Local man opens skate park to entertain area youths

Skateboarding and in-line skating are more popular than football, a study says.
By ZACH STIPE
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
The funk-rock music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers bombards Phil Thomas as he digs his foot into the ground. He pushes his red Vans off the concrete floor to gather momentum and hops onto his skateboard, heading right toward a man-made hill. His long, shaggy brown hair covers his ears, concealing his Peepers-blaring head phones and an unstrapped helmet lays crooked on the 14-year-old's head. After gathering speed, he hits the wooden hill and flies into the air, flipping the skateboard with his feet. A broad smile crosses his face as he completes the "box-jump kick-flip."
"That's the first time I've ever tried it," he said with a grin.
Thomas is one of the dozen-or-so kids at Vertigo Skate Park in Boardman on this afternoon.
For $10 per four- to six-hour session, kids and adults can come grind, ollie, wheelie and snag "big air" at the indoor skate park.
The Skate Park on McClurg Road is an exciting choice for teenagers looking for something out of the ordinary to do.
Mark Yoo opened the park up about 31/2 years ago. "If I ever opened my own business, I wanted to work with kids and athletics," he said.
Skateboarding continues to gather more and more momentum in the area and across the country.
Yoo finds evidence of this in skaters at his park.
"We used to have video games, but they just gathered dust," he said.
All kids want to do is come here and skate for the entire time, he added.
Study
According to a 2006 National Sporting Good's Association research poll, youth participation in skateboarding increased by 111 percent between 1994 and 2004. Another NSGA study shows that more people over the age of 7 participated in both in-line skating and skateboarding than played tackle football in 2005.
In addition to Boardman's Vertigo Skate Park, Struthers recently opened a public skate park.
"The area's getting so strict as far as kids' riding on the streets," Yoo said, adding that he is glad to provide kids a place to skate.
Yoo hosts professional and local skating competitions and has many teenagers work and help out at the park.
"I live here basically," Brennan Diana said.
Squeaks, smacks, slides and Chili Peppers fill the laid-back indoor facility as Diana and Thomas zoom through the park on their boards, twisting and turning their bodies while somehow maintaining their balance.
Diana completes a board-slide off a rail. The 15-year-old leaps onto a black pole, twists his board horizontally and glides down the rail before nailing the landing onto the pavement.
"If you don't have enough money, they hook you up," Diana said. "If you want new ramps, they'll do it, without hesitation. They listen."