PEARL CITY — They'll come up with a nickname soon, but for now skateboarders at the city's new Manana Skate Park are calling it "The Rail."

The Euro Rail at the park, which opened July 1, presents a challenge to skateboarders they often can't resist. Hopping on and sliding down it on the board is the easy part.

"The trick is, you have to land on a slope," said 16-year-old Alika Virtudes, who has spent nearly 12 hours a day at the park since it opened, practicing for a local competition to be held there Aug. 9. "It's harder because you need to push your weight different (to land standing on the board)."

Manana Skate Park is the city's eighth skate park and is among the largest and most challenging on O'ahu. It also features a Bank to Wall, a bank that's 5 feet high, 8 feet long, with a slope less than 60 degrees and with a 4-foot wall behind it.

Use your imagination to figure out what skateboarders can do with that.

The Euro Rail and Bank to Wall are unique to the Manana park, said Chad Hiyakumoto, owner of APB ('A'ala Park Board) Shop, who was hired by the park's architect, Rodney Hirata of Urban Works Inc., to help determine what should be built into the Manana facility.

"There's no set rules to skateboarding — sky's the limit," said Hiyakumoto, who contributed to the design features of the Mililani and 'A'ala skate parks and assisted with the Makiki park. The key is a design that allows adequate speed to make the features challenging, yet not out of the difficulty level of most skateboarders.

"So many things can go wrong with skate parks," Hiyakumoto said. "You can't tone it down too much, otherwise they'll go out on the streets to find something more challenging."

The city's eight skate parks all have different features.

"Generally, the philosophy of the city has been not to provide cookie-cutter skateboard parks," said Eugene Lee, deputy director of the city's Department of Design and Construction.

Skateboarding has long outgrown backyard ramps. SkateboardDirectory.com estimates there are 12 million skateboarders nationwide and more than 1,000 skate parks in the United States, not including private ones.

"Our parks are well used," Hiyakumoto said. "We're off to a good start for a sport that's growing fast. California has a lot of parks but tons of them are badly designed and built."

The 30-year-old Hiyakumoto, not many years removed from his street skateboarding days, talked to skateboarders in the Manana area for input on the 10,000-square-foot park before coming up with designs. Urban Works used California Skate Park as its subcontractor in building the facility.

Construction was completed in March but opening day was delayed because the city refused to accept the $2 million project until the grass was in.

Virtudes was among those sneaking in to use the facility until the city posted 24-hour security. But since the park's July 1 opening, 40 to 50 skateboarders have been using the facility at its peak hours from about 4 to 7 p.m., said Manana Community Park recreation director Cass Kasparovitch.

"You can do a lot of stuff here," 18-year-old Robert Bryan of Pacific Palisades said. "It's bigger, so you're not limited. You can do good street (jump on ledges, rails)."

Jason Sam Fong, 13, of Mililani, enjoys the skate park in his community but has come to Pearl City several times to try the perks at the new park. He said the Manana park's layout is, well, "stupid" — which in skateboarding parlance means different and unique.

"I couldn't do one ... thing (at first) at this park," Sam Fong said. "It has a stupid wall, stupid rail and stupid skate spots. You can come here and skate everything."

There's some risk-taking but, as Virtudes points out, it's the same on the streets.

"We know what our limits are," he said, noting there have been no injuries.

Jaynette Quihano of Pacific Palisades recently was seated in her yellow pickup truck in the skate park's parking lot while her two children, ages 16 and 9, and two of their cousins, 11 and 7, were skateboarding.

"I bring them every day for three hours and wait here, just in case someone gets hurt," Quihano said. "It's a wonderful park, I'm glad it's open. It saves me from going to Mililani and keeps my kids out of trouble. They love skating. Sometimes we have a picnic here. It's a lot cheaper than going to the movies."

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.