Why Charleston Still Needs a Better Skatepark

The need for an indoor skateboard park is never more apparent than in the wet winter months here in West Virginia. There are a number of indoor facilities within several hours drive of Charleston but if road trips are not an option then what is one to do? This is the part where I mourn the passing of two indoor parks that existed in the mountain state nearly ten years apart. The first was Iguana and the second was Focus.

Iguana started out as just a skate shop located near the Marshall University campus in Huntington, WV. It was 1991 or 1992 when the shop relocated to a bigger building on the east end of town. The store was expanded and the door in the back wall led to an indoor set up that included a large half pipe, a bank ramp, several mid sized (3 ft.) to not so mid sized (6 ft.) quarter pipes, and eventually a nice 3 ft. mini which was bowled off on one end. The scene at Iguana was progressive. The skateboarding scene was evolving toward a more technical street style and vertical skateboarding was suffering the backlash of kids in ridiculously over sized jeans riding around really slow while trying to do kick flips. It was a time of change in skateboarding and the scene at Iguana was hella progressive in that era. This was a scene that spawned much good skating and many fond memories. Iguana gave birth to the likes of early Alien Workshop pro John Drake, skate artist Don Pendelton, and several more kids too numerous to mention. Sadly the shop and park closed and we were left to do what we had done since day one and that was hit the streets or backyard ramps if we were so lucky. This was a weird time in skateboarding history.