Celebration set for Big Sandy skatepark

A slew of skateboarders from around the state — and around the country — will be in Big Sandy Saturday to try out one of its newer additions: the Big Sandy skateboard park.

"There will be some studs in town skating their hearts out, " Josh Danreuther, who has helped with the creation of the park and its maintenance and continuing improvements, said this morning.

The park was financed by Big Sandy native Jeff Ament, now famous as the bass player for the longtime popular rock band Pearl Jam.

Ament had not returned a call asking for comment by deadline this morning.

Danreuther said many of the people coming to Big Sandy Saturday are friends of Ament — who has been riding skateboards since he was a child in Big Sandy.

"He grew up skateboarding, " Danreuther said.

The park was constructed by Grindline Skateparks out of Seattle, the company Danreuther said built the skatepark in Ament's own back yard. The company is top-of-the-line, Danreuther said, and recently completed a major skatepark in Copenhagen, Denmark, that took six months to build.

Work still is ongoing at the Big Sandy park. The bowl in which to skate was completed in the fall last year, but landscaping still is scheduled.

"We just put in 300 yards of dirt, " Danreuther said.

He said the group working on the skatepark is continuing to try to improve it — they now are trying to raise money, which Ament has pledged to match, to build a street section next to it.

"We want to build up some cash and lay some more cement, " Danreuther said.

The park has been used heavily since it opened last fall, including by Danreuther himself. He said he tries to go to the park a couple of times a week.

He said it has received compliments from people who have used the park, including a group who was traveling through the state trying out different sites. The park is not too big, but is perfect for people either to use to learn to skate or to do some serious skating, he said.

Danreuther said the visitors probably will show up and start skating about 5 p. m., and anyone who wants to come watch or try it out is welcome.

"'We're going to do some stuff and kind of skate until we can't skate any more, " he said.