An opening celebration for the newly renovated skate park was held Saturday. The renovations were made possible by a grant from MVYouth.

One foot forward, one foot back. That’s what kids were told by Eliot Coutts at the Skate Jam on Sunday held at the Martha’s Vineyard Skate Park.

Three organizations that serve hundreds of Island youth have received grants totaling $511,000 from MVYouth, a community fund begun two years ago.

A project is in the works to refurbish the Vineyard skate park, which was built in 2003 and now needs repairs. Organizers need to raise $300,000.

What do skateboards, oysters and champagne have in common? That would be Art in the Park, a benefit for the Martha’s Vineyard Skatepark taking place this Sunday, August 18, from noon to 3 p.m. at Atria on Main street in Edgartown.

On Saturday, June 1, the Martha’s Vineyard Skate Park Association (MVSPA) will host a fundraiser at the Flatbread Company to raise money for improvements to the skate park. The event will feature live music by Ben Taylor, DCLA, 2nd Power and DJ Ricky Prime.

At age six, Elliot Vecchia witnessed his first skateboard trick as a kid on Circuit avenue kick flipped his way down the avenue.

“I was obsessed with skateboarding ever since,” Mr. Vecchia said, remembering how for years he begged his parents for a skateboard.

Island guy Elliott Vecchia’s new movie Natural Selection is a skateboarding film shot around Boston and Lowell. In a trailer for the movie, a cast of skateboarders do what they do best. They fly on their boards over stairs, railings, grassy hills, buildings, clouds; it is as if nothing is beyond the reach of their wheels. They do this not in a sound studio or generated on a computer screen. There is no high tech, no instruction manual or team, no coach and most of all no boundaries. It is the ethos of skating. Use what the urbanized world gives you and make it your plaything.

Skateboarders and their backers have high hopes for a meeting this Tuesday when board members at the Martha's Vineyard Ice Arena are expected to decide whether to lease arena land for use as a skateboard park.

Vineyard skateboarders finally got a nod of approval Monday night
from the keepers of the 150-foot square of land they see as a potential
home for an Island skate park.