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Worldwide celebrations for Seattle legend who revolutionized skate parks

People gathered around the country Friday to remember Seattle legend Mark Hubbard.

He's described as a misunderstood genius with insatiable drive, a visionary and a pioneer. Mark "Monk" Hubbard isn't exactly a household name, but in the skateboarding community he's what Bill Gates did for computing and Jeff Bezos did for online shopping.

"He legitimately changed skateboarding forever," said longtime friend Marshall Reid.

Reid and hundreds of others gathered at Delridge Skatepark in West Seattle Friday to celebrate the man who literally paved the way for those who followed.

Back in the late 1980s, Monk (so nicknamed because he once shaved his head) had a vision.

"He would draw out these drawings that just looked like, they looked like acid trips. And they were skate park designs. And he said, someday," according to Reid.

Monk was tired of half-pipe skating and wanted to build something the world had never seen. His first clandestine project in West Seattle was a bowl under the freeway. Just before they poured the concrete, police busted them. But the news coverage helped to expose a lack of public spaces to skate and thrust Monk into what would become a lifelong project to design and build hundreds of parks through his company Grindline.

"It's kind of like Stonehenge in England or like the Coliseum in Rome. There is literally this concrete legacy across the country and around the world that has been left by his vision," said Micah Shapiro, lead designer at Grindline.

"He always wanted to do something bigger. Build something bigger. Go bigger," said Reid.

Monk was a unique visionary in a skateboarding community that already tends to march to the beat of their own drum.

Of his life's work, he once said, "Skateparks are an asset to the community, where kids can go and families can go and watch people roll around on the earth. It's always been a spiritual thing."

Skating, for Monk, and many of those who dropped into Delridge Friday is more of a religion than a hobby, with followers of all backgrounds, ages, and skin colors.

"That is kind of the thing about skateboarding. There's no rules really. I mean you get a piece of wood and four wheels and you just whatever you enjoy out of it. You go to the park on a normal day and you're skating with all these different people. Whether it's 8 years old to 48 years old, everybody's skating together having a good time," said Shapiro.

Remembering a man who made it all possible and helping to carry on his concrete legacy.

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