Tony Hawk Opens The Compton Skate Park

For years, the city of Compton in California has gotten a bad rap based on the countless coverage of gang violence in the mid 1990’s.  Plus for many music lovers, Compton meant of the greatest rap anthems of all time, STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON by rap super group NWA.  But I’m here to tell you first hand that Compton is more than just that.  I should know because I spent a brief stint of my higher education at a school called Cal State Dominguez Hills.  On one side of the border was the city of Carson, and on the other side, Compton.  And on the other side of that, WATTS.  I hate to judge but Watts was kind of bad.  I drove through one time and saw a prostitute with one leg working the streets in the middle of the afternoon. 

With Tony Hawk’s opening of his brand new sponsored skate park, the city can now be proud to be home of a 12,000 square-foot concrete park. Hawk Man-X and a group of pros from his Birdhouse skate team came to perform for the kids, who spent over three years working with their city and parks officials to get their own skatepark built.

“The Compton Skatepark represents everything we try to accomplish with our foundation,” said Hawk. “An inner-city community that rallied to provide a skating facility for their youth, great support from the city council, and partial funding from THF made their dream a reality.”

The Compton Skatepark is the latest to open of the nearly 450 skateparks the Tony Hawk Foundation has provided financial assistance to. Hawk seldom has the opportunity to attend Grand Opening events, but is pleased to have been able to participate in the Compton celebration and personally congratulate the city and the youth who worked so hard to achieve it. “The park has a good mix of street, ramp, and bowl elements,” said Hawk. “And it’s a blast to skate!”

The Compton Skatepark is located at 123 N. Rose Avenue, Compton, California 90221.