By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

June 20 -- It was time to cut the ribbon, but no one could find a pair of scissors. So Mayor Pro Tem Herb Katz borrowed a pen knife from someone standing nearby.

“You guys are lucky,” Katz had told the crowd minutes earlier. “We only had the sidewalks to skate on. You get your own park with a bowl.”

Then Katz cut the ribbon and Santa Monica’s long-awaited half-million-dollar skate facility was officially opened.

Skater navigates the highest wall of the clover bowl.

City officials beamed with joy and a locally spawned subculture returned home Friday, when hundreds of skateboard enthusiasts from across the region descended upon Memorial Park to initiate 20,000 square feet of virgin concrete called The Cove.

The festivities drew some of the best skaters of all time, including at least four of the original Z-boys -- who pioneered the sport on the asphalt banks of school yards and empty swimming pools during the 1970s.

“Vertical skating was born here,” said Zephyr Surfboard maker Jeff Ho, who formed the Z-boy skate team in Santa Monica some 35 years ago with business partner Skip Engblom.

“It’s just so good to have this park here,” said Ho. “It’s going to open the doors for so many kids. And look out, ‘cause in a couple of years there’s going to be some guys from here that are just going to go off the hook.”

The skaters were all smiles -- high on adrenalin, happy to have a facility in the town they call the “spiritual home” of their sport, repeatedly commenting that the park is “awesome” and “incredibly fast.”

Some of the rules that had been laid down for the park’s use were broken that day, but it didn’t seem to matter. Halfway through the “legends session,” Z-boy Tony Alva took off his knee pads, and, if anyone from the City noticed or cared, no one had the nerve to tell him to put them back on.

Alva got on his board and dropped in for another run as Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir blasted over the P.A system.

The incessant chatter of a DJ rose above the blare of the music. “I used to see pictures of this guy in Skateboarding Magazine when I was a kid,” the DJ announced.

Hundreds watched as Alva zipped up, down and around the walls of the clover shaped bowl.

Jellybean -- a young Hawaiian woman with a sarong wrapped about her torso -- sat in the bleachers with her son, Zion, in her lap.

Jellybean and son.

“I think it’s great,” Jellybean remarked. “It’s going to keep kids away from drugs and the harsh realities of the street.”

Jellybean had come that day “to see Zumbie (her friend’s son) get indoctrinated into Zephyr,” adding proudly that Zumbie would be the first new Z-Boy since “way back in the day.”

Zumbie’s mother, Star Oakland, joined her a few minutes later.

What will this mean for you, Star, now that your son is a professional skater?

“A lot more work for me managing him,” Oakland replied. “But I’m happy for him, that he does nothing but surf and skate and listen to hip-hop. He’s a true Venice kid.”

***

Parks Commissioner Neil Carrey was enthusiastic about the new and diverse faces he saw Friday, and the rave reviews from a sub-culture he admitted knowing little about.

Lous Offer, 47, said, "It's one of the best if not the best. skate parks."

“Did you look at the crowd?” Carrey remarked after the celebration. “It was different than what you see at most of these (City) gatherings.

“They all raved about the facility,” he said. “The City really did it right this time… everyone involved deserves credit.”

And as the kudos were being passed around, the name that came up most frequently was that of Community and Cultural Services Sr. Analyst Brett Horner.

“Brett really ramrodded this thing,” said Mayor Pro Tem Katz, adding that Horner met with skaters and learned all he could about the sport to build the best park possible.

“Brett deserves a huge amount of credit,” echoed Commissioner Carrey. “He put a lot of effort into it and took a huge amount of criticism and skepticism. He listened to all that and kept the process moving.”

But the skate park may never have been built if it weren’t for Heidi Lemmon, a Santa Monica mom who began pushing for it ten years ago after her son was reprimanded for skating at Douglas Park.

“She really wouldn’t let go, even at a time when it looked like it wasn’t going to happen,” said Carrey, who coached Lemmon’s son in Little League.

Lemmon got so wrapped up in the cause that she founded a non-profit advocacy group: the National Skate Park Association.

A BMXer soars. The Cove is one of the few skate parks to allow bikes.

Smiling during Friday’s grand opening, Lemmon stood inside the facility and watched as kids on BMX bikes flew through the air around her.

“Had this been an easy job we wouldn’t have a national organization,” she remarked, half jokingly.

***

By mid-afternoon Friday the rules were getting a little loose. One observer described it approvingly as “the most un-Santa Monica event I’ve ever been to in Santa Monica.”

It took 15 minutes to get the old-timers out of the pool after the “legends session” was supposed to end. Everyone wanted to have the last run.

A faint odor of cigarette smoke was in the air, which is a no-no in the City’s parks, and at least one beer had been consumed -- by a pregnant woman no less.

Hard to hear beneath the blare of the rock music were conversations in which the f-word was frequently, casually and, perhaps, unconsciously used in friendly exchanges.

Heavily tattooed Z-boy Jay Adams -- whose on-the edge life-style has gotten him in and out of trouble -- looked a little incredulous, as if to say ‘come on you guys,’ when asked to conduct a raffle. But Adams complied.

He took the microphone, turned around once and called out a winning number. But no one came forward.

“Come on ree-tard! Get up here and get your damn prize!” Adams yelled.

Still no response. So he drew another number. “501…..501. You know, like what you girls wear on your booty…..”

But controversy and scandal were avoided. The city seemed ready to let its hair down this day.

And the veteran skaters -- who are all pushing 50 -- were mostly polite and considerate in spite of their outlaw reputation.

Perhaps their age and knowing that they had become role models for a new generation had caused them to tone down their behavior ---at least a little.