Stokin' Heaven - Vernon CT

 

I moved from Florida, West Palm Beach, with my Stepdad and Mother to the small town (at that time) of Vernon, CT in 1972.  I was 11 years old. No one in that area had ever seen a skateboard if you can believe that but being a Northern town, Ice skating was the norm and hockey were the main sports there.

 

By the time I turned 14, the local Western Auto store had ordered in a few complete low-quality skateboards to sell in the store. So I convinced my buddies Mike and Gary to buy them.

 

Skipping ahead...

 

There was the old hardware building that looked to be abandoned. The rear loading doors were open and no signage was posted about trespassing so we took over the building as our hangout.  There was a lot of lumber and supplies left scattered around so we built our own makeshift ramps in the open area of the main building. It was a really good summer and winter for us being indoors out of the weather.

 

Finally one day the police showed up and held us there until the owner of the building came down. Someone obviously notified the police that there were kids down at the warehouse supposedly vandalizing the building.

 

Just the opposite. We swept and cleaned the place up.

 

Mr. Lombardo finally arrived and questioned everyone as to who broke into the building and why we were in there.  We explained about how it was left open and we cleaned it all up and what were we doing in there. No charges were brought up and he asked for us to not go back in there for reasons of not being responsible for one of us getting hurt on his property. Mr. Lombardo took our home numbers and said he would like to talk with each of our parents but that we were not in trouble, he just would like to speak with our parents.

 

He called about a week later and spoke with my Mom about wanting her to bring me to meet with him and a couple business associates. She agreed and so we met at a local restaurant for lunch.

 

Mr. Lombardo had a lot more questions about what we had built in the building and what inspired us to do all that.  His plans were to rent the building to the town road maintenance department to store the sand needed for the icy roads in the winter time. He was intrigued by what we had built and wanted our opinion on how much interest there would be possibly building a professional skate park and roller rink in Vernon.

 

Mr. Lombardo then called his two potential business partners over to the table we were sitting at and I was introduced to two young Pro Skaters from Cali.,  Jay and Tony. Did not get their last names. But they were famous and well known back in Cali. Featured in magazines according to Mr Lombardo. I'm almost sure it was Tony Alva that I was introduced to --Possibly Jay Adams?--  They were about 17 to 20 years old and this was 1977.

 

They rolled out a floor plan on what they envisioned what the park would look like and incorporate in the building. Asked my opinion and wanted my input on the plans.

 

The rest is history.

 

A pro skate shop was built and run by Mr Lombardo at first. Tony would eventually be the manager and teach lessons on how to skate the ramps. After about 4 months in Tony went back to home to California.

 

First ramp built was down hill ramp to gain speed for a slalom coarse with cones.

The second ramp built was an "L" 25' long 8' high with 1' of vertical along an interior wall of the building. The ramp had a 45 degree corner section that transitioned into a similar ramp that was only 15' long.

Next came the main feature. The kidney shaped pool. It was small and deep but made for very fast runs.

Most new comers were scared to ride the pool. Me included at first.

The Half pipe was the most used of all the ramps available.

The pool is where you would find Jay hanging out when he was not running the shop.

Tony outfitted me with a used but very cool Santa Cruz board, wide tracker trucks and red urethane wheels.  I was rolling on a home made board with clay wheels at the time. My stepdad being an engineer hooked me up with some Fafnir roller bearings for the urethane wheels man the was a fast smooth ride.

The next item built was a half pipe. I remember it being 25' across and 12' high at first and later expanded to 30' wide with 6' of vertical.

Future plans were to build a roller rink and snack bar.

And an outdoor concrete park area for trick skating with smaller ramps and pipes to grind on.

They had board rentals and helmets, knee pad and elbow pads available for rent. And were mandatory to wear while utilizing the park.

I'm sorry I don't remember the rental pricing as I did not have to pay for entry or use of items due to being in on the founding and building of the park. I'm thinking with all in rental pass, board, pads and Helmet you could skate for around $10.00 an hour.

The shop offered pretty much everything you could want to upgrade you equipment as well as service and repair of you own equipment.

I believe it was 2.50 an hour to skate at the park.

 

It took a bit of time for the park to catch on and we did have skaters from other towns come down in big groups to check out the "completion".

No official skate team was formed when I was skating there. Most likely due to skateboarding was something totally new to this area. Some people had heard of skateboarding but not pursued due to lack of availability and high price. Even the Western Auto boards were around sixty five dollars.

 

That was expensive back then.

 

There was a park built that was up in Massachusetts that was all fiberglass ramps and channels. Most of the skaters I talked to who had skated at that park said that it was hard to skate on due to the fiberglass surface being smooth and slick.

 

Sadly my family and I moved back to Florida about 5 months after the park officially opened. When I got back to Florida it was not long that I discovered how BA it was to combining  BMX bikes and empty swimming pools was!! Found my new vice for adrenaline rush.

So I lost track of how much the park progressed after that.

 

I did hear from Gary later that the Snack bar and roller rink were built and they had built a small game room as well.

 

- Wynn Rowan Dec. 9, 2024