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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Sage Swinton

Hunter's first wheelchair accessible bowl in new beach skate park

Professional skateboarder George Richards and Paralympian Paul Nunnari at South Newcastle Beach Skate Park which has officially opened. Picture by Simone De Peak

The South Newcastle Beach skate park includes the Hunter's first wheelchair accessible skate bowl.

The park was re-opened on Friday after a four-year, $20 million upgrade of the Bathers Way site, which includes the new WCMX bowl.

Wheelchair users can enter and exit the bowl via a tunnel to the ground level. Paralympian Paul Nunnari said he wasn't aware of any other skate bowl in the world that had such a feature.

"Basically if I want to drop into a bowl, it's no problem dropping in, the biggest problem is getting out," Nunnari said. "You've got to have someone with a rope or someone hanging off the edge pulling you up. It's not worth the hassle.

"So I don't do it, but here you can, which is awesome."

Nunnari, who won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games in athletics, said the park would provide an inclusive place for wheelchair users.

"I look at it from two perspectives," he said. "One, it's an area just to hang out that is totally inclusive.

"The fact that anyone can come, whether or not they do wheelchair skateboarding or just come and hang out with friends who are skateboarding, is really, really awesome.

"And second to that the skate-ability of the bowl, to have it WCMX inclusive is just phenomenal.

"I'm just really excited for little children who are wheelchair users to be able to skate with their peers and not just be looking on the sidelines.

"Having the opportunity to do that in a way that's dignified, that's safe, but in a way that they can do it pretty independently, is awesome."

The skate park has been designed for all skill levels, providing an alternative to the advanced-level facilities at Empire Park.

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