VIDEO: West Kelowna Skate Park is open for skaters and getting good reviews

The City of West Kelowna couldn't wait until all the finishing touches were added. Now that the main portion of the construction is complete on its new skatepark, they went ahead and cut the ribbon.

With the beloved original park getting torn up to make for the new West Kelowna municipal complex, a lot of eyes were on the design plans for the new park.

Early reaction from users is mostly thumbs up.

"It's got a little bit of everything", said Vince Berdan. He was at the park with his two young children.

"It's got a more advanced bowl, a more beginner to intermediate bowl, and then a bunch of little street features, yeah it looks pretty good."

"I'm pretty happy in general. This is quite an improvement," said Kaden Cowan. He took his board went straight into the most difficult bowl area of the park. But he likes that there are some easier features as well.

"It's a lot more geared toward learning tricks I would say," added Cowan. "Just more friendly in general."

After today's ribbon-cutting, Mayor Gordon Milsom was visibly pleased with how the project turned out.

"I understand it's been well received and people are going to enjoy it,", said Milsom. "We've done our best to provide a first-class facility."

Construction is nearly complete on the facility, but there are some finishing touches still to come, including a filling station for your water bottle.

"We do have some of the deeper bowls and we do have some of the larger street features," said Mark Roberts. He's the special projects manager for the city. "But we've also got the beginner bowl and some beginner features so that everybody can learn."

The new park is located just steps down the slope from the Johnson Bentley Pool, the Annette Beaudreau Memorial Amphitheatre and the building site for the new City Hall/Library.

There will be another celebration of the new facilities in 2022.