Hey, Dude! What’s up?

At the south end of downtown Corvallis, the Willamette River curves into a lazy and quite asymmetrical “S.” The midpoint is near the junction of highways 20 and 34 - - an intersection that features bridges and ramps.

In the shadow of those elevated auto-paths, right at the south end of 2nd Street, is a skate park. It’s located on Shawala Point, a small peninsula formed by the Marys River as it joins the Willamette.

Before surrendering its identity and becoming part of the larger Willamette, the Marys River forms a floodplain wetland riparian setting along the river with a boardwalk trail leading west from the skate park. The trail connects the two areas, or the Mary’s River Natural Area can be accessed from the other side of highway 20.

The same trail continues northward into downtown and other developed parklands along the river.

As I approached the skate area, my eyes were attracted to the upper body of a teenager gliding silently and smoothly from right to left; he was visible above the rim of what turned out to be a big concrete bowl filled with playthings.

The young man was moving across the bottom of the depression, arms hanging motionless to his sides and with a rather stoic expression on his face.

I parked and as I approached on foot I discovered about a dozen youngsters, all male, most on skateboards, but a few on low bicycles. They were performing stunts by using the flat surface and various inclines, ledges, rims, walls, rails and other strata that were obviously intended to replicate architectural and construction elements found in and around streets and buildings.

There was a complete absence of safety equipment among participants and the site was unsupervised; and as I watched, it occurred to me that the chances for injury were significant. But, other than head injuries, I suppose few of the scrapes, strains and breaks that must take place there are life threatening – and at least these folks don’t have to contend with traffic.

A 20-something admitted to being one of the “old-timers” and to having been involved with planning the park. He also confessed that the greatest personal lesson gained from that experience was that it’s probably wise to trust professionals who offer advice – even when they are grown-ups.

Though my new old-timer young friend pointed out a half dozen things he now wishes could have been designed differently, he and his colleagues seemed very capable of making the most of the imperfect layout.

Perhaps its imperfections only add to the appeal, as the goal was to replicate conditions that exist in the “real world” where none of the design process considers the interests of skateboarders.

The park is owned and operated by the city of Corvallis. Park workers handle trash and do a good job keeping ahead of graffiti, pigeon droppings and the constant accumulation of fallen leaves and branches from nearby trees.

Please take a look at some photos I took at the skate park.