Cool, dude

COEUR d’ALENE — When Woody McEvers arrived at the Coeur d’Alene skate park Wednesday afternoon, he thought it was to discuss an expansion plan with Parks Director Bill Greenwood.

Then, he saw a handful of current and former city officials waiting for him.

“What, are we voting on something?” the City Councilman wondered.

Nope. But when Greenwood and City Administrator Troy Tymesen pulled away a black cloth covering something big, McEvers got the reason he was there.

His name was etched in a stone monument, along with a color picture of his smiling, younger self with long, dark blond hair.

“Welcome to the Woody McEvers Skate Park,” it read. It included his quote, “Dude, make it cool.”

It is.

McEvers held his hand to his face as the crowd applauded and cheered on a sunny day.

“You guys are killing me. You’re killing me,” the man known for his surfer-dude attitude and laid-back vibes said as he wiped away tears.

“How’s it feel?” someone shouted.

“It’s weird right now?” he said. “I thought we don’t name parks after people.”

They do.

McEvers was delighted but humbled.

“It's way over my head,” he said.

The skate park off Northwest Boulevard near downtown was established in 2018 and funded by $350,000 from ignite cda, Coeur d’Alene's urban renewal agency, and $50,000 from the city’s capital improvement fund.

McEvers, a councilman since 2002 and running for re-election, was considered a driving force that made it happen.

Greenwood said when they removed the old skate park, just a stone’s throw away, they wanted the new one to be in that same area.

“We were able to develop this park with Woody's passions and ignite funding is really what did it,” Greenwood said. "We're here to honor him in that way because he's been an advocate from day one.”

Longtime skater Jason Olson said McEvers for years urged skateboarders to let the city know what they wanted and why a skate park was important.

“You got to get out there and let them know you’re here and you’re a member of society and a member of this community and you are a force,” McEvers told them.

Olson said McEvers was a “guiding light” for a young and growing skater crowd as they sought a home in Coeur d’Alene.

“He has been a lot of the glue that really brought a lot of us together,” Olson said.

Today, the skate park is crazy popular and on any given day, swarming with kids and young adults zipping around on wheels of all sorts, performing drops, grinds, flips, kicks and yes, wipe outs, too.

It’s considered one of the premier skate parks in the area.

Mayor Steve Widmyer said McEvers was well deserving of the honor.

“Woody, he believed in all these kids out here and he believed they deserved to have a great place,” he said.

Former Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem said the Woody McEvers Skate Park is a testament to passion and determination. McEvers possesses both.

“He never gave up. He just kept after it. He made friends with the skaters and befriended the rest of us to say, ‘This is something that has to be done.' I give him all the credit in the world.”

McEvers grew up on a skateboard, graduating to a surfboard, and eventually became a roller skater.

“I started skating on two by fours, wood and steel wheels,” he said.

He loves the sport.

“It's about the individual. You keep getting up, you keep learning and the kids around you are in the same boat and they encourage you,” he said.

A skate park is a great place to learn to keep getting back up after falling down, McEvers said.

“You don't give up. It's not a team thing. It's a very individual thing and I think it's good for the spirit and the young kids being able to accomplish things that they're enjoying,” he said.

McEvers, co-owner of Rustler’s Roost in Hayden, said he hasn’t tried out the skate park, and probably won’t.

“I haven’t because I don’t want to get hurt. It's tempting to put my skates on, come down at night when nobody's here and see if I can skate,” he said, laughing. “I know it's back here. But I'm, you know, getting older.”

But he’s still cool.