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What: Ribbon-cutting ceremony for the city’s newly-opened skate park, Jolie Crider Memorial Skate Park 2.0
When: 4 p.m. Nov. 1
Where: At Indiana Avenue and Marr Road in Clifty Park
How much: Free
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