Local Provo Indoor Skatepark Gives Students a New Place to Skate and Support a Good Cause

A non-profit organization called The Carry On Foundation teaches young people important life lessons through the sport of skateboarding.

The Carry On Foundation, also the nonprofit arm of Provo-based Thread, was founded by Colby and McKenzie Bauer in 2015, according to their website.

“Our mission is to use action sports to teach resilience skills, promote mental health and foster the development of confidence, skills, relationships and character,” said Dave Lowery, program director of Carry On. “The goal is to help them become better people. »

Carry On offers classes for young people aged 3 to 17 and a single weekly adult class for those 18 and over.

“Skateboarding helps you learn a lot of skills,” Lowery said. “Overcoming your fears, setting goals and working to achieve them, learning from your failures, getting back up after a fall.”

Although the main goal of the skate park is to teach life lessons through skate lessons, everyone has the opportunity to skate in the park every week. On their websiteThere is a scheduling option where you can reserve a 2 hour time slot for fast or slow pace open skating, $10 or $8 respectively.

“We open to the public on Thursday evenings and Saturdays. It’s gained some momentum and I think it’ll gain even more momentum once it gets cold,” Lowery said. “It’s just a way for us to supplement our course income, because we’re a nonprofit.”

As winter approaches, Carry On’s indoor skate park offers skaters a place where they can continue skating, without having to battle the cold and falling snow.

“I mean, when I moved here, I was surprised there wasn’t an indoor park near Provo,” said local skater Tyson Sitterud. “I’ll still go out, but skating in the cold is a whole different matter.”

In addition to being indoor, the park includes two half-pipes of different sizes and a large bowl for skating.

“My favorite parts of the skate park are definitely the bowl and the mini ramp,” said skate park regular Chance Power. “There aren’t a lot of good bowls in Utah. Having a good bowl indoors and easy to skate is super nice.

“If you have kids who want to learn how to skate, send them to us,” Lowery said. “If you love what we do and are a skater yourself, come for the free skating that supports our program. We want to be part of the community.