Ocean View opens Kahuku Grind Skate Park after nine years of effort

Ocean View finally has a place to skate closer to home, and the new Kahuku Grind Skate Park stands as a small but hard-won payoff after more than nine years of fundraising, planning and volunteer labor by the Ocean View Skatepark Association.

The temporary park opened at Kahuku Park in Hawaiian Ocean View Estates, at 92-8607 Paradise Circle Mauka, after the County of Hawaii Department of Parks and Recreation approved the design and construction began in February. Volunteers worked two or three days a week, often for 10 hours a day, to build the project by hand. The skate area occupies about 58 by 28 feet inside a county recreation site that already includes an ADA-accessible pavilion, playground, restrooms, an outdoor basketball court and sports fields.

The association said its goal has always been a public skatepark in Ocean View, with a safe and accessible space for children and families that supports habitual fitness activity and community engagement. But after years of waiting on a larger plan, the community chose not to delay any longer. The result is a temporary park that gives South Kona and Kaū families something usable now, even as the broader vision continues to move through county bureaucracy.

Financial support helped push the project over the finish line. County council records show a grant was introduced for the Ocean View Skatepark Association to buy building supplies, and materials for the temporary build were funded by a $10,000 grant from Council Member Michelle Galimba plus a matching $10,000 from Parks and Recreation. The association, formed as a Hawaii domestic nonprofit corporation in September 2022, said its first phase was underway by late 2025.

The larger dream has not disappeared. Parks and Recreation still lists a separate long-term project, Kahuku Park Skatepark, described as master planning and preparation of an environmental assessment for a new skatepark and related amenities for the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates subdivision. For now, the temporary park gives local skaters a first dedicated place to ride, and it marks a visible step for a rural community that kept pushing until something concrete was built.