By Blake Rasmussen

Friday, 02 December 2011

Youth-friendly spot a second home for some

ROUND ROCK — Allen Dehn, all of 25 years old, looks far more like the skateboarders he tends to than the teacher, business owner and babysitter he plays every day.

The skinny, flame-red haired co-owner of Capital Skate Park and Pro Shop arrives to work looking like any one of his hundreds of regulars, decked out in a Volcom hoodie, corduroy pants and scruffy facial hair that makes him look a bit like former American soccer pro Alexi Lalas.

Yet every day Dehn and the crew at Capital Skate Park spend hours running after-school programs, teaching people to skateboard, helping younger skaters with homework and providing daily supervision for kids as young as 2 and adults as old as 86.

“It’s really just for the kids, to give them a place to go,” Dehn said.

Besides giving lessons and holding after-school programs, Capital Skate Park also holds lock-ins and semi-weekly concerts aimed at the high school crowd, usually featuring local high school or college bands.

Dehn said he also runs camps during school breaks, like the upcoming winter break camps from Dec. 19–23 and Dec. 26–30. During the after-school programs, camps and lock-ins, kids play dodgeball, do homework, socialize and, of course, skate.

“Pretty much anything besides play video games at your house,” Dehn said.

Despite being only 25 years old, Dehn has run skate parks since 2002 when he was at Ramp Ranch in Georgetown. The move to Capital Skate Park, which opened in 2007, was a calculated move to get closer to Austin. Dehn said he expects to move even closer to Austin within the next few years, likely upgrading the park’s size from its current 7,500 square feet.

The crowd at Capital Skate Park skews pretty young, mostly teenagers and some preteens. Dehn said the youth movement is just the way the sport is changing.

“The younger ones are pushing the sport to get better,” he said. “It’s the young guys that are killing themselves and progressing.”

The kids, Dehn said, come from a variety of schools and backgrounds and probably would not know each other if it weren’t for the skate park.

“They all met and became friends because of here,” he said.

Two such friends are Sean O’Neill, 14, and Robert Nault, 16, both of whom come to Capital Skate Park every weekend during the school year and every day during the summer, if not more.

O’Neill started skating about two years ago and said he likes “everything” about Capital Skate Park, but especially the rails.

Nault, who at 16 is among the older regulars, has been skating for about four years and said he makes the trip to the skate park from Dripping Springs every day.

To keep the O’Neills and Naults happy as they get older, better and braver, Dehn said he wants to improve Capital Skate Park and building even higher ramps.

The point, he said, is to make it a fun, safe experience for the park’s not-so-little family of skateboarders.

“It’s supposed to be fun,” Dehn said. “If it’s not fun, why do it?”

Capital Skate Park and Pro Shop
2008 Picadilly Drive
Round Rock
251-4500

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