Long Beach, California Hybrid Skatepark, originally uploaded by spohnranchskateparks.

On Sunday, January 17th, the youth of Long Beach, California will officially have a brand new facility where they can exercise their passions and distract themselves from the hardships of living in what 1st District Councilman Robert Garcia called “one of the most dense and poor communities in Long Beach.” The new skatepark, which replaced existing equipment and expanded upon the site’s footprint, is a 8,000 sq. ft. hybrid style skatepark, consisting of TrueRide ramps and pre-cast Spohncrete features.  To see more shots of the skatepark, click the photo above.

Despite some initial community opposition, the skaters and their advocates fought hard to show that a new facility was a much-needed addition to their neighborhood. “One of the first things I told the city manager is that I want to make sure that we build that park, because I’ve seen the power and impact it has had on that community,” Councilman Garcia said. For the vulnerable youth of Long Beach, providing more safe places to skate is a great way to keep them active and out of trouble.

Now with all of the construction and landscaping complete, the new skatepark will be a source of pride for the community and its skaters for decades to come. The park’s official grand opening is set for Sunday, January 17th, at 1pm. The day’s festivities will include professional skating demos and speeches from Councilman Garcia, lead skatepark advocate and former Councilman Mike Donelon, and Mike Vallely, a professional skateboarder and Long Beach native. Councilman Garcia will also announce his plan to name the facility the Michael K. Greene Skatepark after Black Mike, an influential Long Beach local who was shot and killed a few years prior.

Here’s to more positive recreational spaces in the City of Long Beach! RIP Black Mike.

LA Skate Plaza, originally uploaded by spohnranchskateparks.

This past week the Ambassador Series honored the 1-Year Anniversary of the grand opening of the LA Skate Plaza in Wilmington, California. Big thanks to Element Skateboards, HOT 106, X-Games winner Jake Brown, and especially the Ambassador Series who all helped put together this event for the youth of Wilmington.

In 2008, Spohn Ranch teamed up with Maxwell Billieon of the Ambassador Series and professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez to create a truly amazing skatepark for the city of Wilmington. One year ago, the LA Skate Plaza officially opened with largest launch in the history of Los Angeles, with almost 4,000 skaters in attendance.

Since then, the park has averaged 250-300 skaters a day, has become a drop-off location for seven neighborhood schools, and has helped reduce violent crime in the area by 90%. Spohn Ranch looks forward to many more successful years in Wilmington, as well as helping communities around the world provide more recreational spaces for kids to safely pursue their love of skateboarding and action sports.

5BORO Skateboards Southern Migration Tour, originally uploaded by spohnranchskateparks.

Only two weeks after the skatepark’s official grand opening, the Bethune Point Skatepark in Daytona Beach, Florida is quickly becoming a destination park for professional skateboarding teams and a wide diversity of skaters from around the East Coast.  5BORO Skateboards, a New York based skateboarding company, is doing a demo at the skatepark on December 1st as part of their Southern Migration Tour.

If you won’t be able to make it down to Daytona Beach for this demo, check out a few of the videos from the skatepark that are already popping up on youtube.  The unique skateable art pieces, authentic street-style elements like stairs and handrails, and ability to flow through the park are clearly a huge hit with the local skaters.  Check out the clips!

http://www.youtube.com/user/spohnranch2008#p/a/f/0/7FnE8w7jEPk

http://www.youtube.com/user/spohnranch2008#p/a/f/1/lIgfn3Ou-iE

Hot Spot Skatepark Official Grand Opening, originally uploaded by spohnranchskateparks.

The Hot Spot Skate Park in Spartanburg, SC celebrated it’s official grand opening on October 10, 2009. Plenty of city officials, supporters, volunteers, parents, and skaters showed up for the event. One of the most impressive things with the Hot Spot Skatepark is the level of support from everyone involved. This is NOT one of those parks that was built and then pushed aside. It was a great day!

There were plenty of things going on but the main part of the day was the mini ramp and best trick contest. Spartanburg Mayor Bill Barnet was on hand to congratulate all of the people involved in making the Hot Spot Skatepark happen. He also officially declared October 10th as Hot Spot Skatepark Day!

Click the photo above, courtesy of our friends at Zigboys Skate Shop, to see all of the action that was going on that day.

As most of you already know this Sunday June 21st is Go Skateboarding Day, a day that was officially recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007.  There are tons of events happening all over the country, but  if you can’t make it to one of these events, the most important thing to do is to just get out there and remember how fun skateboarding is.  For a complete list of all the day’s events check out the new Go Skateboarding Day website.

As part of the skateboarding holiday’s festivities, Vans has organized a tour of six Southern California skateparks, including Spohn Ranch’s Ambassador Skate Plaza in Los Angeles.

On June 6th Element Skateboard’s Make it Count contest series made its final stop at Spohn Ranch’s Ambassador Skate Plaza in Los Angeles.  Head over to the Element site for a video recap of the action from that day.