Skatopia.net is how I found my skate crew
My name is Ken Hada and I run the Skatopia Skatepark website. To begin with, my High School reunion was rounding its 30th cycle. And although I liked high school. My time spent at Skatopia was more important to me. In fact, it was one of the greatest times of my life. With this in mind, I thought about how to find my old crew.
And remember this was before Facebook. There were fewer ways to find people. Since I made websites for a living I decided to make one for Skatopia. And I hoped this website would somehow find my friends from way back in 1979. You know to build it and they will come.
Not long after the website was up people search engined theirSkatopia way to Staopia. And they contributed to the message forum. Although most of the usernames have become inactive you can actually see the birth of this site in that forum. Soon the forum was teeming with people. I had no idea so many people felt the way I did. And meetups began to happen. Eventually, Skatopia Reunions began to happen. And after just a few short years from the creation of the site I was sitting in a skatepark with my crew.
Therefore I hope Vic Peloquin (the man who built ran and owned the original Skatopia Skatepark) knows of the impact he has made. The impact to skateboarding and to each of us who loved Skatopia. In conclusion (and I know this might sound corny to some) this place will always be with me.
Finally, I reunited with Vic Pelquin (the man who made Skatopia). First at his home and second via Zoom. And I of course told him about the impact he had on skateboarding.