FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — Poe Pinson remembers when her skateboard was as big as her.
“I still remember all the feelings of being here whenever like you’re first learning how to skate," Pinson said about her early days at the Fernandina Beach Skate Park.
when Pinson was a 4-year-old, her dad, Kenny, brought her to the park without any direction.
“[The] skateboard was as big as she was and there was a lady out here, her son was at the park, and I asked her, 'Where do you start?' and she said, 'Dad you just got to turn her loose,'" Kenny Pinson said.
More than a decade after letting his daughter go, Poe became a member of Team USA's Olympic skateboarding team.
“One of the coaches, Andrew actually, he was just like this is probably the most people that’s ever going to be watching you skate at once. Show them Poe," Poe said.
She let loose and finished fifth in the street competition, the top American finisher.
Poe returned home to a big celebratory parade and a ceremony renaming the skate park, Poe Pinson Park.
“This has never crossed my mind once," Pinson said.
“It’s awesome," 13-year-old skater, Chloe Harrell, said.
“It’s really inspiring,” 15-year-old, Cadence Houser, said.
The two have been skating at the now renamed, Poe Pinson Skate Park, for a few years.
"She’s taught me a few times," Houser said.
"People come here because normally there’s bunch of boy skaters but seeing a bunch of girl skaters it’s really cool," Harrell said.
Pinson hopes she can inspire others to skate and be their authentic selves. So far, others are following.
“I think it’d be really fun to do what she’s doing," Houser said.
The Future of Poe Pinson Skate Park
Pinson's journey to the Paris Olympics has generated momentum to help future expansion of the park.
The city has already spent $58,000 to refurbish existing infrastructure and has set aside $90,000 in the next fiscal year budget to create an engineering plan for the future renovation of the park.
"This is going to be a MacDaddy skate park," Mayor Bradley Bean said.
Bean said Friends of Fernandina Beach Skate Park, a grassroots community organization, created a conceptual design for what it'd like the park to look like.
The city accepted the plan and is now putting money towards getting blueprints drawn up.
Bean said he envisions the park costing $1 million and said Friends of Fernandina Beach Skate Park believe it can be finished by next fall.
The mayor added the city is still looking at various funding sources for the park.