Across the park, Kanani kicks hard toward a quarter pipe, raven hair flying. Nica, meanwhile, swaps roller skates for a deck to take daughter Kardiel for a spin. Hili is eight, Kanani is barefoot and Kardiel, still in diapers, is a natural—Nica Umeda skated until she was nine months pregnant. Welcome to a typical sesh at Roots Skatepark on Hawaii Island.
Built by skaters, for skaters, the Roots ohana is committed to improving the lives of local youth and families—including getting more wahine on wheels. "I was bummed that I was the only female out here, so I started the Roots Wahine Skate Club in 2023," says Kanani Alpis, who considers skateboarding her therapy. Within months the club had twenty-four members and became a mentoring program for 5- to 16-year-old girls. "Skating grows their self-esteem and breaks them out of their comfort zones. You don't reach your goals by being comfortable." Alpis also hosts kupuna (elder) sessions for the 65-and-older crowd. "My kuleana [responsibility] is to help build strong community connections between youth and kupuna through skating."
In tightknit Kapaau, the community realizes dreams like Roots Skatepark: An auntie lobbies for land, a neighbor lends an excavator, a local skater starts digging. Brian Sandlin is that skater, known in these parts as "the concrete king" (he or his company, Abstract Builders, helped pour every skate park on the island). But after the parcel was cleared adjacent to Kamehameha Park, the "dream went south," recalls Sandlin. "We had no money and the land just sat. It was a mess." Enter veteran skater Richey Riggs and a crew of volunteers who shared Sandlin's vision.
Kohala groms (young skaters) Gavin Olsen, Lincoln Thomas and Tai Murray (seen left to right) at Roots Skatepark, the fruit of a true grassroots effort to build a skater’s haven in this small and tight-knit Hawaii Island community.
Sandlin and Riggs donated years of Sundays, founded the nonprofit Roots Advocates for Youth and raised $30,000, including a Tony Hawk Foundation grant of $10,000 to get started. In 2010, Roots celebrated its phase one grand opening, only to stall for another decade. "This project embodies Kohala and skateboarding culture," says Riggs. "You fall? You get back up. You try again. It's about resilience and persistence." And about funding: Building skateparks is an expensive adventure. Luckily, Councilwoman Margaret Wille, whom Riggs says is responsible for getting skateparks fired up on Hawaii Island, secured $70,000 of Kohala District funds over two terms to help keep the dream alive. Roots dug in, holding bake and garage sales and selling limited-edition merch until they had enough money to pour almost three hundred cubic yards of concrete into what Sandlin calls a "playground for all ages."
And they're not done. Roots needs $500,000 to transform the park's central grassy expanse into a concrete bowl, add picnic tables and night lighting, and grow the food garden. It's a big ask, but experience shows phase three will take years to complete otherwise.
"This next generation? They're gonna be the hammers," says Kai Willey, once a Hawi grom (young skater) scolded for street skating back, now dad to Hili. "We literally can't imagine what they can accomplish."
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