For nearly a decade and a half, local skaters and BMX bikers have been riding the concrete wave and catching air at Powhatan Springs Skate Park on Wilson Boulevard. Arlington mom Patti Hurst says it’s where she learned how to skate at the age of 40. “I tried my best to roll with the teenagers,” she says. “I was really afraid they were going to shun me, but they turned out to be my mentors and teachers.” Now the beloved (but crumbling) park is getting a much-needed $2.2 million face-lift. Construction is set to begin in September with a targeted reopening in early 2019. “A lot of skateboarders felt it was no longer safe to ride,” says Hurst, now 51, a prominent member of the Skaters for Arlington Skatepark Facebook group. Many also felt the park’s features had become obsolete.
Tim Payne, principal of the Florida design firm Team Pain, which is executing the makeover, says he’s excited to build for a passionate community that left its old park “well-used.” The new park will have “a little bit of an edge to it,” he says, with “more up-to-date bowls…and a street course with flat bars, handles and A-frame ledges.”