Mike Marlowe ,frontside 5–0

Jarry at 20

Despite its venerable age, local skateboarders
still tear up the north-end park

Belek (rear) and unidentified

by PATRICK LEJTENYI
photos by JASON FELKER

Some say familiarity breeds contempt, but to the crew of skateboarders who’ve been showing up every Sunday afternoon, weather permitting, at the Jarry skate park for the past 20 years, it’s bred a lot of hard-won love. The park opened in 1988, and some of the riders who first discovered its smooth snake run and near perfect mushrooms as wide-eyed kids are still there today—older, in some cases hairier, in others balder, and most veterans of some kind of injury (or injuries).

The Valoiz Boys crew, a loose group of skaters in their 30s who grew up around Valois Bay in Pointe Claire, have called the park home for the past two decades and claim squatting rights on a bordering knoll, complete with barbecue and ersatz stereo system. But over the years, legions of younger skaters have discovered the park’s charms and challenges—so much so that an annual King of the Park competition was created a few years ago.

Respect is key at the park, something that everyone, regardless of age, is expected to observe. But so is fun, and so is riding hard.

Chilling on the knoll
Surfer Al, frontside Smith