New indoor skatepark in Great Falls with Steve O premiering Saturday!

Here is the link http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091127/LIFESTYLE/911270321/Local+skating+legend+launches+new+indoor+skate+park


et ready Great Falls skaters — another skate park is joining the mix — and Steve-O is coming to town to help break it in.



Local skating legend Ryan Simonetti is bringing his friend and "Jackass" star to town on Saturday for a grand opening of his new indoor Wild Style skate park in Black Eagle. The event will include skating, a movie premiere, live band and a DJ.

When Simonetti graduated from Great Falls High in 1994, the skating scene was starting to pick up even though there were no options other than finding a street spot and risk getting chased off.

"There wasn't quite as many skaters as there are now but it was definitely picking up by the time I left," said Simonetti, who last year jumped a skateboard over a moving U-Haul van on "Late Show with David Letterman."

"They went through a lot of changes. In the late '80s, it was frowned upon and towards the '90s it was way more acceptable," he said.

Simonetti darted from Great Falls as soon as he got out of high school. His love of skateboarding took him to the southwest and eventually sunny southern California, where locals were busy trying to accommodate a growing skateboarding population.

In 2004, Great Falls skaters were rewarded with the Grindline-designed Riverside Railyard skate park. Still skaters had to scramble to find a place suitable for skating when the long winter months arrived.

That's where Simonetti has decided to step in.

"(It's) mostly an indoor place for us to skate during the winter months 'cause there really is nowhere to ride in the winter out here," he said. "When the weather gets bad and snowy, there's not much to skate. I always wanted to do an indoor skate park here in Great Falls, and I figured this was the winter for it.

"I was even considering Bozeman, but then I started talking to my grandmother about her warehouse and figured that would work out fine so I pursued that route."

Simonetti's grandmother ran an antique and jewelry store at 2901 15th St. N.E. in Black Eagle. When it came time to think about using the building for something else, Simonetti decided its 5,000 square feet would be best suited for skating.

I'm turning what was a jewelry store into a skate shop and toy store and what was the furniture and antiques into the skate park," he said. "It's a pretty large building. Half of it is being utilized, the other half is storage space."



This isn't Simonetti's first foray into skate park design, having run three in the past, including ones in Hollywood and Albuquerque, N.M. He said building the ramps and rhythm section is on par with building a home.

"It's just as, if not more, technical than building a house," he said. "There's a lot more curves for sure. It is technical building from a carpentry standpoint."

And just like at the Riverside Railyard there will be a helmet requirement. If they're younger than 18, skaters must be packing protection and have their mom or dad there to sign a waiver.

"If you're under 18 you have to have your mom or dad, no one else's but your own mother or father, there to sign a release," Simonetti said.

"We're also gonna do a video release. You're gonna read about two or three sentences on film that say 'I understand that I'm skating at my own risk and I won't hold anyone responsible for anything that may occur to me'."

Steve-O will be on hand to sign autographs and skate with the locals on Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. Admission to the skating portion is $5.

From 6 to 9, Simonetti will premiere his new video, "Pounding out Randoms," followed by music from the band Disaster Race. To get into the evening's festivities, fans are required to purchase a $10 poster signed by Simonetti and Steve-O.

Simonetti has set up tentative blocks of time for skating beginning on Sunday. For $5 a session, patrons can choose to skate either the 12 to 3 session or from 3 to 6.

If skaters want to do a quick in-and-out, they can pay $3. He also hopes to set up a monthly membership plan that will run about $30 to $40 a month.




Sounds pretty damn sick.