Street smarts: a new brand of skatepark, called a skate plaza, hits the streets for boarders wanting to ride the rails.

Change within a community comes when vision meets hard work and persistence. All of those factors came together in Kettering, Ohio, and helped spark the construction of the first-of-its-kind skateboarding facility--the Rob Dyrdek/DC Shoes Foundation Kettering Skate Plaza.

Do it yourself design is at the heart of many great inventions and the Skate Plaza is no exception. Professional skateboarder and Kettering native Rob Dyrdek's design is a 10,000-square-foot Skate Plaza that shatters all the stereotypes of a stark concrete skatepark of vertical ramps and half pipes. Designed for street skaters, the Skate Plaza incorporates urban terrain elements such as benches, rails and ledges that create a multi-use park resembling a public square in a city.

But what exactly is street skateboarding? Street skateboarding, or street skating, literally means riding a skateboard and performing maneuvers on obstacles found in a street. It was born nut of a need for accessible and affordable alternatives to bowl-shaped skateparks and wooden vertical ramps. Skateboarders began combining half-pipe and freestyle tricks, and performing them on paved obstacles that are normally found in urban or suburban environments (i.e. curbs, ledges, stairs, hand-rails, sidewalks, driveway bumps, walls, embankments, planters, benches, picnic tables and more). Because street skating could be done just about anywhere, it became the dominating force in skateboarding. According to a 2003 Board-Trac survey, 10 million out of 13 million skateboarders identified themselves as "street skateboarders."

Found in a natural setting, a skate spot is comprised of a set of obstacles that are conducive to skateboarding. Some of the elements that make an area a skate spot include smooth ground, plenty of space, numerous lines of approach and an obstacle. An ideal skate spot could be a group of benches at a school or a handrail at a town square. When several skate spots are clustered in one specific area, the location becomes a center of activity for skaters to refine their skateboarding skills and socialize.

However, skateboarding in public streets is still illegal in most places in America. Cities have tried to offer alternatives by building and funding skateparks. According to the Rob Dyrdek/DC Shoes Skate Plaza Foundation, there were an estimated 400 public skateparks in America in 2002 (one skatepark per 32,500 skateboarders). Unfortunately, many of those skateparks are unused, because they weren't designed to duplicate the real street setting that skateboarders love.

The result is to million street skaters using parking lots, business plazas, streets and sidewalks for their sport, all of which are private property or public property that are not intended lot skateboarding. Many cities have enlisted law enforcement to criminalize skateboarding. Tickets and the possibility of arrest are common, everyday occurrences for skateboarders. Many property owners have gone so tar as to "skate-proof" their property by attaching some form of impediment on the surface that skateboarders use, rendering the surface unskateable.

"I know all skateboarders suffer the same pain that I suffer each day trying to skate," explains Dyrdek. "There is not one place in the entire United States where I could go and legally skate real street. Each day there are fewer and fewer places to street skate. The future of skateboarding relies on having places to do it."

Skateboarders in Kettering have also faced these problems. Like many communities across the nation, Kettering doesn't have a skatepark. Although Kettering skateboarders have had the option for several years to travel to traditional bowl-shaped skateparks in surrounding communities, they chose to skateboard in public and private property within the city.

Several years ago, the concept for a skatepark in Kettering was brought up in a focus group during the Youth Summit, an annual retreat for approximately 300 youth that addresses issues faced by Kettering kids. For two consecutive years, the Youth Summit hosted focus groups to discuss skatepark locations, types of skateparks and what they wanted in Kettering.

Kettering Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts (KPRCA) Department staff then organized a committee of teens to research the need for a skatepark. "It was fun working with the kids and watching them give their input on this project," says Frank Postle, parks superintendent for the KPRCA department. "They are very passionate about this project."

Although damage to public property in Kettering has been minimal, it was evident that the community needed a facility of its own to preserve public park amenities from the wear and tear of skateboarding, and provide kids with a place to legally street skate. "It's our responsibility to provide recreational activity outlets for all kinds of kids, including those we don't reach in traditional programs," says Mary Beth Thaman, director of the KPRCA Department.

With an idea of what the community was looking for in a skatepark, KPRCA staff began researching possible sites for the facility. With only a handful of open land spaces available in Kettering to choose from, Indian Riffle Park was selected because of its size and accessibility to Kettering youth, and because of its proximity to an elementary school, a middle school, several neighborhoods and the Kettering Recreation Complex. The next step was several public meetings where skateboarders and park neighbors were invited to discuss security concerns, the skatepark design and amenities, along with a timeline for completion. About this time, a little bit of luck and some fatherly advice helped to connect Dyrdek's dream with the city's need.

"I had heard Kettering was looking at building something for skateboarders and they were having kids come in and give their input," explains Dyrdek's father, Gene. "It just happened to fall about the right time when Rob was in town. Rob and I came over and met with the people at the Kettering Recreation Complex. It started with that."

Dyrdek began working with city staff and Site Design Group Inc. to design the skate plaza. Dyrdek photographed and measured the best skate spots from around the world before designing his concept of a skate plaza. With his research, Dyrdek created a handrail inspired by a popular spot on the University of California Irvine campus; benches modeled after those at the Department of Water and Power building in Los Angeles; ledges duplicated from one in Barcelona, Spain; and wide concrete slabs inspired by those at Pier 7 in San Francisco, Calif. Similar to the public art sculptures in Love Plaza, a skateboarding hotspot in Philadelphia, Pa., a sculpture at the heart of Kettering's skate plaza will help to develop an identity for the facility.

"The level of support from the city has been huge. Because of the design and the fact that it had never been done before, they had to put a certain level of trust in me," says Dyrdek. "Kettering has bent over backwards to make this happen. The skate plaza is going to be huge for skateboarders as well as the city of Kettering."

When the first skate plaza plans came back from Site Design Group Inc., the cost of the project was over budget. Due to the high cost of concrete, the city couldn't absorb the entire price of building the skate plaza. Dyrdek stepped in and helped to secure funding for the project from the Foundation. The mission of the Foundation, created by Dyrdek and De Shoes, is to promote and encourage skateboarding in its purest form by assisting municipalities with the design, development and construction of skate plazas that maintain the integrity of terrain occurring naturally in urban environments.

"DC Shoes felt compelled to get involved with this project because we wanted to give something back to skateboarding," says Sally Murdoch, who heads the public relations for the skateboarding shoe manufacturer. "So we agreed to set up a foundation to help make this vision a reality. Kettering, Rob Dyrdek's hometown, will go down in history as being the first to take this step in making the skate plaza concept a reality."

Kettering KPRCA director Thaman agrees. "We are very excited about the design that Rob developed for our facility," she says. "It contains the challenges that will make it attractive to street skateboarders plus it will be an asset to Kettering's landscape." After several revisions and some fine-tuning to the design and content, final plans were created that satisfied everyone's needs. A total budget of $640,000 (consisting of a $250,000 donation from the Foundation and $390,000 from the city) is funding the actual construction costs of the skate plaza including drainage ditches, detentions and 1,100 cubic yards of con crete. Landscaping and other amenities will be budgeted for a later date.

"One of the advantages of the skate plaza is that it won't require a lot of facility and landscaping maintenance from the parks crew," says Postle. "We will basically have to visit the plaza on a daily basis to make sure it is safe and nothing is in need of repair, and perform some minor landscaping duties."

While some skateparks allow bike riding in addition to skateboarding, the Skate Plaza is only for skateboarding. "Structurally, the Skate Plaza was designed for skateboarding and not bikes," explains Thaman. "The wear and-tear on the concrete and landscaping from bikes would be significant."

In June, the KPRCA Department and the Foundation hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking for the project. The 2004 DC Shoes Summer Tour, consisting of several professional skateboarders including Dyrdek, also hosted an expo at the Kettering Recreation Complex. "The response to the groundbreaking and the expo was phenomenal," says Thalman. "There is a high level of interest in this project not only from Kettering residents, but from other communities in Ohio and the country."

Parents and families are also encouraged to visit the Skate Plaza. There will not be an admission the to use the Skate Plaza and temporary bleacher seating will be available for families and spectators. Permanent seating will be added to the plaza as funds become available. "We really recommend parents come out to the Skate Plaza and see what [it] is all about. With the way it is designed, adults can sit back and enjoy the park atmosphere while their kids skate the plaza," said Thaman.

Other cities expressing a strong interest in following Kettering's lead in building a Skate Plaza include Southern California communities in Los Angeles County, the city of Long Beach, the city of Oceanside and the city of Encinitas. While there has not been an agreement signed for the construction of a second Skate Plaza, the Foundation hopes to have something in the works by the end of the year.

For more information visit www.ketteringoh.org or call the Kettering Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department at [phone].