O’side grants YMCA 25-year lease extension

By Samantha Nelson OCEANSIDE

— The Joe and Mary Mottino Family YMCA has received a 25year extension on its property lease in Jim Wood Park at Rancho Del Oro.

The City Council approved the lease extension on May 3. Original plans for the YMCA first started 25 years ago in 1997 when the City Council at the time awarded $450,000 for the construction of YMCA recreational facilities at the park.

Today, the YMCA is considering expanding its current facilities within their leasehold area of the park, but those plans were not included in the lease extension agreement approved by the council. Real Estate Manager Vicki Gutierrez noted that process would require a completely separate lease amendment at the council’s discretion.

Over the last 25 years of operating in Jim Wood Park, the YMCA has provided “over 1 million unique experiences” for local members according to Executive Director Roberto Trada.

Trada told the City of Tod Swank pushing his board along a sidewalk in a captivating black-andwhite image. Brittain’s picture made it on the cover of TransWorld and is widely considered one of the most recognizable skating images ever.

Council that the YMCA has provided over 300 free swim lessons, distributed 1,250 fresh produce boxes, 1,600 scholarships and has served over 3,000 children through day camps and youth sports programs. He also noted how the YMCA provided childcare access to first responders and other essential workers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The YMCA is launching a preschool and is close to opening classes to combat youth and adult social isolation and mental health issues.

“Looking to the future, we are excited to continue defining ourselves as a leader in wellbeing and positive youth development,” Trada said.

While supportive of the services the YMCA provides, some council and public members were concerned about its plans for expansion taking up more parkland. Mayor Esther Sanchez voted against the lease extension due to this potential issue.

“I am concerned that this is not a complete agreement,” Sanchez said.

“Like every photographer, you want to put a book out of your work,” Brittain said. “A book kind of lasts forever. I wanted to show some of my best shots and give props to the skaters.” eral years, submitting his photos to Carlsbad-based Transworld Skateboarding magazine. Eventually, the popular skateboarding magazine hired Brittain as photo editor.

Brittain was born and raised in Fallbrook but now lives in Encinitas, where he archives thousands of images from his career as a magazine photographer. While surfing and skating in the 1960s, he was a product of societal change.

But his life changed forever when his neighbor, pro skater Wally Inouye, landed him a job at the Del Mar Skate Ranch in 1978.

After spending 20 years providing classic skateboarding images within the glossy pages of the popular skateboarding magazine, Brittain left to start The Skateboard Mag, where he worked for 13 years.

“(The Skateboard Mag) was social media before social media,” Brittain said. “People would wait two months for it to come out.” popularity, producing the first skateboarding magazine in 1964, Quarterly Skateboarder.

But safety “experts” reportedly deemed the sport to be unsafe and urged stores to stop selling them, causing a crash in the sport’s popularity.

Regardless, Brittain continued to shoot the sport, documenting rising stars like Mike McGill, who invented the McTwist, a 540-degree inverted mute grab, and Tony Hawk, landing the first-ever 900 at the 1999 X Games and helping catapulting the sport to new heights.

Borrowing a friend’s camera, Brittain discovered his love for photography and started shooting skaters with a Kodachrome at the Skate Ranch for sev-

During the bookstore signing, Brittain also touched on the origins of skating in 1947 in La Jolla. As counterculture took hold in the 60s, Brittain said skating exploded in

In recent years, Brittain has experienced an increased interest in his photographs from the ’80s and ’90s, which many younger enthusiasts consider vintage works. Catalina

Felicitas tall inh black and white.