SARANAC LAKE – A little rain wasn’t going to keep them away; they’ve waited long enough.

Skateboarders took to the concrete contours and kickers of Saranac Lake’s new 5,200-square-foot skateboard park for the first time Friday evening.

The “soft opening” of the skatepark, which was met by light, on-and-off rain showers, came less than two hours after the village officially accepted the park from the committee that’s spent more than a decade working to build it.

“It’s a rainy night, but with two hours’ notice, we’ve got a dozen kids out here skateboarding,” said SkatePark Committee member Rich Shapiro. “I’d say that’s a pretty good start.”

“I keep pinching myself,” said committee Chairwoman Peggy Wiltberger. “Did we really do it? We did.”

As Wiltberger, Shapiro and other supporters watched from the sidelines, Evan Davis and Jack Reed were putting on a show.

Davis, 22, dropped in on his board from the top of a quarter pipe, gathered speed over a small rise and jumped off a narrow ramp, grabbing the heel side of his board between his legs with his back hand – a trick he said is called a roast beef grab.

“This is really sweet,” Davis said. “It’s beautiful and so smooth. I feel very privileged and blessed to have a park this nice. It’s definitely something special.”

A few minutes later, Reed, also 22, dropped in from the opposite corner of the park, picked up some speed, “ollied” his board onto a railing and then slid down on it – a move called a backside boardslide.

“This is so great,” Reed said. “You can see the support here, too. There’s already more skateboarders than I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life here.”

Both Davis and Reed live in Plattsburgh now, but Reed is from Saranac Lake and Davis lived here for about eight years. Like many other skateboarders with ties to the community, they helped build and raise funds for the park over the years.

“I volunteered for like five days when I was home a week ago,” Reed said. “But I was part of it when I was younger, too, doing car washes and stuff like that.”

Davis produced a skateboarding movie called “Thunder Road” that was shown in Berkeley Green two years ago as a skatepark fundraiser. About $1,000 was raised for the project, he said.

The SkatePark Committee has been working for more than 11 years to bring a new skatepark to the village, and before that local young people had been asking village officials for one since the 1990s. Skateboarders have been active in fundraising over the years, and $60,000 has been raised through car washes, raffles, hot dog and bake sales, music events, wreath sales and the Olga Memorial Footraces. In 2013, the project received a $25,000 grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation, whose namesake is perhaps the most famous pro skateboarder ever.

Several sites around the village were considered for the skatepark before May 2013, when the committee worked out a deal with the village for half of the village-owned parking lot behind Community Bank, next to the Enterprise building.

Construction started in mid May of this year, under the direction of Brad Siedlecki of Pillar Design Studios and Artisan Skateparks. The work on the park itself wrapped up a few weeks ago and was followed by several weeks of landscaping.

“We had basically two shifts working almost every day for the last two weeks,” Shapiro said. “We put in 3,300 square feet of sod, 75 tons of topsoil and more than 400 plants and shrubs. It’s been a ton of work, and we’ve had many, many volunteers coming out to help us and all sorts of businesses donating in-kind services and equipment. It’s just been a massive community effort.”

The official grand opening of the skatepark is set for July 26. The soft opening came Friday after the village accepted the skatepark and gave Shapiro $1 in return.

“We had insurance for construction but not for operation, so we couldn’t open until the village took possession, and we had to dot some i’s and cross some t’s to make that happen,” Shapiro said.

Wiltberger said this isn’t just any skatepark. The all-concrete surface will make it a big attraction for all ages and abilities, she said.

“This is the best park between Burlington (Vermont) and Albany,” she said. “I’ve seen so many kids with their skateboards practicing here and there, I think they’re just coming out of the woodwork. This is going to be a great facility.

“It’s been a lot of work, but it’s well worth the wait.”