First skatepark opens in Almaty

The first skatepark has been opened in Almaty, Tengrinews reports. The 600 square meter skatepark was opened in the Central Park of Culture and Recreation, also known as Gorky Park. The free recreation environment is suitable for beginners and advanced skaters.

Local professional skateboarders were invited during the construction of the skating ground for recommendations.

“Officially, there are 500 skaters in the city. They are young people from 10 to 30 y.o. and their number is growing every year. Almaty did not have a single year-round skatepark before, which was inconvenient and deprived beginner sportsmen of a chance to practice their skills. The places used for skating such as the Republic square, Astana square, Medeu and spaces in front of shopping malls are not suitable for this sport and create inconvenience to pedestrians. (…) We have built this space in basically two weeks. There was some criticism from professional skaters and we took it all into consideration and made the improvements. We have a second stage of the project. We want to add objects as the skating ground has space for it. We want to do it in a more thought-out and hasteless manner,” Yekaterina Gribanovskaya of the Rafting Initiative Group said.

The project aims at conducting social work with the youth and supporting sports and healthy lifestyle. The organizers also invite various commercial organizations to support the initiative and help make the skatepark better. In the future, the organizers plan to create a covered skatepark open year-round.

Photo © Vladimir Prokopenko
Young skateboarders, rollerbladers, BMX riders and others came to test the new skatepark.

The Central Park of Recration and Culture is located on 1 Gogol street. The park is open every day from 11:00 am to 10:00 pm.

By Gyuzel Kamalova