Teeth To The Wind - Talkeetna Skatepark Ramps Up

A skatepark in Talkeetna has been on the town’s wish list for almost a decade.  The project has recently gained momentum, and this summer brought the first shredders to the designated site.

The idea of a local skatepark was born in 2015, when Talkeetna’s local library was relocated. A group of parents started a grassroots effort to transform the former library site into a community skate park. The Borough was supportive, and the site sits adjacent to the Wildwood Playground.  Raising the amount of money needed, however, was daunting. Over the years, the project lost momentum.

But a tragedy in 2024 brought the project back to life. Michael Gardner, a well-known alpinist and climbing guide for the Talkeetna-based, Alaska Mountaineering School, fell to his death, while climbing in Nepal. Gardner had a passion for skateboarding. According to current Skatepark Committee Board members, Gardner had been interested in helping make the skatepark in Talkeetna a reality.

After Gardner’s death, Caitlin Palmer, co-owner of the climbing school, was inspired to reignite the project in his honor. 

Skatepark Committee Board Member, Shae Pipkin, said that Grindline, a Seattle-based skatepark builder, was invited, by Palmer, to Talkeetna to hear ideas.  

“James from Grindline held a big meeting at the Hangar and had everyone weigh in for the design concepts & stuff.” 

Board Members Brad Wakefield, and Pipkin, elaborate on the design the community came up with.

“They designed the whole thing to be beginner friendly. We want it to be used by everybody and it’ll be used mostly by probably the youth, so to make it easy to skate and accessible to all kinds of wheeled sports, so roller blades, scooters, not just skateboards.” 

“And then, there’s stuff to work up to.  That bowl gets pretty deep so, even if you are like an advanced skateboarder, you can still have fun with it.  There’s gonna be that pretty good sized mini-ramp, like a little half-pipe thing.”

The Committee has held a variety of events, raising over $90,000 so far. The estimated cost to finish the largest phase of the skatepark is a little over $400,000. Wakefield had the idea of creating some stickers and t-shirts to sell. The design they chose, is a tribute to Gardner, with help from Gardner’s friend, Porter Crockard.

“I worked with one of his climbing buddies, Porter.  He kind of initiated that… “Hey, if you guys make stickers, this was Michael’s Spirit Animal – raccoon with a mullet, cut-off flannel”… I guess he commonly would be climbing without a shirt on or just a flannel without sleeves.  So he shot that idea over and then we were like, this is great, let’s run with it, let’s make a T-shirt.

When the Borough announced that Wildwood Playground would be closed for maintenance during the months of May and June, leaving children without a local playground, the Skatepark Committee made a decision.

“We decided to buy some temporary ramps. We didn’t want to leave that lot empty another summer, so we figured this would be the best way to get kids out there as fast as possible and not have it sit vacant for another year.  The day we put it up, a Dad and two sons came and helped us put it up.  Now there’s kids out there using them.  There’s a lot of kids that came with scooters. There was kids there with remote control cars and then a kid with a bike, a BMX bike.”

Pipkin and Wakefield say, that with the right donation, anyone can choose a name for the park.  But for now, “Teeth to the Wind” is the slogan the Skatepark has adopted for their t-shirts and stickers.  

According to Wakefield, ”Teeth to the Wind” is a saying that represents what Gardner brought to the mountains and to life in general.  To dream big and take on challenges.  

And in Michael Gardner’s honor, the Talkeetna Skatepark Committee is doing just that.  In Talkeetna, I’m Colleen Love