The designated skating area at the U was torn down over the summer. The demolition left members of the Skate Club without a place to practice or gather.
President and founder of the U’s Skate Club, Jack Israelsen, said they’re struggling to maintain participation and community since the closure. Campus officials tore down their promised skating space on July 31, earlier than expected and before they could salvage the space, including a historic bench. The demolition was carried out by the U’s Housing (HRE) and Risk Management to make way for research in the space. According to Skate Club member Gabriel Kenison, “the club as a whole definitely lost something.”
Timeline
Israelsen founded the Skate Club during his sophomore year, on Sept. 27, 2022, after connecting with skaters across campus. The space, nicknamed “the DIY,” is an old basketball court located behind the now-closed Hive Pizzeria. Israelsen said the space, previously known as “the Court,” was an unofficial area already established for skaters to use.
Israelsen worked with ASUU to designate the DIY as an official skater space on campus after establishing the club. In November 2022, he worked to create a bill entitled “A Joint Resolution Supporting the Construction of a Skate Space on Campus.” The ASUU Senate, Assembly and Committee on Student Affairs passed the bill. Additionally, the sitting ASUU president also signed the bill. “It was my understanding that it was our designated skate space. We got it through ASUU advocacy, and I even met with the president of the university, who supported the space,” Israelsen said. However, the U’s administration told Israelsen that it was considered a “temporary informal space” after it was torn down.
In the spring, the club noticed that the Environmental Health and Safety, HRE and facility research teams were “digging up” around their skating space. According to Israelsen, Associate Vice President Dean of Students Jason Ramirez later met with Risk Management, Facilities and HRE on July 29. During the meeting, he discovered that the space would be demolished on Aug. 4. Ramirez shared this news with the club, and they immediately got to work deconstructing the space. Members removed all of the homemade equipment, pipes and obstacles made by the team.
On July 31, four days earlier than the scheduled demolition date, Israelsen returned to the DIY to salvage the only remaining item, a Salt Lake City historic skate bench. Upon his arrival, he found the entire space demolished prematurely, and the bench was gone. “The rubble was heartbreaking,” he said. Israelsen questioned the premature demolition. However, according to him, no one “fessed up” to going through with the demolition. Even the teams spearheading the changes in the space would not state who bulldozed it early.
The purpose
Associate Construction Project Manager Sandra Lou informed the team that the demolition was in preparation for geothermal research. However, members of the club believed that the demolition might also be related to an attempt to ban skateboarding. Kenison and Israelsen noted that in 2013, there was an attempt to ban skateboarding and biking at the U. The members compared the attempted ban to the DIY’s demolition.
On the claims of a ban, Israelsen cited a statistic that claimed “there is three injuries out of every 100 participants, whereas basketball finds almost 14 injuries per 100 participants, yet you don’t see ‘NO BASKETBALL’ signs posted around campus, nor is basketball playing limited by any means,” he said.
The space was briefly used for geothermal research after the demolition. Since then, the court has been left alone.
Changes in the club
According to Israelsen and Kenison, the DIY’s demolition has been detrimental to the club’s activity this semester. “We’ve seen a huge change in participation in the club; it’s been hard to get members this year,” Israelsen said. The club has attempted to host several events, which have had poor turnout. At their latest event, there were only 30 people, whereas last year, Israelsen estimated that they had over 100 participants. “They destroyed a community center for a massive portion of this campus populace that has gone totally underrepresented for most of the time,” he said.
Kenison, the club’s secretary of “skate,” gave a testimony to his time spent at the skating space. “I used to spend every day up there,” he said. “If I was ever looking for something to do, I’d go to the DIY and skate.” He said there were always others skating up there whom he could connect with. Kenison began skating when he was young and then stopped in high school. He only got back into skating because of the skaters he met at the U and the community that the Skate Club created. According to Kenison, without the space, the club has lost the engagement and community it once had.
The DIY was the only place to skate on or near campus. The members stated that the next closest skate space is on 9th and 9th, which is a couple of miles from campus. Without the DIY, skaters have no community or place to congregate. “With skating,” Kenison said, “opportunities happened that I didn’t think were possible.”
Looking ahead
After the demolition of the skating space, the club is working toward more engagement, participation and outreach efforts. According to Kenison, there are so many skateboarders on campus, it’s just a matter of getting them to join the club. Additionally, the Skate Club hopes to become an official sports club at the U. Israelsen said skateboarding is just as much a sport as skiing or snowboarding because it has an Olympic presence, it’s good exercise and it brings people together.
The club’s main goal is to retain a permanent skating space. Whether that means regaining their old space or finding a new place on campus, the club wants a spot to belong to again. “We just want the court back,” Israelsen said.
Kenison added that if the club were to have a space again, they would have their community center back, with opportunities for more events. One initiative that the club hopes to implement is learn-to-skate days. “Skateboarding is here on campus and it is here to stay,” Israelsen said. “It is virtually impossible to attempt to remove or ban skateboarding … so why resist the attraction that skateboarding poses to many on campus?”