Skateboarders roll in for contest

Weston Jones, 13, executes a kickflip off a concrete bank at the Centennial Skateboard Park Saturday morning. A competition Saturday afternoon put on by Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department drew several dozen competitors in three divisions from across the state.

In theory, the event Saturday at Centennial Skateboard Park was a competition.

But in reality, it was a chance for skaters to test out new tricks and show off some old ones.

And if they didn’t quite land the move they wanted to – ending up sprawled out on the concrete – it was an opportunity to get back up and try again.

“It’s a competition, but it’s not all about competition,” said White Chocolate skate shop owner Rod Smith. “It’s more of a good time.”

For the past few years, the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department has been host of the skateboarding competition. The city is helped by two local skate shops, White Chocolate and Midwest Skateboarding.

Before the competition started, Douglas County SAFE KIDS Coalition put on a clinic, showing skaters how to splint arms and what to do with cuts and bruises.

The event, which had about 45 contestants ranging in age from 8 to 24, drew skaters from Junction City, Topeka, Salina and Hays.

The judges, who sat just inside the skate park, looked for style, skill and creativity as skaters slid down stair railings, jumped over barrels and rode up the sides of halfpipes.

The announcers, talking over rock music that blared behind them, urged the skaters to try missed tricks again and asked if they wanted to keep going.

Sitting on the bleachers and waiting his turn to make the second run of the day, 11-year-old Asher Vieux said he had been practicing to do a kickflip for Saturday’s competition.

“It’s just fun,” Asher said of the event.

Beside him were his parents, Val and Bill Vieux, who had come to watch Asher and his older brother, Alex.

“I want to be supportive, but I’m always worried about the injuries. I think it is dangerous,” Val Vieux said. “But you have to let go.”

Asher, who did a fifth-grade report on professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, started skateboarding when he was 4.

“The group out there is really nice,” Val Vieux said. “They teach him things, and he just loves it.”

Duane Peterson, special events supervisor for Lawrence Parks and Recreation, said this was about the sixth year they have put on the event.

“We get a pretty good crowd,” he said.