Aloha: Hawaii skater answers call from Thibodaux teen to help advocate for skatepark

Parents and teens met with a skatepark founder to discuss how to advocate for one in their city.

Ten teens and seven adults gathered Thursday at the Lafourche Library Thibodaux Branch to meet with Travis Aucoin, a former Thibodaux resident who now lives in Hawaii and opened a skatepark there through a nonprofit.

It was the first meeting of the group, which goes by the name Thibodaux Skate Space. The group got to know one another, and Aucoin explained how to best advocate for a park, organize as a group, and more.

"Don't y'all find that there's no place for kids in Thibodaux, like teenagers, not kid kids?," 14-year-old Sebastien Pecanty said.

Parents in the room spoke of how there used to be a skating rink, bowling alley, movie theater and more. Now, they said, there's nothing for their teenage children.

"That really depresses me," Pecanty added.

The teens all skate within the city, either in parking lots or in the streets, like Canal Boulevard and Saint Mary Street. They said having a place to skate within the city would be nice, because if they want to use an actual park they have to drive to Houma, which takes more than half an hour, or to Golden Meadow, which takes longer.

Landon Becnel, 17, and his friends gather at the Thibodaux Civic Center to play basketball on a regular basis, but all five of them would like a skate park in town for variety. They collectively go to Houma two to three times a week to use its skate park.

When the Houma skatepark closed down due to vandalism, Becnel contacted Aucoin and asked him how to set up a skatepark in Thibodaux. The Houma park has since reopened.

The adults, like the Rev. Jeremy Broussard of Calvary Baptist Church, said having a place for them to gather and skate would give them something to do, and having something to do avoids kids getting into trouble. Unlike a few of the other adults gathered, he said he wasn't likely to ever skate in it, but he said he supported it all the same.

"I think it's good for the community," Broussard said.

Aucoin grew up in Thibodaux and moved away in his 20s. Now 50, he founded the Ocean View Skatepark Association, which created a skatepark in Hawaii. During the meeting, he suggested looking at Houma and Golden Meadow's skateparks for guidance.

He said Houma's is about 15,000 to 20,000 square feet, and has a larger population than Thibodaux. Because of this, he suggested about a 7,000 square foot space, with extra set aside to potentially grow later.

Aucoin had T-shirts made that he sold at the Y'all Stars roller derby event and raised $540 for the Thibodaux Skate Space group. He said there were groups like the Skate Park Project - formerly known as the Tony Hawk Foundation - that could help fund a project.

The entire park would have to be concrete to get funding from that source, but that also makes it easier to maintain, he said. He said establishing a friends-of-the-park group would help to keep it clean and remove graffiti and take some of the burden off the Rec District. Also, he said, video cameras and proper lighting would help to keep the area safe.

More: Buc-ee's moves closer to breaking ground on first Louisiana store in Ruston

More: Chauvin residents to gather Saturday to share memories and strengthen community bonds

Mayor Kevin Clement said he is in support of the park. It was an idea floated 13 years ago when he became Rec. Director for the city. The hard questions, he said, would be how to insure the park and how much it would cost to maintain the park. He said the group would need to persuade the City Council to support the project and, if they voted for it, he and the Rec. Director would discuss location. They've already had conversations with Aucoin and have a few locations in mind, but it's up to the Council to determine if the public supports the idea.

"I'm totally in favor of it," Clement said. "There's always a bang for your buck. Can you get your bang for the buck with building a skate park, and where is it going to be located?"

Becnel started a petition on Change.org which can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/support-the-creation-of-a-skate-park-in-thibodaux. It has 951 signatures as of the time of this writing. The Thibodaux Skate Space group also has a Facebook page which can be found here: https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/jLhKCOYXNyhvGVqJOtE9Ly_?domain=facebook.com.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Thibodaux Skate Space holds first meeting to advocate for skatepark