The abandoned Vancouver transit tunnel project, known affectionately as Leeside, has become the raw DIY skateboarding enclave to visit year-round. It's gone through various stages ever since the late Lee "Avers" Matasi discovered the tunnel while he was in high school. Lee decided to clean it up, use its walls as a graffiti canvas and its shelter and concrete floor for skateboarding during the coastal rains. After Lee's tragic passing on December 3rd, 2005 (he was only 23), the local skate community looked at Leeside with far more proactive and passionate eyes. This ongoing memorial project energizes a grassroots skate-movement that initiates tunnel clean-ups, obstacle builds, and fundraising for further development and for all to enjoy.

Leeside is located under East Hastings Street at Highway #1 near the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). The tunnel is approximately 90 feet long and 40 feet wide. Lights line the ceiling of it, and it's almost better to skate in the early evening because the middle portion of the tunnel can be fairly dim during the day. Leeside's skate obstacles and their arrangements are usually planned by a core group of builders, and some obstacles seemingly appear out of nowhere by random contributors. Regardless, every hand made structure that lines the tunnel opens up new possibilities that nurture the adaptive nature of skateboarding.

"It's probably been about 10 years that we've been skating down there," says Seb Templer, a veteran Vancouver roller who's seen the tunnel in various stages over the years and is a part of its present progress. "The first time I went down there, there was already things to skate. We'd bring in wooden contraptions, and a week later they'd be set up in different spots. We weren't pouring concrete at the time. It was kind of a dumping ground for skate obstacles that had no storage—we knew they'd get used."

Seb Templer took the time to shed some more light on Leeside specifics:

Cleaning Up

"The city took the wood stuff out from there a few times. Because it was all wood early on, there ended up being a big fire down there, so the city cleared it all out and banned skating in the tunnel. They eventually put down 6 inches of double road base gravel that they steamrolled. It had to be pick-axed, shoveled, wheel barreled and swept—not a fun mission."

"We ended up cleaning one area out and there had been some minor concrete work, like fixed barriers and a wallride, around the time Lee passed away. The media and city officials took notice, and the project became more recognized. More funding became available because Michelle Pezel [owner of Antisocial and president of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition] started raising money through the shop for all of the concrete and materials. We put our own money out there, then Michelle would buy our receipts. Aside from pizza and a couple beers, nobody gets paid to build. It's a true DIY memorial spot."

"Michelle's been really good about it, and she'll arrange nights where we'll clean up or build and skate. She'll bring tunes or even project a video down there. She's been really instrumental in the progress of the whole thing."

Recycled Filler

"After the whole tunnel was cleared of gravel, we took every spray can, beer can, and bike part that we found, and from the top we just filled the form of what's now the steep QP [shown in the Hill Sulpher photo below]."

"All the gravel that we shoveled out of Leeside, we use as fill for obstacles, and as cement mix as well. We have to sift the bigger rocks out of the gravel to get a good finish on the concrete, but it works. Sometimes we use pre-mixed cement where you just add water, and sometimes we use sand to mix, depending on what we want to do and what the weather's like."

DIY

"Leeside has had plans, but none of them have necessarily been fully followed. It's somewhat of a democracy. There's a solid 10 or so people that are down there to help every time, and at least 10-15 more that come down to lend a hand. Not everyone has worked on every obstacle—random people have showed up and built something, and we usually just work with it regardless of if it sucked or not. It's nice that way because it's nobody's one brain working on it."

"It's all hand-stacked concrete and the forms are wood. Renting a cement mixer was a waste of money, so we bought a generator and a mixer. My garage is full of cinder blocks and bags of cement just waiting for the next project down there."

Moving Forward

"I think we just need to keep it simple, and move all the way down the tunnel with transitions, banks, and ledges. Once it's filled up, then we'll see what the city wants to do. Luckily, I don't deal with the city, but they're very aware of the spot. Michelle Pezel and others do a really good job handling that. Basically, the city's vibe with letting us do our own thing down there was: ‘If we don't hear about it, we don't care about it.' Concrete and skateboarding are definitely the best things that happened to that tunnel."

Leeside Links

Click here to see the VOX footwear team building at Leeside for their Black & Blue video series.

You can find out more about donating to the Leeside tunnel project by visiting Leeside's MySpace page and contacting Antisocial.

Click here to see Rick McCrank's 2008 éS "Avers" shoe, and here to learn more about the Lee Matasi Gallery at the Ottawa School of Art (of which Lee was a graduate). Also, summer 2009's Emerica Wild In The Streets event in Vancouver will also benefit Leeside.

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Related:
The Follow Up: Leeside Halloween Jam

Other In The Park columns:
Vancouver Plaza, BC
The Tuff City Park, Tofino, BC
Vic West, Esquimalt, BC
The Schoolyard Park, Mapleridge, BC
Seylynn, Part 1: A Historical Glance
Seylynn, Part 2: The Bowl Series
The Michael Komenda Memorial Skatepark, Winnipeg, MB