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Skate park brings cheers to extreme sports enthusiasts

DUBAI - Skateboarders, inline skaters and BMX riders will now be able to practise a variety of forms and improve their skills easily and safely on the region's first professionally custom-built permanent skate park located at the WonderLand Theme & Water Park.

Dubai Desert Extreme Skate Park, covering a total of 12,000 square feet, was thrown open to the public yesterday and will be hosting the first amateur Extreme Sports Championship by end-September this year.

"The skate park was originally designed for professional competitions, but it will cater to different action sports enthusiasts - the beginners, the top-level amateur skateboarders, inline skaters and the professional skateboarders," Shahriar Khodjasteh, managing director of Dubai Desert Extreme LLC, told reporters yesterday.

The specially-designed skate park, which will be hosting a number of professional and amateur events for extreme sports for the Dubai youth and action sports enthusiasts, represents a Dh400,000 project by Dubai Desert Extreme which has now built a very strong retail and distribution business in the field of skateboarding products and apparel.

Construction of the skate park, which has under way on August 4, was completed in just 10 days by Dubai Desert Extreme, the representatives of G-Ramps, a German skate park 'design and build' company.

The concept of promoting action sports is not entirely new for this Dubai-based company which had organised the Dubai Desert Extreme 2000 Amateur Championship during the Expat Show in October and the first-ever Middle East Extreme Sports Championships in the UAE along Al Seef Street during Dubai Shopping Festival 2001.

"There are over 800 extreme sports enthusiasts in Dubai and we hope that starting from our customer base, we can eventually form a proper club where members can avail of discounts from the retail shops and the rentals. We can monitor their training and abilities and evaluate whether they can compete locally or internationally. The new skate park can provide them with much motivation and they even could raise some sponsorships for themselves," stressed Vali Csongor, operations manager at WonderLand Theme and Water Park, adding that there are future plans of extending the skate park with a 14-feet-high vert half pipe and a mini ramp measuring eight to nine feet above the surface.

Safety precautions are also in place in the skate park which shall implement rules and regulations and offer first aid assistance. "It is a quiet and safe sport as long as protective gear is used by these enthusiasts. Twenty-five skateboarders and inline skaters can be accommodated in an hour's session or overall 400 skateboarders in a day. We are pleased that we are taking these sports from the streets to an exciting but safe venue," Mr Csongor said. Entrance to the Dubai Desert Extreme Skate Park costs Dh10 per hour. Members can avail discounts for monthly and yearly memberships as well as for professional gears in the retail shop.