Life in a Northwest mountain town is hard on a skateboarder. As I’ve mentioned ad nauseum in this space, I’ve been skating since the early 1980s. So it’s with an all-too-well-informed opinion (ask my poor wife) that I tell you this: Ask any skateboard addict what the Central Oregon skate scene needs most, and the answer is very, very likely going to be “An indoor skatepark.”

That answer would be just ahead of “a skatepark with lights,” also lacking here in Central Oregon except for the Madras skatepark, a bit of a drive from most other Central Oregon cities and, like those without lights, not guaranteed to be dry in the fall through spring, when an indoor park is most sorely missed. And of course, an indoor park would also have lights.

Some skateboarders diversify and snowboard in the winter, but for myself and other devout skateboarders, other board sports just don’t suffice. They’re cousin sports, perhaps, but nothing competes, in my mind with the simplicity, utility, beauty and radness of a skateboard. That’s just how I roll. Literally.

And when conditions are at their most heartbreakingly wintry, finding somewhere to skate can prove challenging.

Advice for the forlorn skateboarder in winter

Trygve “Tryg” Bjornstad and Mitch Wettig understand the need for an indoor park in Bend is real. They’re partners in an effort to bring to life The Boardhouse, the indoor skatepark they envision for Bend. It will have a street-obstacle area, mini ramp, mini bowl and possibly a vert ramp, that last depending on the height of the ceiling available in whatever commercial space they find to serve as home for the park, which has yet to be located.

Bjornstad and his wife, Caitlin Bjornstad, who is handling the messaging end of the skatepark effort, have a 14-year-old son named Ollie, and a 12-year-old daughter named Anders, both of whom skate.

After 20 years in construction, Tryg began “going through a bunch of different ideas of how to be involved with boards — some sort of board — and the community and give back,” Caitlin said. “He went through a few different ideas that just didn’t hit, and when he said, ‘What if we bring back an indoor skatepark?’ it was kind of like, ‘Yeah, I actually feel like if we made it this community thing and really add more value than just a skatepark, then let’s go for it.’”

For over a decade, from 2003 to 2014, Bend had an indoor skatepark — The Truckstop, in its last iteration — in the First Street building now home to Hoops. Wettig was among those who skated there. Subsequently, longtime bend skater and snowboarder Gabe Triplette housed his Bearings Skate Academy skate-coaching operation in a small warehouse space near Bend High.

Ollie and Anders took lessons there before Triplette was forced to close at the onset of the pandemic shutdown. Triplette continues to teach private lessons and continues to teach, albeit without a home base, through his weekly summer “Booger Tour” skate camps, which visit public skateparks around the area, which Tryg has been accompanying this summer. The Bjornstads have also been helping amplify Bearings’ Booger Tours by making T-shirts and getting area companies to donate prizes and lunches to the student skaters.

The Boardhouse is envisioned as a cultural hub, a place of “inclusion, confidence, kindness, limit-pushing” as Caitlin put it in her initial email to Dropping In. It will be a place for beginners and core skaters alike, welcoming and encouraging girls, those with disabilities and other groups, with a small retail shop.

Initially, Caitlin said, the intention was to make it a for-profit skatepark, but the more they looked into it and the more feedback they got, the more it became obvious that it should be a nonprofit effort.

“It felt kind of intimidating to say we’re starting a nonprofit, and there are so many of them,” she said. “But then thinking of what we are doing, and looking at local businesses and donors and what might be the best way to actually help people be willing to give larger amounts was turning into a nonprofit

Of course, getting something as ambitious as their vision for the indoor park off the ground won’t come cheap. Their goal is to raise $1 million, which would cover a six-month build out, all ramps, labor, marketing and a salaried staff member, Tryg. The Boardhouse team recently had a professional photographer, Troy Nebeker, take photos of area skaters for a sizzle reel they’ll be putting together to begin fundraising.

Tactics, a board shop in downtown Bend, is among those who have been supportive of the skatepark effort, and The Boardhouse team will be on hand at Tactics’ space this weekend at Summer Fest to share more information. They’re working on building a website, so for now the best place to stay abreast of The Boardhouse’s doings is through its Instagram, @boardhousebend.

“We’ve been very particular about good energy and people who really want this for the community, really trying to avoid egos and selfishness,” Caitlin told me.

“My only selfish interest is an indoor place to skate in the winter,” I assured her.

“For sure. I mean, realistically, there’s obviously a little, and even with Tryg, it’s like, ‘I want to live my dream. How can I live my dream of helping people and creating this positive environment?’”