Matt Wein stands tall in a land of giants. The curly-haired 12-year-old stretches to almost five feet next to his older skatepark friends, but he warns that his skateboard skills are separate from his height.
On a recent late afternoon, he waited among the silhouetted crowd for another chance to frontside boardslide the angled rail posing in front of them.
Wein skates almost every day with his friends at the Ranney Skate Park, 300 Frandor Ave. in Lansing.
He is just one of the sometimes 100 skaters a day that stop in to ride the Ranney skatepark, just off Michigan Avenue next to the Frandor Shopping Center. They usually come in droves, with boards in hand and an air of excitement for a new day of skating.
At first glance, the concrete skatepark looks more like an ode to the progressive Oregon skateparks of the early '90s than something that belongs in Lansing. The 9-foot-deep, egg-shaped bowl and banked transitions throughout echo West Coast.
But the hard work to bring the 22,500-square-foot blend of intricate skateboarding design and smooth concrete is more typical of the Midwest manufacturing town. After four years of development and $250,000 in fund-raising efforts, it took shape.
Although the hoards of young people consider the skatepark their piece of paradise, some associated with the project are looking to the future for improvements. Expansions to accommodate beginner skateboarders and for safety concerns, as well as adding satellite parks around the city to complement the Ranney hub, are being debated.
Building Ranney
The skatepark's history goes back far longer than the skaters or concrete let on.
The citywide collaborative effort to bring a recreational area geared specifically for young people began in 1996.
Lansing resident Pete Bosheff, president of the Lansing Area Skate, Bike and Recreation Foundation, and his wife Ellen Beal, then a Lansing City Council member, took a road trip to the West Coast, where they saw public skateparks thriving. Bosheff knew Lansing needed something similar because local youths often were ticketed $100 for skateboarding in public places.
"For what reason would you ticket someone for having a good time?" Bosheff remembers asking during the skatepark's inception.
But Bosheff credits his wife for most of the initial processes.
In 1998, Beal helped convince the rest of the Lansing City Council that the "extreme park," as it was then named, was important enough to be one of three priorities sent to the mayor's budget.
Beal remembers her thought process at the time.
"We don't have a lot of other recreational opportunities, but any community can have a great skatepark," Beal said.
In the next months, Bosheff met with George Leichtweis, owner of Modern Skate & Surf in Frandor, who had been advocating for a Lansing skatepark for the past 15 years. They discussed the possibilities Lansing could offer. Soon after, an open public forum was scheduled by former Lansing Parks and Recreation Director Eric Reickel to discuss the possibility of a park.
After researching more than 30 skateparks around the country, Bosheff knew a public-involvement model was needed in order to keep young people involved - a throwback to his days living in Oregon, where he recalls petitioning local government for bike trails.
"We insisted that young people would have to work for the park," Bosheff recalls. "We wanted to design meaningful roles for them."
He made good on his word.
Between 1998 and the park's inauguration in 2002, Bosheff and the Lansing Area Skate, Bike and Recreation Foundation began a massive fund-raising effort to keep the skatepark tax-free.
The curly-haired Wein, then 9 years old, was one of the handful of kids involved with fund-raising. Wein went in front of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners with a presentation.
He held a hand-drawn picture. Half showed kids skateboarding in the streets with cars honking wildly; the other half had "happy skaters" in the skatepark.
Alongside his older brother Jared, Wein requested $50,000 in park funds from the Board of Commissioners. He got the money.
"I was a little nervous because it's always nervous to be in front of people, but the way they accepted it was awesome," Wein said.
And Wein wasn't alone in his efforts. The other youth volunteers eventually raised $250,000.
The next step was figuring out what to build. Bosheff and Leichtweis wanted the best.
"We're never going to get Pebble Beach - not Jackson Hole or the pipeline from Hawaii. But we can build the best skatepark in the world," Bosheff said, looking back. "We wanted our kids to be badass."
They turned to Tim Payne, a legendary skatepark builder out of Florida. His résumé reads as if it came from a skateboarding dreamland. His crew, Team Pain, has built ramps for the X Games, "Jackass" sketches, Tony Hawk and MTV.
Bosheff said the skaters demanded Team Pain, knowing contractors who build highways weren't necessarily savvy about transition degrees and coping setback.
The result was Ranney, one of the few skateparks in Michigan that offers such a wide range of riding options, including a semi-enclosed, mini-ramp section and a twinkie, a small, raised, rectangular section designed to be ridden over.
World-class skating
Dave Campbell, 42, a frequent user of the park, said he knows the importance of a place like Ranney. Campbell once was sponsored by Santa Cruz, a maker of skateboards and apparel.
A sponsored skateboarder promotes the manufacturer's products through media exposure and tour stops.
"It's a step for Lansing to be the world-class city they want to be," the Lansing resident said. "The bowl was a great addition to the park. You don't see them everywhere."
The unassuming Campbell has the respect of everyone at the park. But he stays humble and, in his deteriorating shoes, he talks with the excitement of a kid.
"I still can't believe I live around the corner from this place," he said.
East Lansing Deputy City Manager Jean Golden, who lives in the Glenmoor Condominiums near Ranney, raised concern in 1998 about the possibilities of noise and youths running through her neighborhood.
She now says the skatepark has been very positive because of a compromise in the development that will keep the rest of Ranney Park reserved for quiet use.
"We're very pleased with it," Golden said.
Next step
Bosheff now is advocating for a retrofitting of the skatepark to accommodate beginner skaters dangerously crowding the park.
"We are concerned with collisions. We anticipated collisions between big and small guys, and we are aware that we've had some of that," Bosheff said.
Leichtweis, a member of the Ranney skatepark finance committee, also said he feels strongly the park needs to expand to give beginners adequate space for safety.
"The park is excellent, but it's smaller than it needs to be. It needs a larger learners area for beginner skaters," he said.
But Murdoch Jemerson, director of Lansing Parks and Recreation, is wary of additions to the skatepark. He said the master plan, which called for a park of 18,000 square feet, was designed with varying skill levels in mind.
"Our parks and recreation does not call for an additional skatepark," he said.
So far, safety issues at Ranney have not amounted to much. Beal said she was aware of safety concerns in the beginning, but so far, there have "not really been any at all."
A "skate at your own risk" sign on the skatepark's fence almost eliminates any litigation that can be brought against Lansing, Beal said.
She added that the parents of skaters usually are well aware of the risks involved and appreciate a place for their kids to go without being ticketed.
"For the most part, the parents of skaters are so happy to have a safe place for kids to skate," Beal said.
Bosheff is advocating for a number of "satellite parks" scattered throughout Lansing that would provide more opportunities for youths in all parts of the city. The satellite parks would be designed for more beginner skateboarders around Lansing.
Jemerson said although the master plan for Ranney Park does not include additional satellite parks, he would support reviewing the need.
"I would support satellite parks, but one has to look at the distribution of recreational resources," Jemerson said.
The present success at Ranney is evident. From the prepubescent Wein impressing guys twice his age to Campbell leaving everyone in sight in awe of his dedication and skills, skaters seem to be drawn to the park.
As dusk fell on the park, Wein echoed the sentiments of everyone still trying to stomp their last trick at Ranney.
"This place is really sick."
Scott Cendrowski is a State News intern. He can be reached at cendrow3@msu.edu.
