NEWS & OPINION FEATURE
A NEW BEGINNING
Oso Skate Park enters new territory after three years of setting the scene
Pg. 6 JAN 13 - JAN 26, 2021 - QCNERVE.COM
BY RYAN PITKIN
other tenants. The campus will anchor what Flywheel developers are calling the Trailhead District, located just north of the Sugar Creek Road light-rail station. It’s a big expansion for Oso, which opened its original location in November 2017, as the park will expand its indoor space from 4,500 square feet to 6,000, then add another 12,000 square feet of outdoor space in Phase 2. The team will be a great fit in the campus, as the Oso space has never been solely about skating. The team has regularly hosted art shows and live music FREE SKATING BETWEEN ROUNDS AT A 2019 COMPETITION IN OSO SKATE PARK. performances in their physical activity. We also provide a space for art to 933 Hub space, and looks forward to continuing to do so once it becomes safe be displayed and sold and for live music to be played for all ages and audiences. And so, in the time again. “Our goal was to make a positive impact in the we’ve been open we’ve been able to connect with community using skating as our conduit to do so,” kids, we’ve been able to connect with families and Gripper says of the first three years at Oso. “So with adults alike, and just spread positivity as best we can Oso, we were able to have a space where people through the walls that we have.” We catch up with the Oso crew at their Belmont could come and have positive influence through
Traversing the empty north-Charlotte warehouse that will soon be home to a number of local arts venues, Oso Skate Park co-founders Brett Coppedge and Phillip Gripper come to a space that will soon house Charlotte Art League. The remnants of a long-abandoned church still sit in the space, with three bright blue, velvet-carpeted steps leading up to a stage that looks like a set piece from the HBO series The Righteous Gemstones. They’re trailed by three reps with Flywheel Group, which owns the large property at 4327 Raleigh St. and is spearheading the creation of this north-Charlotte arts and entertainment hub. One of the men tells Coppedge that the stage will be dismantled and discarded if nobody wants it, but Coppedge won’t hear of it. Once the carpet is stripped from the stage, he points out, it’s a perfect plazastyle stair set for a skate park, which he, Gripper and co-founder Chris Hostetler plan to build on 6,000 square feet of adjoining space in the warehouse. “This is hilarious; we’ll use it,” Coppedge says as he hops up the three steps, his mind swirling with ideas. “You’ve already got the stairs so I don’t have to build them. We’ll turn this trash into treasure!” On Jan. 15, the Oso trio will close their original location at Hub 933 in Charlotte’s Belmont neighborhood and begin their move four miles north to Raleigh Street, where they will join Charlotte Art League, Aerial CLT, and Charlotte Film Society’s new three-screen arthouse cinema, along with OSO CO-OWNERS (FROM LEFT) PHILLIP GRIPPER, BRENT COPPEDGE AND CHRIS HOSTETLER.
PHOTO BY GRANT BALDWIN
PHOTO BY GRANT BALDWIN
location on a Saturday morning as they prepare for the last Community Unity Day at the space. The team has partnered with outdoor adventure company Issa Vibes Adventures to host the monthly event since October 2018, gathering dozens of volunteers to make sandwiches for local homeless services organization Roof Above. I ask each of the ownership group their favorite memory from the location that they’ll be vacating between Jan. 15-31, and the range of responses gives a glimpse at how varied the activities within Oso have been. Coppedge looks back fondly on a specific show in 2018 that featured Venezuelan refugee rock group Zeta, during which the guys got to skate a portion of the park while the crowd danced around them. Hostetler reminisces on popular art events like the annual Fried Chicken Art Party, but also on a broader scale, the feeling of watching a kid finally pull off a trick or drop-in on a quarter pipe for the first time — “after busting ass all day, finally sticking it.” Gripper will remember competitions like Queen City Kings, bringing people in from all over the country and watching them push themselves to land tricks they had never done before. “My experience, it’s been greater than what I had dreamed it could be. Just seeing the look on someone’s face when they do something for the first time like dropping in or even playing their first show,” says Gripper, who plays drums with local
