Skateboard shop owner leads push for a downtown DIY park

Skateboarder Chris Trenary is focused on bigger and better these days, both for his Kerosene Skate Shop and the city’s skateboard park on St. Francis under Kellogg.

First, he moved his store from 117 S. Pattie to 111 S. Hydraulic.

“We were kind of stuck at how much we could grow.”

Now, Trenary has started talks with the city about growing the skateboard park, which BMX riders also use.

“There’s a lot of unutilized flat space.”

Spokeswoman Megan Lovely said the city is amenable to talking about possible changes.

Trenary is proposing what’s known as a DIY park. The city would donate the land, and skaters would build a park to suit their needs.

Currently, Trenary said there’s a bowl area and a plaza area, “And there’s, like, nothing in between.”

He said it hinders seasoned skaters from progressing, and it’s a difficult park for beginners.

“It’s a really fun park, but it’s a really tough park,” Trenary said.

“The transitions are really steep and big,” he said. “If you haven’t done it before, it’s a little gnarly.”

Trenary said there need to be more mellow transitions for beginners and shorter rails instead of the one existing curved rail.

“It’s real high and real hard.”

Also, Trenary said, “People are kind of bored of skating the same stuff. . . . We need more of what’s called transition obstacles.”

A lot of times, Trenary said, skaters bring down parking blocks and other makeshift items to use, but he said the city keeps removing them.

“I feel like their main concern down here is with the graffiti, which isn’t a problem to us,” he said. “When they come to paint over the graffiti, they take all that away.”

Though Trenary said it’s a good park, he said that “it’s got so much potential to be better.”

“We could have a really good, thriving DIY down here with, like, more to offer.”

Aeron Johnson, manager of the skate lifestyle shop Zumiez at Towne East Square agrees and said there’s a lot of wasted space at the park, even though he called it one of the better and more popular ones in the area.

Johnson said a DIY park is important because “it helps build a community around the skate park.”

“It’s all about bringing each other together.”

Trenary, who has been skateboarding since he was 11, said that’s what the skateboard lifestyle is all about.

“It’s not really about being cool. It’s just about having fun with your friends.”

Much of the utilitarian uses of items related to skateboarding have taken on new life outside of skateboarding.

For instance, skaters use shoelaces in place of belts.

“If you fall on your belt buckle, it kind of sucks,” Trenary said.

Now, it’s fashionable for nonskaters to wear them, too.

“It’s stuff that serves a purpose, and we think it’s cool, and it kind of becomes cool.”

Stores such as Kerosene and Zumiez sell a variety of clothing and accessories.

Trenary also recently added custom-built roller skates to the shop.

“Roller skating’s kind of going though a big renaissance right now.”

He’s talking about the traditional quad-type roller skates, not rollerblades, which he said “died hard.”

“There’s kind of been for years a cult following, Trenary said. “I know it kind of blew up during COVID.”

For a long time, he said having his own shop “always seemed something unattainable.”

Now he wants to be a source for others who are starting in the sport or need sponsorships for events.

Being what he calls a core shop “is a direct line to that.”

“It’s a different experience to go to a skate shop, especially if you’re a beginner.”

Trenary said skateboarding is a cousin to punk rock and underground hip hop.

“We’re weirdos and disenfranchised people, and we’re attracted to others who feel like us.”

Trenary said it has shaped his life.

“I owe a lot to it.”

It’s nothing he purposely chose to do.

“It kind of felt like I really didn’t have a choice. Punk rock and skateboarding found me.”

Now, though, Trenary said, “I’m a lifer.”