Bowl Jam drops in at Get-A-Way Skatepark this weekend
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The calm before the storm. Photo: Derek Lacey/Axios
Huntsville's 2-year-old Get-A-Way Skatepark will host professional skateboarders and competitive amateurs alike on Sunday.
Why it matters: The 2025 Bowl Jam will bring the likes of Bucky Lasek to the 52,000-square-foot skate park for a free competition and clinic.
- Also on the lineup are Olympic pros Lizzie Armanto and Bryce Wettstein, and rising star Katelyn West.
How it works: Registration and warm-ups start at 9:30am, with the junior competition at 11am, Pro Bowl Jam at 11:30am and clinic at 1pm.
- Cash prizes are on offer, as are giveaways and a meet-and-skate with the pros.
Catch up quick: The park, at John Hunt Park, may only be a couple years old, but it's the most recent chapter in Huntsville's long history with the sport.
- The original Get-A-Way skate park opened in the late 1970s on Leeman Ferry Road, and "made Huntsville a model of futuristic skatepark environments," according to Team Pain, designers of the new one.
- It landed on the pages of Thrasher Magazine, showing Huntsville local Pat Wachter upside down on the three-quarter pipe, inspiring last October's Oververt Challenge.
- Today's Get-A-Way pays tribute to the original, with a clover bowl, concrete snake run up to 10 feet deep and reproduction of the three-quarter pipe with the original logo.
Zoom in: Get-A-Way isn't Huntsville's only city-owned skate park, with Lydia Gold Skatepark on Cleveland Avenue.
Context: The biggest difference between the '70s and now is that the parks are public, says Flip Couch, owner of skate shop World Conspiracy, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
- The city getting behind skate parks like Get-A-Way, constructed through a public-private partnership, is a good thing, he said, but "We need about five or six more for a city this size."
- He noted skateboarding's long history in Huntsville, from the original Get-A-Way to the private Underground Skate Park in the late '80s, and the opening of his shop in 1995.
The bottom line: With a top-tier park drawing big names, Huntsville's skateboarding stature should only continue to grow.