KILAUEA — The Graceland Skatepark, created by Kaua‘i Christian Fellowship and popular with skateboarders all over the island, is closing, according to Justin Bundschuh, one of the creators of the park as well as the middle school pastor for the
KILAUEA — The Graceland Skatepark, created by Kaua‘i Christian Fellowship and popular with skateboarders all over the island, is closing, according to Justin Bundschuh, one of the creators of the park as well as the middle school pastor for the church.
“The Skatepark is in dire need of repair and rebuilding as eventually wood structures deteriorate beyond our ability to patch them,” he said. “We have got quite a bit of mileage out of the park but it is getting way too sketchy right now.”
According to Bundschuh, the cost of revamping the current park was too vast considering the expenses about to be incurred by the soon to be constructed sports complex on church property.
“All of our funds have to go into making sure this full sized covered gym gets done right,” Bundschuh said. “Once we get the gym up we will be in full discussion about tying a concrete skatepark to this area. If we do a skatepark again it will be something that will last a long, long time.”
Part of the decision to move the location of the park was motivated by the actions of a number of skaters.
“We have had a hard time getting some of the guys to abide by our few simple rules. It was kind of crazy, here we opened up a park on private property and invited the public to use it and a few knuckleheads tried to vandalize it, trash it or disrespect the folks who supervised the park. We decided that we would need to have a stronger control presence in any future park and this would be possible if we tied it into the sports complex,” Bundschuh said.
“It was not an easy decision to make,” he added. “We absolutely love that we can provide a great place for all level of skaters to enjoy and we have met some wonderful people who came to skate here, but with this new project about to launch and our park falling apart so dramatically we didn’t have any real choice.
“When we get done with the gym we will see if the county has done anything about providing a skatepark and if not, we can start digging up funds to make it happen again here,” he said.
