Krudco Skateshop & Roc City Skatepark: Built Through Years of Rochester Skateboarding
If you’ve been around skateboarding in Rochester, NY for a while, you probably know that Roc City Skatepark didn’t happen overnight.
It took years of conversations, meetings, planning, setbacks, persistence, community support, and people who simply refused to let the idea die.
Krudco Skateshop has been part of that story from the beginning.
Not because we want a trophy for it. Not because we built the park ourselves. We didn’t. A lot of people, organizations, skaters, community members, designers, builders and people within the City of Rochester played important roles in making Roc City Skatepark what it is today.
But skateboarding has been Krudco’s world since 1994, and when Rochester had an opportunity to build the kind of public skatepark our city deserved, we knew we had to be involved.
From an Idea to Roc City Skatepark
Long before there was concrete to skate, there was an idea.
Rochester needed a legitimate public skatepark — something designed for skateboarders and built to last.
Krudco became involved in helping push that idea forward and, more importantly, helping make sure actual skateboarders had a voice in what was being created.
Over the years, Krudco, Aaron Costa and Alan Presutti have worked alongside the City of Rochester, other skateboarders, advocates and community members to help guide the Roc City Skatepark project through both phases of its development.
Our role has changed at different points in the process, but the basic goal has always stayed pretty simple:
Help Rochester build the best skatepark possible.
That has meant conversations with the city, advocating for the skateboarding community, offering input based on decades of experience, helping connect people, promoting the project, supporting events and making sure the people who are actually going to use the park remain part of the conversation.
Sometimes the work that moves a project forward isn’t very exciting.
It’s meetings.
Phone calls.
Emails.
Walking around looking at things.
Talking to skaters.
Talking to city officials.
Explaining why seemingly small details matter.
Then doing it again.
And again.
That is part of how projects like Roc City Skatepark eventually become real.
Phase One Was Only the Beginning
Seeing the first phase of Roc City Skatepark finally become concrete was a huge moment for Rochester skateboarding.
But we never looked at Phase One as the finish line.
It showed what was possible.
As the project moved toward its next phase, Krudco remained involved and continued working with the City of Rochester and members of the community to help mold and guide the project toward what it could ultimately become.
We think that’s important.
A skatepark shouldn’t just be something dropped into a city and forgotten about. It should grow out of the community that’s going to use it.
And Rochester has a real skateboard community.
It has history.
It has generations of skateboarders.
It has people who started skating decades ago standing next to kids who stepped on a skateboard for the first time last week.
That’s the community Roc City Skatepark belongs to.
Aaron Costa, Alan Presutti and Krudco
Aaron Costa and Alan Presutti have spent a large portion of their lives involved in Rochester skateboarding, and Krudco has given us a platform to put that experience to work.
We don’t pretend to speak for every skateboarder in Rochester. Nobody can.
But between Krudco’s history, our own years on skateboards, and the thousands of skateboarders and families who have come through the shop, we’ve learned a lot about what makes a healthy skate scene.
That perspective has been valuable throughout the Roc City Skatepark process.
We know what skateboarders actually use.
We know why certain obstacles work and others don’t.
We know that beginners need a place to learn without feeling intimidated.
We know that experienced skaters need something that keeps challenging them.
We also know that a successful skatepark is about more than concrete.
It’s about community.
That’s something we’ve tried to bring to the table throughout this entire process.
A Skate Shop Is More Than a Place That Sells Skateboards
This is also why we talk so much about supporting independent skate shops.
Yes, Krudco sells skateboards.
We sell decks, trucks, wheels, bearings, shoes, clothing and everything else you need to get rolling.
But when you buy something from a real local skate shop, you’re supporting more than inventory sitting on a shelf.
You’re supporting the infrastructure surrounding skateboarding in your city.
You’re supporting the people organizing events.
You’re supporting people helping new skaters get started.
You’re supporting advocacy.
You’re supporting relationships with local government.
You’re supporting decades of accumulated knowledge that can be used when opportunities like Roc City Skatepark come along.
And you’re helping make sure there is still a physical place where Rochester skateboarders can walk through the door and actually talk to somebody who knows skateboarding.
We think that matters.
Roc City Skatepark Is Part of the Krudco Experience
One of the coolest things about having Roc City Skatepark in Rochester is what it adds to the experience of visiting Krudco.
If you’re traveling to Rochester to skate, make Krudco part of the trip.
If you’re a parent bringing a kid to Roc City Skatepark for the first time, stop into the shop and talk to us.
If you’re brand new to skateboarding and have no idea what board, wheels or setup you need, that’s exactly what we’re here for.
And if you’ve been skating for 30 years and want to argue about wheel size, truck geometry or some obscure skateboard from 1997, we’re probably up for that too.
That’s something the internet can’t completely replace.
You can visit a skateboard shop that’s been part of the Rochester skate scene since 1994, talk to people who helped advocate for the city’s skatepark, get your skateboard set up by people who actually skate, and then go experience Roc City Skatepark yourself.
To us, that’s a pretty unique Rochester experience.
Supporting Krudco Helps Us Keep Doing This
We don’t say that as a guilt trip.
We say it because it’s the reality of independent skate shops.
Every deck, pair of shoes, set of wheels, T-shirt or complete skateboard purchased from Krudco helps keep an independent, skater-owned Rochester business alive.
That allows us to continue doing things that don’t necessarily show up on a sales receipt.
Supporting events.
Helping young skateboarders.
Working with community organizations.
Talking with the city.
Advocating for better places to skate.
Helping preserve Rochester skateboard history.
And being there when the next big idea comes along.
Roc City Skatepark is a perfect example of why having experienced skateboarders and independent skate shops involved in their communities matters.
This Park Belongs to Rochester
Krudco is incredibly proud of the role we’ve played in helping Roc City Skatepark move from an idea toward the park Rochester has today.
But we’re equally proud that this wasn’t something one person or one business accomplished.
It took cooperation.
It took the City of Rochester being willing to work with the skateboarding community. It took skateboarders speaking up. It took advocates and community members giving their time and knowledge. It took designers and builders capable of turning ideas into actual concrete.
And it took people sticking with the project for years.
Krudco was one of those voices from the beginning, and we’re still here.
That’s probably the part we’re most proud of.
Not having our name attached to something.
Just knowing we helped.
So when you skate Roc City Skatepark, you’re skating something that represents years of work by Rochester’s skateboard community and the people who believed the city deserved it.
And when you stop into Krudco, you’re visiting a small piece of that history.
We’re still a skateboard shop.
We’re still skateboarders.
We’re still learning.
We’re still pushing for Rochester skateboarding.
And we’re definitely still skating.
Krudco Skateshop
Rochester, New York
Skater owned and operated since 1994.
Support your local skate shop. Support your local skate scene. Then go skate the park
