Hawk Island Park is going downhill fast

When you live through a Michigan winter, you come toaccept the fact that Michigan is all about winter sports. So the timeis right for Hawk Island Snow Park, which opens Dec. 17 in Lansing. 

Pete Bosheff, principal of Urban Snow Parks, said theinspiration for the park came from “hearing about how there were kidswho would get Zamboni snow from ice rinks and haul it to local hills sothey can ride their snowboards.”

So Bosheff, along with Bob Ford and Modern Skate and Surfowner George Leichtweiss teamed up with Ingham County Parks to open amulti-purpose facility for snowboarding, skiing and tubing.

The partners also brought Ryan Neptune onboard to assistin the design. Neptune, owner of Planet Snow Design and a championsnowboarder, has been building snowboarding venues for almost twodecades. Currently head of operations at Otsego Resort in Gaylord,Neptune will work with snowmaking equipment, designing of the parks andrails and setting up the correct lighting.

“We’re partnering to bring resources to make it a functional hill,” Neptune said.  

Leichtweis, the park’s design operator, noted that parksused to forbid the sport in the 1980s. The sport has come a long waysince then. 

“You don’t have to be best in the world to do it, and you also don’t need an 11,000-foot mountain to have fun,” Leichtweis said. 

Although snowboards and skis will not be available at thepark, director of Ingham County Parks Willis Bennett said the tubes fortubing would be provided and that the YMCA is looking into creating aclass to teach snowboarding and skiing.

Admission to the park —located at 1601 E. Cavanaugh Road in Lansing — will be $7.

“It’s a great opportunity to open to more people whilebeing focused on being a family park,” Bennet said. “It’s all aboutgetting the community involved and improve quality of life throughactivity.

 “Seeing public enjoying themselves and giving a great visitor experience will be our greatest reward.”