Montana won the summer

Three grand openings in four weeks. Philipsburg kicked it off on July 11, 2026, with the official opening of its Evergreen Skateparks build, rideable since winter: a big bowl with terrain for every skill level and a pavilion for the parents.

Two weeks later Ennis, a fly-fishing town that calls itself Trout Town USA, opened a Dreamland park with a main bowl shaped like a trout, a painted rainbow trout filling its floor, and a rideable metal trout standing next to it. The Lions Club donated the land, the town's kids championed the campaign that raised the roughly $300,000 it took to build, and the Dreamland crew leaned all the way into the theme.

Then on August 8, 2026, the town of Elmo, on the Flathead Reservation, opened its own Evergreen-built park for the CSKT community, with full-court basketball alongside and lights and restrooms on the way. Montana Pool Service and the Montana Skatepark Association pushed all three projects across the line. That's the crew backed by Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, and they keep quietly turning small Montana towns into skatepark towns. Whatever they're doing out there, more of it.

Seattle's big one

Rainier Beach might be the project of the year. A community group spent years fundraising and pushing the city, and at the end of June 2026 Evergreen's crew finished pouring 11,500 square feet of street and transition terrain at the Rainier Beach Playfield. The skatepark budget ran $4.35 million, state, city, county, and community money pulling together. The city spent the summer finishing guard rails and the rest of the site and plans an official ribbon cutting this fall; the locals didn't wait.

Venice got its park back

The original Venice Beach skatepark, the one that's been in every LA beach skate vacation clip since 2009, reopened August 15, 2026, after a renovation. The Skatepark Project ran it, Nicolai Marciano helped pay for it, and riders like Jesse Martinez and Ishod Wair helped shape the design. Same sand, same palm trees, fresh concrete.

Up the coast, Malibu cut the ribbon on its first permanent park at Malibu Bluffs on June 20, 2026, with a Go Skateboarding Day jam, a day early. California Skateparks designed it: 12,500 square feet of street, flow bowl, spine, and banks with the Pacific over your shoulder. The city put $4.1 million into the build, and X Games Club LA brought demos, Tom Schaar included. It replaces the temporary park Malibu limped along with for years.

And in Livermore, California, the Sunken Gardens park grew a $1.9 million concrete pump track next to the existing ramps, with shade and accessible paths. Open since June 17, 2026.

Florida heat

Pompano Beach opened the summer's biggest park on July 22, 2026. New Line Skateparks built 20,000 square feet of street and transition at Community Park, free to ride and open to every kind of wheel. The build cost $1.8 million, and the centerpiece is a custom Pompano fish sculpture you can grind. Jamie Foy and Zion Wright headlined the opening demos.

Down in the Keys, Marathon got its park back on June 23, 2026. The old one was shut down for structural issues in 2023 and never reopened; Platform Group built the replacement with bowls, quarters, and street obstacles, all-wheel from day one.

All around the map

Columbia, Maryland: Blandair Regional Park opened Howard County's largest skatepark on June 5, 2026, about 15 years after residents started asking for it. Lighted, 15,000 square feet, a Spohn Ranch build, and the locals have already named one feature the death gap.

Middleborough, Massachusetts: seven years of committee meetings, grants, and fundraisers turned the former DPW yard on Wareham Street into a bowl, rails, and ramps, replacing the 25-year-old park at Peirce Playground. Opened June 27, 2026.

Cleburne, Texas: Hulen Skatepark, an American Ramp Company build, opened June 11, 2026. All wheels welcome, pegs allowed if they're covered, and the gates are open 6am to 11pm.

Ishpeming, Michigan: the concrete cured in October 2025, but this Upper Peninsula iron town threw its ribbon cutting on July 2, 2026. American Ramp Company built the $350,000 transition park with bowl corners the community picked in design meetings.

Rochester, Michigan: the city's first public skatepark opened July 14, 2026, a plaza-style Spohn Ranch design that a local nonprofit called SPLAT spent years pushing across the line.

Mansfield, Ohio: Skate Ohio turned a set of dead tennis courts at Maple Lake Park into Bad Magic Skatepark, opened July 29, 2026. Best park name of the summer, no contest.

Pleasanton, Texas: the Bob & Verna Byrd Skatepark cut the ribbon July 23, 2026, on its new bowl, phase three of the park and an Artisan Skateparks build.

Breaking ground

Worth watching between now and the next issue: in Kyle, Texas, SPA Skateparks is still pouring the $3.4 million all-wheels park at Gregg-Clarke Park, no opening date yet. Grindline has one done and one to go: their renovation of the Davis, California park reopened September 18, 2026, and the final phase of ROC City in Rochester, New York is still pointed at October. Evergreen wraps up Creston Park in Portland this fall, a $5 million project and the city's first covered skatepark. New Line finished Colfax, California and the town cuts the ribbon October 3, 2026. Tucson broke ground June 30, 2026, on Cushing Street, a Spohn Ranch build tucking Arizona's first shaded skatepark under the I-10 overpass.

All sixteen are on RampMap now with builder credit, and the ones still under construction go on when they open. If your town's new park isn't on it, add it and we'll feature it next issue. See you in October, when the fall pours start landing.

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