Skating in Missoula now available year-round

Temperatures are dropping and the concrete will soon be covered in snow, but skaters have a grind-filled winter in store for them thanks to Missoula’s newest indoor skate park, which opened its doors Saturday.
“This facility isn’t about the skate park,” said Dylan Tucker, co-founder of the non-profit Fiftytwo Skatepark. “It’s what we can do with a skate park as a base.”
Ideas for the park began in February, receiving an overwhelming response from the skateboarding community.
“Montana’s blowing up for skateboarding,” said Jayme Erickson, Tucker’s wife and co-founder of the park. “It’s kind of a hot spot at the moment.”
She said Montana is more on the forefront of admired skate locations. Erickson, a pro skateboarder from Long Beach, made the decision to move to Missoula after meeting Tucker, a graduate of the University of Montana.
“My only concern was that there wasn’t an indoor skate park here,” Erickson said.

The organization initially had trouble financing the construction of the park, but they said they have high hopes that once things get rolling, grants and donors will follow.
“We really wanted to be open by Christmas,” she said, “so we chipped in a lot of our own money.”
Skateboarding lessons will begin at the park during the first week in December, and after-school programs and events are planned to begin January first.
The organization will continue to seek grants and donors along the way to keep their program going and “get kids off of the couch and onto skateboards,” Tucker said.
Donors can sponsor a skater for $99, which includes park membership and lessons. For $249, that deal includes a board and helmet.
Tucker said sponsorship would completely set up a kid who wants to try skateboarding.
General public entry costs $12 per day to skate and $6 for members. Six-month park memberships cost $49, while full-year memberships are $79.
“Being able to do everything for the kids is awesome,” said Erickson, who is a UM student studying education with hopes to help create a Special Olympics-style program for kids with disabilities.
She and Tucker are parents to eight-month-old daughter, Ayden.
“Hopefully she’ll be skating by the time she’s two,” she said.
Fiftytwo Skatepark is located at 8404 El Way, off Rollercoaster Road. Hours are 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 3 p.m. to midnight on Friday, and noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
jeff.osteen@umontana.edu