China Creek Skatepark has been redesigned and is open to the public

By  HILARY ANGUS

The East Vancouver park, built in 1979, is Vancouver’s oldest skate park and one of the oldest skateparks in North America. Located near East Broadway and Clark Drive, the park reopened to the public on Oct. 11 after a months-long redevelopment.  

The redesign includes rails, mini-ramps and other features that make it more suitable to a variety of skill levels and tricks. 

Expert explains why they started the upgrades

Jeremy Nan is a board member of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition, who worked with the city to help it build CitySkate, a detailed 20-year strategy for skateboard amenities in Vancouver. Nan said the China Creek redevelopment was “a very easy option” to begin implementing the strategy. It was an existing park that needed an upgrade, Nan said, so it would require less public consultation than building new infrastructure.  

Skaters share their experiences using the park 

Marc Sallis-Lyon, 29, who has been skateboarding at China Creek since he was 14, said the park is a hub for the community, where locals who have been skating there for years “have really become like family.”

Jesse Little, who has been skateboarding at China Creek since the late 1980s, said there has been a core group who have been coming to the park for decades, hosting events, competitions and barbecues.

Prior to the rebuild, the China Creek skatepark was just two bowls in the ground, which Sallis-Lyon described as limiting as far as what people could do with it. “We’ve made the most of it,” he said, explaining that the community used to drag boards and scrap materials to the park to use as skate features. 

“It’s unreal to see the change here,” Sallis-Lyon said. “It reshapes our community hub into just a much broader experience for everybody.”