Press release:
LOS ANGELES (July 23, 2014) –The Street League Skateboarding Foundation and its founder, Rob Dyrdek, along with Nick Diamond, founder of Diamond Supply Co., and The California Endowment will join Councilmember José Huizar, Senate Pro Tem Kevin De Leon, Assembly Member Jimmy Gomez, and Department of Recreation and Parks officials to celebrate the Grand Opening of a $320,000 state-of-the-art skate plaza at Hazard Park in Boyle Heights at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 24th.
The Diamond Supply Co. Public Skate Plaza at Hazard Park came to life after the Street League Skateboarding Foundation approached The California Endowment last year about working together to create healthy and sustainable communities by constructing safe, legal and accessible places for our youth to skateboard.
“We at The California Endowment know that health happens when youth have opportunities to engage physical activity and this brand new skate plaza is a great resource for Boyle Heights’ youth,” said Beatriz Solís, Director for Healthy Communities – South Region for The California Endowment. “We’re so pleased to be a supporter of the skate plaza.”
Through a grant from The California Endowment, the Street League Skateboarding Foundation donated $160,000 to the construction of a brand new skate plaza at Hazard Park, but needed to find a matching grant in order to effectuate the initial $160,000 donation. Nick Diamond, founder of Diamond Supply Co., an iconic skateboarding brand that is headquartered in Los Angeles, generously donated the remaining balance for the completion of what will now be known as the Diamond Supply Co. Public Skate Plaza.
“I am absolutely thrilled and proud to partner with Nick Diamond, The California
Endowment, Councilmember Huizar and the Department of Recreation and Parks to open our eighth skate plaza in the City of Los Angeles,” said Rob Dyrdek. “The goal of the Street League Skateboarding Foundation is to build safe and legal skate plazas for communities throughout the world. We are working with The California Endowment to build 14 skate plazas in all 14 of the cities they have identified in their Building Healthy Communities Initiative right here in California,” said Dyrdek. “It truly has been an honor working with this dream team whose leadership and passion for the community they all serve is admirable. Together we believe we have provided the local community with an incredible skate plaza.”
Councilmember José Huizar and Mike Shull, General Manager Department of Recreation and Parks, were instrumental in helping to arrange meetings with the community and to identify the best location for the skate plaza at Hazard Park. This is the second skate plaza that the Street League Skateboarding Foundation has teamed up with Councilmember Huizar to build in Boyle Heights. The first skate plaza was built at Hollenbeck Park in 2009 and remains a popular skating site. This is the eighth skate plaza that Dyrdek’s Street League Skateboarding Foundation has built in the City of Los Angeles.
“Rob Dyrdek and I know that kids on the Eastside like to skateboard as much as anybody else and this skate plaza is an incredible gift to the young people of this community,” said Councilmember José Huizar. “I want to thank Rob, his Street League Skateboarding Foundation, Nick Diamond, The California Endowment and our friends at Recreation and Parks for working with me on this incredible project for our community.”
Huizar also recently negotiated more than $1 million in Hazard Park improvements for the local community from the University of Southern California as it seeks to expand its nearby Health and Science Campus.
The design of this all-new 10,000 square foot skate plaza is a creative collaboration between Dyrdek and Diamond, both of whom are skateboarders themselves and take pride in creating a plaza they believe skaters will love to skate. Built by the world’s premiere skate plaza construction company, California Skate Parks, the plaza consists of three main areas: a multi-tiered plaza, a center section, and an end feature/transition section. The plaza has two unique diamond shaped features painted Tiffany blue, created specifically for the plaza’s namesake, Diamond Supply Co.
The plaza includes a five-stair grind rail, a split-level “A” frame rail and a seven-stair feature with diamond hubba ledges. The center section has a manual pad/ledge/flat bar combination along with a signature diamond bump feature. The end feature is defined by a large diamond wall ride element and a bowl pocket with pool coping as well as a transition wall that wraps all the way around one side of the park and ties back into the plaza section.
This is also the first of what looks to be a group of new skate plazas that Diamond Supply Co. will help to build in the next couple of years.
“Having grown up skating and creating a brand that is first and foremost a skateboarding company, it is a monumental moment for us to be able to have Diamond give back to other skateboarders in the Los Angeles community in such a major way,” said Nick Diamond. “It’s truly a blessing and we’re thankful to be in this position partnering with the Street League Skateboarding Foundation, and I hope to design and donate more Diamond Supply Co. public plazas in the years to come.”
City of L.A.’s Department of Recreation and Parks General Manager Mike Shull will be in attendance Thursday to speak on behalf of his department and the collaborative effort needed to successfully open the skate plaza at Hazard Park, as well as future sites.
“What fun to join with Rob Dyrdek, the skate plaza visionary, Nick Diamond, The California Endowment and Councilmember Huizar, to provide this great plaza at Hazard Park,” said Shull. “It has the components that skaters love to skate with stair sets, rails and ledges. This is our eighth skate plaza we have built with the Street League Skateboarding Foundation and we’re looking forward to building more in the City of Los Angeles.”
The Grand Opening celebration of the Diamond Supply Co. Public Skate Plaza at Hazard Park will take place on Thursday, July 24th at 5:00pm at 2298 Norfolk St. LA, CA 90033. The community is invited to come skate and meet Pros from the Diamond Supply Co. skate team including SLS Pro Torey Pudwill. Boo Johnson, Marquise Henry, Joey Brezinsky, Felipe Gustavo, Brandon Biebel, and Nick Tucker.
