Snapshots of Life at the Skate Park

June 5, 2015

Tyler Franz is as close to skateboarding legend as Traverse City has. He’s sponsored by Pyramid Skateboards, an Arizona company that sells decks, wheels, T-shirts and hoodies.

That means the 26-year-old, along with other sponsored skaters, will spend several weeks this summer in Detroit, Toronto and New York, where he will skate and shoot videos.

"It’s going to be amazing," Franz said.On a recent evening, he cuts through the skateboard park at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center with what the kids who hang out there call "steeze" – a combination of style and ease – gaining speed through a flat section, rolling up a ramp and then launching and turning upside down, crouching to grab his board in midair.

He slides across a steal rail, reaches a ledge, pauses, returns, and even if he bails out, there is grace in the way he splays his body on the concrete and reaches for his board before it wheels away.

"˜TYLER FRANZ GOOD’ 

Franz’ success is all the more remarkable because of the illness that sidelined him for several years. As a teenager, Franz skated for Birdhouse, a company co-founded by Tony Hawk, and then he fell ill. He suffered numerous misdiagnoses and wasn’t able to skate for three and a half years.

Finally, a holistic doctor in Harbor Springs diagnosed Franz with Lyme disease; he said he ultimately beat the illness by changing his diet.

Now he’s back on his skateboard. "Over the past two years, I’ve gotten back into it, skating harder than ever," Franz said.

When he drops into the bowl nowadays, other skaters pause to watch; sometimes his tricks get applause or cheers.

There are no other skaters in Traverse City who are as good as Franz, said Billy Wood, owner of Lifer Skateboard Shop on Front Street.

"He’s pretty extraordinary," Wood said.

"There are guys in town who are good, but they aren’t Tyler Franz good."

IT USED TO COST $2.50 

The Civic Center skate park broke ground in August 2000 and it opened the following year. Over the years, it’s evolved into the free, open, graffiti-covered place it is today. Until last year, it was fenced in, and years ago, there was an attendant and the county charged an entrance fee.

"There was a big fence around it. There was a shed over there and you had to pay $2.50 to come and skate, and you had to wear a helmet," Franz recalled. "Before, it just felt like a jail – a fun jail."

Today, the fence and the attendant are gone, and helmets are no longer mandatory. There is a sign that says helmets are recommended, but most skaters ignore it. They say helmets make them less aware of their surroundings.

To become good skaters, they actually need to learn how to fall; they need to know how to bail out and how to fall without hitting their heads.

There may no longer be an attendant, but the park is regularly patrolled. Ryan Walsh, Grand Traverse County Parks and Recreation office manager, said park rangers patrol the Civic Center when school is out. They do rounds that take them to the skate park each hour.

The skate park doesn’t have its own maintenance budget, Walsh explained, but its upkeep doesn’t cost much. Repairs are handled as they come up during the summer; cement is kept on hand and the concrete is patched when needed.

SKATERS VERSUS SCOOTERS

Scooters recently arrived at the skate park and there is some acrimony between them and the skaters.

"Honestly, riding a scooter is easy," Wood said. "Riding a skateboard is not." Wood said he won’t stock scooters in his store.

Scooters shorten the learning curve for throwing yourself into the terrain, so the concern is that some kids are able to use the skate park before they know what they are doing or understand the etiquette.

"There’s not a lot of spatial awareness out here for a lot of these kids," said Jesse Warner, one-time inline skater who today just likes to hangout at the park. "Guys with skateboards look out for each other."

The tension was absent, however, one recent sunny spring evening when several younger kids on scooters shared space with a half-dozen skateboarders, everyone moving around the skate park like electrons in an atom.

In its 15-year history, the skate park has seen other tensions, like that between skaters and rollerbladers. As rollerblading became less popular, BMX riders appeared, and there were issues between the bike riders and the skaters.

For awhile the park experimented with specific hours for bikes or skateboards, but eventually it was decided it made the most sense to just encourage everyone to get along.

IT’S ABOUT IDENTITY AND YOUR LIFE 

Wood has operated his skateboard shop for six years.

"I’ve been skateboarding since I was five," said the 43-year-old. "That’s why the shop is called Lifer."

Before Lifer, Wood owned a shop in Cadillac, where he grew up. Before that, he was in the military and stationed in Germany, where he also worked at skateboard shops.

For 19-year-old Anders Olson, skateboarding is also part of who he is. "My family skateboards. They kind of put me on one when I could walk," the Traverse City resident said.

Olson played mainstream sports when he was younger, but eventually skateboarding took over.

"I quit all of those sports in high school," he said. "I am a skateboarder. Skateboarding is independent and creative."

Skateboarding is also painful. To learn how to do a trick, you have to fall many times, so when a skater finally succeeds, there’s a rush, Warner explained.

"I watched Ty eat it over and over and over again," he said. "It’s about the passion."

Curtis Brengman doesn’t skateboard as much as he used to.

"My close friend group slowly broke away from skateboarding," Brengman said. "It’s only me and a few close friends who ever skate anymore."

Skateboarding attracts artistic and creative people, he said. It gives them a way to express themselves.

"It’s a really great feeling in skateboarding when you land something that you’ve been trying for a long time. It’s like a natural high," the 21-year-old said.

VIDEOS POSTED ON YOUTUBE 

In December 2013, roughly 100 people turned out at a warehouse on Woodmere Avenue to watch the premiere of a video of Traverse City skateboarders that Wood and others had produced.

Developing a reputation on film is a skateboarding tradition that goes back to VHS days.

Wood recalls making tapes when he was a kid and mailing them to skateboard companies.

Today it’s much easier. A YouTube video produced by Thrasher magazine gets hundreds of thousands of hits, and there are videos made by skaters and scooters around Traverse City that have gotten thousands.

Videos of talented skaters are like catnip for fans, Wood said, and they get the skater noticed.

"The way the skateboarding ranks work is usually a guy starts out working for a shop," Wood said.

Next, a company might notice a video and the skater might get some free stuff like a deck or wheels.

Later, the skater might become sponsored and get to travel with a group of other skaters, like Franz.

The same process exists for the BMX bike riders who share the park with skaters.

Keegan Kiessel started riding a BMX bike a month ago. Recently, he was practicing tricks on a quiet weekday while his girlfriend looked on. The 19-year-old was inspired when a friend got noticed doing tricks on his bike and became sponsored.

"You have people record you – all the tricks you do – you put it on YouTube and you just hope you get noticed by one of the big companies," Kiessel said.

The Traverse City Park Jam – sponsored by the Dennos Museum Center and Third Level Crisis Intervention Center – will take place at the skate park and at NMC on June 20 at noon. Attendees can see the Sideways: Exploring Skateboard Art + Culture exhibit for free, plus enjoy music, dancing and food. Pro skater Ron Allen will host games and contests at the skate park.

- In 2013, profane graffiti at the skate park prompted the county to invite artists to tag the concrete terrain so the park would be suitable for children. They asked for "an artistic paint job that is more welcoming and appealing to its users." Today, the skate park is covered in mostly family-friendly artwork.

- According to sk8parkatlas.com, there are two other skate parks in the region: in Cadillac and Gaylord. The website says the design of the Traverse City park is almost identical to skate parks in Midland and Indianapolis. The city of Frankfort expects to have a skate park soon, as well, due to a recently awarded grant of $11,000 from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

To watch the 2013 video Wood produced, search "GFS Finale" on YouTube. Warning: adult themes.