After years of discussion and mixed emotions, the new public skate park in Tampa opened to fanfare and dozens of skaters.

“The Bro Bowl 2.0,” Brian Schaefer said. “We say that because this is the second generation of the preservation of the Bro Bowl.”

Schaefer is the founder of the Skatepark of Tampa, or the SPoT. He skated the Bro Bowl before the city demolished it last year to make way for the renovation of Perry Harvey Sr. Park.

“This was a process that took a while and was complicated,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said. “Ultimately, we were able to preserve the bowl and recreate it exactly as it was before.”

The original Bro Bowl was an outdoor, public skateboard bowl built in the late 1970s. When the City of Tampa decided to revamp Perry Harvey Sr. Park, the Bro Bowl didn’t fit the city’s redesign. The bowl sat in the middle of the park.

The city just couldn’t demolish, though. The bowl was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, and the City of Tampa had to navigate state and federal red-tape before they could touch it. The city eventually got the go-ahead and started demolition in early 2015. Researchers from University of South Florida laser-scanned the basin so the city could create a close to perfect copy of the bowl – but it’s not exact.

“It’s kind of tighter,” Michael Crago said, who likes to ride his BMX bike in the bowl. “But it’s better than the old one.”

The new bowl is smoother, Crago said. With the addition of a street course, it attracts more people.

“The street course is phenomenal,” he said. “You get to see new people and new tricks you haven’t seen before.”

The Perry Harvey Sr. Park pays homage to Tampa’s African American roots. The city and skaters didn’t want to short-change that recognition.

“It’s great that the historical preservation of Perry Harvey and the history of the African American community is still there,” Schaefer said. “But it’s great that the Bro Bowl continues to be a part of the legacy, because it’s a combination, a collaboration of the community.”

Famed skateboard designer Paul Schmitt skated at the original Bro Bowl when he was a young man.

“When the Bro Bowl first opened, we skated it,” he said.

Schmitt eventually moved to California, but the Bro Bowl was his first and last stop in Tampa whenever he came to the east coast. He said he’s happy he can continue the tradition.

“The new one is amazing,” he said. “It’s so cool that you can cruise between new and old.”