Skateboarding has been extremely popular for a few decades. Although its national popularity has consistently ebbed and flowed over the last few years, there are always going to be people who enjoy skating. Currently, there are 500 skate parks in existence across the United States.
Many of those parks, however, are in jeopardy of being closed for various reasons.
According to News and Record, a single privately owned skate park owned by a mother and daughter team is still able to thrive despite massive competition.
“It’s actually helped our business,” said Jeannene Kirch, the mom in the mother and daughter partnership.
In Greensboro, North Carolina, city officials announced two new public skate parks will be opening near Above Board Skate Shop and Skate Park, potentially threatening the Kirch’s skating operation.
Jeannene and her daughter Leanna opened their park in order to emphasize a family-like atmosphere that focuses on safety.
Since many public skate parks can be quite intimidating for novice skaters or young kids, Jeannene and Leanna are happy to provide that alternative option.
Jeannene originally ran the park with another partner but brought on her daughter to help once she inherited some money. She wanted to rekindle the memories she had when she was younger — roller skating at the rink as a teenager.
“I just have such good memories of that,” Jeannene added.
Above Board Skate Shop and Skate Park requires all skaters under 18 years old to wear helmets. Although they focus on skateboard safety, injuries do happen, but nothing too serious like other public parks.
“We do get minor sprains sometimes,” she said. “But we don’t get blown-out knees and we don’t get concussions.”
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