By Kelly Morgan,Staff Writer
1,000 hit Lost Valley for skateboard park benefit.

AUBURN – In a big push to raise funds for a skateboarding park, supporters of the Skate Lewiston-Auburn Movement set up camp at Lost Valley on Saturday with a rail competition, freestyle demos, live music an more.

About 1,000 people were there throughout the day, said Jodd Bowles, who helped organize the event, which was billed as the “Lost Valley Winter Jam For SLAM.” He wanted to see another 1,000 riders and spectators crowding the slopes.

“What happened is, it’s just 5 degrees colder out there than we needed it to be,” he said as he prepared to videotape one of the bands.

The air was frigid, but that didn’t stop snowboarders from lining up to fly off a jump set up on Big Buck, or some of the crowd from hanging out to listen to bands that included AS-IZ, Graveyard BBQ, Feight, Dead Season and Nobis.

Near the main lodge entrance, a New York company called Garage Manufacturing was parked with a tent where skateboarders could demo Softrucks – stationary trucks that replace wheels on the bottom of a skateboard deck to make it easier for users to practice tricks.

Joe Raia, owner of Garage Manufacturing, said he’d brought his products up for the event as a way to support the sport of skateboarding. He’d also brought some skaters from his demo team, including pro Wil Waldon, 29, of Alfred, N.Y., and Chris Peterson, 14, of Winthrop, who also skates for Twin City Boarders in Lewiston.

Peterson’s father, Erik Peterson, was nearby overseeing a fenced-in area where snowskates were set out for anyone to try. The plastic skateboard-style decks are mostly flat, with no wheels, so riders can use them to try rail tricks and jumps on snow.

Peterson said he supports the skate park effort because there are more skateboarders than baseball and football players in the country, but in many areas there are few places to skate. He drives his son to an indoor skate park in Rye, N.H., at least once a week, spending 3 hours on the road.

A park for Lewiston and Auburn, he said, “is way overdue. It is.”