MARTINSBURG, W.Va. – For 10 years, skateboarders in Martinsburg ollied and tre-flipped in peace on an empty concrete slab, hidden behind trees on an embankment near a busy highway. After the closure of a city-run skate park in 2013, the skaters used wood and cinder blocks to build their own ramps and jumps, with permission from the property’s owner.
A skateboard nailed to a tree, graffiti of grimacing monsters and numerous empty energy-drink cans point to a place that was wholly the skaters’ in spirit – though not legally.
“It takes a lot of work and effort to maintain your own space,” said Chace Amos, a skater who frequented the skate park. “There’s a camaraderie around it.”
Then Tim Pool – a deep-pocketed right-wing video sensation – got in a dispute with the skaters and bought the land the skate park sits on. Skateboarding in Martinsburg has never been the same.
Pool’s purchase of the improvised skate park has riled skateboarders in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle – where he lives – and sparked a debate about both how much politics and how much of Pool’s money belongs