Organized mayhem: A narrative history of Kanis skatepark

MEMORIAL BOWL: The late Ryan Galvan, who was celebrated in the skatepark's "memorial bowl," skates barefoot on the deep wall of the park's older, DIY section.
Will Ehrle

The day of the October 2023 Kanis Bash, the annual fundraising event for the skatepark at Little Rock's Kanis Park, was a washout. Faced with relentless rain, the organizers relocated the event to the location under a nearby bridge, setting up skate features into the concrete. Adjustment is a trademark of the Kanis DIY values.

Over an approximately 15-year period, a cumulative of regional skateboarders has actually helped to transform Kanis Park, simply south of Interstate 630 at Mississippi Street, into an urban oasis including a skatepark on par with the very best in the nation. The scene at Kanis on any provided Saturday-- an inclusive space where folks from different strolls of Little Rock life buzz in and out of playgrounds, pickleball courts and strolling paths-- remains in stark contrast with the worn out Kanis Park of the '90s and early aughts.

Running without a formal structure or business entity, the Kanis skate team formed a not likely collaboration with the city of Little Rock and ended up being main gamers in an urban revitalization success story. Sustained by tough manual labor and grassroots fundraising, they sidestepped hierarchy and administration to create a valuable and long lasting public resource. In 2015, the Kanis skatepark was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Coca-Cola Co. for an expansion that started in 2016.
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This is an abridged story of the volunteerism and brotherhood that built Kanis skatepark, in the words of some of its creators.
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OLD BOWL
Georgie Launet: At first, the skatepark at Kanis was just this old bowl you needed to take a path to, and it was among the oldest city-sanctioned skateboard parks.

Oby Berry: The old bowl was built around '87. ... I skated that bowl when I was in 5th grade and I was like, "I'll be back."
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Kevin Fowler: I began going out to Kanis in the '90s. When I was a kid, it was a treat when you went out and Gary was there.

Will Ehrle: A great deal of things I understand about the old bowl are rumor because it was constructed around when I was born.
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Kevin Fowler: When I was in high school I started hanging out there more. At that time, Kanis was a pretty sketchy park. Brian ChilsonORIGINS: Skatepark co-creator Georgie Launet.
SKATE OR DIE.
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At the same time, there was a real DIY movement throughout the U.S. Skatepark, in Jefferson City, Missouri]

Oby Berry: I understood Burnside, however information at that time wasn't taking a trip as quick as it does now, other than through publications. The Dreamland Skatepark guys from Oregon who had built Burnside were building the Riverview park in North Little Rock. I employed sick for a week and offered and went to work with them. They taught me how to construct a park.
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Georgie Launet: Oby had actually already dealt with small areas to build parks around the state and I believe I was influenced by that.

Oby Berry: I grew up in South Arkansas, and there was a little group of kids who all skated. I began developing my own stuff as a kid, out of wood, and it progressed through high school and college. I provided a slideshow to towns throughout the state to attempt and develop more skateparks across Arkansas. This was from 2001 to 2003, something like that. We constructed a ramp down in Star City. I got refused a lot..

Georgie Launet: Skateboarding can be like a disease, like a dependency. Skateboarders are naturally driven. It's not a sport or hobby. It's a way to see the world around you.

Brian ChilsonURBAN OASIS: When the October 2023 Kanis Bash got drizzled out, skateboarders established skate features under a nearby bridge.
Oby Berry: Right after the build in North Little Rock, I went out to Portland with some good friends and we did a week skating down the coast. I'm not getting any more youthful, so let's begin building it.".
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THE FIRST POUR.
Will Ehrle: The first pour at Kanis was around 2006. It was an upside down wheelbarrow of concrete that got disposed over. It was common for people to do little spot jobs-- take a little concrete and put it to make little structures to skate..

Kevin Fowler: Matt Clark turned over a wheelbarrow and covered it with concrete. It was just this lump, and that was the very first DIY thing.

Will Ehrle: The spine was the first planned pour. It's when 2 ramps come together, two quarter pipes that converge and share the very same coping..

Oby Berry: In the spring of 2005, I was employed to develop a 10,000-square-foot indoor park in Malvern. This was in the time in between Riverview and the very first pour at Kanis.

Kevin Fowler: After the spinal column, there was a little pole jam-- a little ramp that's a bent pole in the ground-- and we simply began hanging out. It was a cool scene for a little bit. It was constantly the exact same people. In the winter season they 'd have trash-can fires going. I 'd go hang out with the older guys and laugh at their jokes and not talk.

Georgie Launet: Kanis was simply this raw concept, and we did it for the love of skateboarding, and it kept growing. At that time, there was an overall disconnect from the city. Appetite SkateparksGOING PROFESSIONAL: Hunger Skateparks, a skatepark style company based in Bloomington, Indiana, worked with the Kanis crew to broaden the park in 2016.

GRIND IT OUT.
Oby Berry: Everyone was type of expanded-- in college, living in other locations-- and then in 2007, everyone descended into Little Rock, and that's when it went outrageous. I told Matt Clark we require to have a big ol' celebration with bands to raise money. We didn't have a not-for-profit, however individuals gave us money and trusted us and we instantly began building stuff. I was 27 or 28 when we began Kanis, and my entire focus became Kanis.

Kevin Fowler: Oby taught Georgie and Will and Tyler. Other guys like Kent [Summers] and Brock came in handy. Brian Lee, too-- he was truly good at concrete work. He had worked chores working concrete. He and Oby resembled the foremen.

Oby Berry: Because I'm a math teacher, and I was an engineering major before I became a teacher, all I 'd have to do is see what's going on and begin figuring things out. Since I had actually been developing stuff because I was a kid.

Will Ehrle: We developed a maintaining wall, a concrete block wall, so that we might expand.

Oby Berry: We developed a block wall from 2007 to 2010.

Will Ehrle: The vertical wall that we call the punk wall was the next huge put.

Oby Berry: And then the Jabba wall and the back 2-foot-tall wall behind the Jabba-- that was occurring about the very same time.

Will Ehrle: The Jabba wall is this amorphous thing. It got painted to appear like Jabba the Hutt.

Oby Berry: All of that was taking place all the way till 2012. And after that Kent someplace in there built a real big addition, the demon wall-- it had a demon painted on it.

Georgie Launet: I 'd state 80% of the big shit at Kanis was developed with shovels and pickaxes.

Oby Berry: When we were working, it wasn't like we were working. I 'd get up early on a Saturday and pack my truck up and go work on a weekend or in the summer season when I was off from school.

Jonathan Gilbert: There was some butting heads at times, and we all had full-time tasks.

Georgie Launet: I wished to make sure there were things there that everybody might skate, however likewise keep it unique. I desired it to be rad however not impossible, but Kent was a driving force in making certain we kept things extremely gnarly.

Nick Gibson' SUPER GNARLY': Skatepark co-creator Kent Summers contributed in the park's DIY building.
Will Ehrle: It was commonplace to take jersey barriers, like the things that are on the highway, and tilt them or raise them up and put a little bit of concrete. A third or two-thirds of the structure currently exists, so you just have to do a bit of work to make it skateable. That's when the city started assisting us..

Georgie Launet: We wanted to be able to just drop in and circulation and skate it like a bowl. As soon as we got the jersey walls up, that made the entire thing have a flow to it. Kent's a welder, so he had access to equipment that we needed to construct a bowl of the size we wanted. When that bowl was developed, that's when the city was like, "What's taking place?".

AN UNLIKELY PAIR.
Georgie Launet: I believe what we were doing started to require a bit more of an instructions or a story to it. Not only were we out there skating, we were out there working all the time.

We put on fundraisers to get materials. Eventually it got to the point where we had a Kanis fund.

Kevin Fowler: I kept the cash for the last 10 years, like in a little account. Georgie had it at one time. Matt Clark kept it in a fanny pack at one point. Finally, I resembled, "We simply need a checking account rather of going to Georgie's basement and seeing what's in the fanny pack." I attempted to establish an LLC however it would cost money to establish. We never had adequate for it to seem worth it, so I set up the account in my name. It's never had more than like $4,000 in it.

Georgie Launet: We seemed like in Kanis we had the perfect location to create our own world, and no one was gon na inform us no-- and after that they did the opposite. They told us yes.

Jonathan Gilbert: Matt Clark started speaking with the city. Georgie did, too. I believed it was rad when the city got involved, since then we knew they weren't gon na tear it down..

There was a time period when I went out to Kanis and I saw someone was building on the concrete piece. They were beginning to develop this DIY and I saw that they had such strong ownership in this location. Georgie Launet was the one that was interacting with me through e-mail, and we began understanding how we might assist.

Oby Berry: Georgie is a silver-tongued devil. He can speak with people.

Georgie Launet: Working with Leland was a pleasure since he was clear about what he required us to submit, the guidelines were simple to follow, and he was willing to be open-minded. These guys had never poured a concrete skateboard ramp before. They pour pieces, and we were constructing quarter pipelines. The way Leland and I might speak with each other developed with time to where I could explain one of the obstacles-- a quarter pipe, a tranny bank, a pyramid-- and he began to understand our lingo. I do not believe it would have worked out the very same if it had been someone else. He saw the worth in it. It went from me driving my Contour with 2,000 pounds of concrete to the city dropping off rebar and telling us we might go to Home Depot and purchase stuff.

Leland Couch: It was tough, from a park coordinator perspective, to say, "Yeah, construct whatever you desire," while likewise needing to have some security standards in place, but I was able to work with them and have discussions about what they were going to construct. A lot of what they required was just materials to make things better, so we began partnering with them. Sure, that's taken place over the previous 15 years or so.

Kevin Fowler: That's why Kanis is remarkable-- due to the fact that the city supported it. That's what makes us various than other DIYs. The city eventually bulldozes the majority of them, however they've had our back the whole time.

BEGAN WITH THE BOTTOM.
Leland Couch: The chance for the grant can be found in 2015 from our grants workplace who found it through their different resources. We got an entire lot of money from Coca-Cola and we said, "We're gon na put it into this Kanis skatepark, however let's not damage whatever and construct a brand-new park. How do we make something really cool?".

Georgie Launet: We wished to take this 1987 skateboard park and take this DIY skateboard park and put a brand-new park in the middle that would be professionally crafted that could be the bridge in between these 2 things.

Leland Couch: I do not understand how to design a skatepark, so I got the skateboarders together and we worked with a professional on the style and build.

Georgie Launet: The grant enabled us to work with expert specialists to connect whatever. They let us handpick a team of individuals to work with them from our group who had actually been constructing the DIY.

Oby Berry: In 2016, we did the big add-on with Hunger. It exercised terrific. It was a lot much easier than DIY. We had appropriate tools. You can tell what's the oldest to the most recent stuff. You can tell where the work got much better when Hunger came in. There are a lot of disparities when you're blending concrete. When Hunger can be found in, that's legit.

Leland Couch: The end outcome is so unique since we now have the historical skate bowl and the brand-new elements we used the Coca-Cola cash for, but we still have the DIY location. The bowl from the '80s is still there, and after that just recently they've included a half pipe with remaining funds from the Coca-Cola grant. It's a distinct mix, and it simply works.

THANK YOU, SKATEBOARDING.
Georgie Launet: What makes me the proudest is the overall development of the park and individuals who have originated from around the nation to skate it-- the neighborhood we constructed, and all the memories.

Oby Berry: I just enjoy those guys. I was so lucky to have a team of cool individuals to be with. That's the whole thing. It was always about skating No. 1, but we always had fun. I knew it would get big and individuals would be entering town to skate it. I thought in that. I wanted that.

Brian ChilsonMAKING DO: At the rained-out October 2023 Kanis Bash.
Kevin Fowler: Kent built the memorial bowl for our good friends. That was all Kent. It's quite cool, all the different people's ashes therein. JP [Dupas], Ron [Ryan Galvan], Alli's [Summers] hair is in there. Sleazy Steve. You might write a whole novel about Sleazy Steve.

Georgie Launet: It was emotional ending up the memorial bowl. Kent led that crusade however got us together to talk about the design and the shape. Kent had individuals fly in from around the nation to get it poured. The city spent for materials, and Kent and some others paid a lot out of pocket, plus cash Kanis had actually raised.

Leland Couch: Kanis Park has become one of the actually nice tasks for the parks department-- you have the skatepark, a pickleball court, we replaced the play area, we're restoring the basketball courts. When I initially headed out there, there wasn't much going on, and now it's packed.

Georgie Launet: Leland has a extremely natural and imaginative eye that you can see in the way they've added the strolling paths, for instance. From the day we developed the very first little thing at Kanis, we had no concept the snowball effect it would have..

Leland Couch: I use Kanis as an example for other locations where we can establish other amenities and as an example of why it's so crucial to do that. It's naturally a deterrent to criminal offense while providing a public resource. We have to invest in our parks.

Georgie Launet: Kanis is among the raddest skateparks I've been to, and I've been all over the world skating. "All roads result in Kanis" is what we 'd state en route home from a skate trip because when you get home from a skate journey, all you wan na do is skate Kanis.

Oby Berry: The last time I went up there, there were so many individuals there skating. I do not skate as much now, however I still dream about skating. I'm thankful people are still skating it.