TAMWORTH'S skating community were stoked after the gates were finally opened on the region's newest park.
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Hundreds of people of all ages were skating, scooting, riding and grinding at the Sunday launch at Viaduct Park.
But there was genuine excitement about the quality of skating which could fill the giant bowls in the new park.
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Anaky Palmer, a keen skater who cut the ceremonial ribbon the park, said the possibilities were wide open with the $1.7 million facility.
"I can see myself taking this a whole lot further now," she said.
"Because I am from Tamworth, I don't really get to go to many competitions, I don't really have the training facilities to get to the level I need to be at ... until now."
The interest in skating was sparked as a father-daughter activity.
Her dad, Troy, said a park of this calibre was a long-time coming and was impressed by the amount of interest in the sport.
"Going to the Olympics made it a totally accepted sport now," he said.
"The more the merrier, because that was what it was all about back in the day ... the more of us against the norm, as we would say."
The skaters paid tribute to Dianne Case, an unassuming woman who, they said, helped rally for the cause.
Ms Case said she forged a relationship with the skaters as she walked by the old skate park on the way to her office on Darling Street.
"I started parking in the little area and I was walking through, picking up the rubbish and I started talking to the guys there and I really liked them," Ms Case said.
"I like the way they are friends ... and they're good to the little kids when they come along and I just thought they were nice people.
"They needed know they were loved."
Tamworth Regional Council has plans to host major events at the park in the future.
"The standard of this new skate-park is among the best in the country and holds the potential for Tamworth to host some of the biggest skateboarding competitions and events in our backyard," acting mayor Phil Betts said.