Regina’s Heritage Skatepark closes after 4 years

The Heritage Skate Park is shutting down, leaving local skaters searching for a new indoor home. Damian Smith has more.

After four years of operation, the Heritage Skatepark at the REAL District will no longer be in service.

For the Regina Skateboard Coalition (RSC), they’re now searching for another indoor skatepark in the city. The space opened in 2022.

“It was time, and I’ll leave it at that,” said Jared Sigethy, the secretary of the RSC.

With only outside skateparks available, skateboarders will now be forced to wait until the snow melts. For instructor William Spencer, he feels for those he teaches.

“Obviously, I’m very upset,” he said. “You can see all the people that are here right now that are trying to get in their last skate, but I feel like it’s the biggest loss is for the kids that started skating here.

Spencer has been skating for 20 years now and originally started at 13 years of age. His inspiration came from watching a program called “Under Attack Tour,” and never looked back. He remembers being that age, looking for a space to practice tricks.

“It’s their comfort space, the place that they feel welcome and they’re able to try anything and ask questions while doing it,” he said. “I feel like that’s the biggest loss because I know what it’s like to have a home park and to feel comfortable in that space. Then when you go to a new place, it can just be difficult to integrate.”

For many, the Heritage Skatepark was a place to develop skills but find identity as well.

“It’s a source of personal expression,” Spencer said. “It borders between art and sport. It’s very interesting how a person’s personality comes through with just the way that they push the weight of their body and expresses themselves with their trick selection.”

“There aren’t a lot of cities in Canada that have skateparks,” Sigethy said.

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Moving from London, Ont., Sigethy was happy to see the variety of options that he could take his talents to.

“It wasn’t until I moved to Regina that I was like, ‘Oh, I have an indoor facility where I can skate year-round?’ The City of Regina has worked with the skateboarders for three decades, we have the skater skate Plaza, we have the Rochdale Park, we have the little Imperial Park. There’s no shortage of places to skate outside of the streets, so the people that love skateboarding will always have a place to skate, it just won’t be when it’s like 40 below outside.”

The RSC will look to find another space by next winter.