Sandy San Clemente Skatepark Unburied By Rebellious Crew

SAN CLEMENTE, CA —City officials intent on keeping their residents safe in the time of coronavirus shutdown filled the local skate park with 37 tons of sand. This week, skaters received support from some local dirt bike riders in their plight.

Connor Ericsson, one outspoken dirt bike rider, met with others who took to the sandy contours with gusto. They filmed a few rides up and around the park, taking jumps along the concrete barricades and gliding up and down the sandy surfaces.

When the skateboarders arrived, they joined forces.

With shovels, buckets, and push brooms in hand, dirt bike riders and skaters fixed their park back to rights. They maintained a distance from one another as they shredded, and reclaimed a little bit of joy in the process.

View this post on Instagram

Took advantage of the all the sand the city dumped into the San Clemente skatepark then helped some local skaters dig it all out so they could do some social shredding
A post shared by Connor Ericsson (@buttery_films) on Apr 19, 2020 at 5:48pm PDT

It is not yet known how the city will handle the uncovering of the park that by all accounts is still closed in the time of social distancing.

Ericsson tells Patch that thus far, there has been no push-back from local authorities on the action.

As of this report, 43 San Clemente residents have been infected with the coronavirus. That total number has not fluctuated since Friday, which health officials say is due to social distancing orders. But with fresh air and sunshine contributing to health and wellness, and weather warming up, officials find it more challenging to keep the younger set inside.

Riverside County has started to relax the safer-at-home orders, and this week opened up tennis courts and golf courses to foursomes. No club entrance or dining was allowed, but running, hiking, biking, golf, equestrian sports and other non-contact outdoor activities are allowed as of Tuesday.

At the beginning of April, Recreation Manager Samantha Wylie did what the city ordered. Her crew closed the parks. Still, Wylie became discouraged when simple closures wouldn't keep the skaters at bay. After two weeks of watching residents break the rules, even with Orange County Sheriff's Department's regular intervention, she opted for a change of tactic.

Wylie noticed that across the coastal cities, such skate parks, as with Venice Beach Skate Parksto our north, were being filled with hay or sand to discourage such activities.

She told the San Clemente Times in a recent report that they wanted to enforce the message of social distancing. Sand is free, she says and costs nothing but the manpower to dig out.

Working together, that is what the dirt bike riders and skaters did.

Wylie and San Clemente's decision failed to go over well with the San Clemente Skate Park Coalition as well. That group funded a large portion of the project and still to raises money for the skate park's ongoing maintenance, the Times reports.

"The visual representation of the city dumping sand into the skate park...almost feels like...the city vandalized its own park," the Times reported Stephanie Aguilar, Skatepark Coalition President, who says the city should have warned people it was coming.

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