Steamboat Springs — Organizers said great weather, great competition and a great turnout helped Sunday's National Go Skateboard Day celebration in Steamboat Springs be a rousing success.

The weekend's best news, however, couldn't be seen by the crowd that gathered to watch some of the area's top skateboarders dual in the park at the base of Howelsen Hill.

The effort to build a concrete skatepark in Steamboat Springs received a major boost Friday when $200,000 in grant money was approved to help fund the project.

"This is huge for us," Philip Johnston said.

Johnston manages The Click skateboarding store in Steamboat, which helped sponsor Sunday's event. He also has been on the front lines of the fight to replace the small skatepark at Howelsen Hill with a much larger concrete park. The new park would be constructed on the Bear River Parcel in west Steamboat.

He said the grant, from Great Outdoors Colorado, will pay for about half of the park's anticipated cost. The organization, known as GOCO, uses lottery revenues to fund projects across the state.

Johnston said the Steamboat Skatepark Alliance has banked about $50,000 itself and is waiting to hear about several other grants. According to the group's Web site, www.skateboat.com, construction on the park could begin as soon as August.

"We might just need to raise another $75,000, and that would take care of the whole thing," he said.

To come up with that amount, the Alliance will sell bricks ranging from $150 to $1,000 that will be built into the new venue.

If Sunday's crowd is any indication, the effort shouldn't run short on enthusiasm. About 25 skateboarders took turns dipping, diving, flying and flipping across the downtown park.

A large crowd was on hand to cheer every move.

Competitors traveled from up and down the Yampa River Valley for the event, and they ranged from expert to beginner.

"It was a lot of fun," said 13-year-old Logan Banning, who placed third in the beginner category.

Logan said he has been skateboarding a lot more this summer after taking a few seasons off. Even without years invested in the sport, he said the advantages of a new park were not lost on him.

"It'd be great if they could build it," he said. "This one is pretty small and can get pretty crowded sometimes. A new park would really help."