Whitey Lang Park Skate Ramps Bring Sport Alive in Fort Lee

The Skate Park at got a new addition a few years ago that has brought a lot more Fort Lee skateboarders to the park than in previous years. There are a variety of rails, ledges and fun and challenging ramps put in three years ago that have helped keep Fort Lee skaters off the community's streets in hopes of landing their next big trick.

Skateboarder Eduardo “Doogie” Silvester enjoys the park now as opposed to back in the day.

"It is a good place to spend time with friends, meet new people and learn new tricks," said Silvester. "The new skate park in Fort Lee has accelerated the rate at which new skaters from Fort Lee and around this area are progressing because the skate park provides many different types obstacles in one place."

He said the skate park brings together in one place many of the things skaters look for in town like stairs and ledges. The ramps, which Silverster said would most likely not be found anywhere but a park, have been a huge addition and attraction to skaters in Fort Lee. Silvester and some fellow skaters never gave up on getting the ramps they wanted and their efforts were eventually rewarded.

"Skaters in Fort lee had always requested and asked local officials for a skate park but it never happened until Mayor Mark Sokolich assembled a committee of people in order to get the job done," said Silvester. "Me and some other kids got together with a skate park designer and worked out the final design within the budget and what we wanted to be built. Part of the reason it became such an interest to him was because his son and I used to skate along with other kids at his house and around town. That made him realize the number of skateboarders in Fort Lee and what a skate park could do if done the right way."

It is a big bonus for skateboarders in Fort Lee who had to exercise other options of where to skate, and not all of those options would work out well.

"I would skate spots all around town usually other parks with benches or little stairs to jump down," said Silvester. "The spots were few and far between because nothing that we use to skate was meant to be skated."

He said sometimes caused problems because people around town didn't exactly appreciate skaters on public or private property. Trips to New York City were frequent in order to experience different types of skating and skaters. Other skate parks such as Hoboken Skate Park and Cliffside Skate Park were places in which people from Fort Lee would go to explore.

The ramps have created skating obstacles and challenges that have been received well by those who visit the park specifically to skateboard.