Friends of Skateboarder Want Memorial Park in His Memory

A Facebook-driven movement is underway to re-name the after a popular 20-year-old Walnut Creeker who died Sunday after a skateboard accident in Lafayette Friday.

Tucker Hacking of Walnut Creek suffered a head injury Friday after falling on a steep stretch of Juanita Drive in Saranap on the border of Lafayette and Walnut Creek, just south of Highway 24. Hacking was taken to Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek, fell into a coma and then died on Sunday, the Contra Costa County coroner's office reported.

Hacking was an independent spirit.

"He paved his own road," said Marcela Riojas, a Walnut Creek friend. "He was not a follower."

A Facebook Public Event, titled "Help Create — Tucker Hacking Memorial Skate Park," has drawn more than 1,100 people to it in about 15 hours.

"Let's keep THacks alive forever through the one place he loved the most," the Public Event states. The skate park, created in 2005, is adjacent to Walnut Creek's . Earlier this week, it was marked by graffiti reading "Tucker RIP."

"I'm trying to stay positive," said Dallas Phillips of Lafayette, a skateboard buddy of Hacking who was not with him when the accident happened.

Phillips said many of his days began with a text from Hacking saying "Walnut Creek skate park?" Typically, he would meet Hacking there and two would migrate  to other hilly streets in Walnut Creek and Lafayette, "bombing hills," said Phillips.

"He always had a smile on his face,'" said Riojas. "He always wanted to share happiness with people … he had the biggest heart. He always wanted to have fun."

Sometimes Hacking would get up before the sun and go surfing, returning to Walnut Creek before 8 to go skateboarding, she said. He was also an avid mountain biker and telemark skier.

Hacking recently got a fun job in which he went to various schools teaching kids how to create things from Lego blocks, said Riojas, who attends Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Hacking attended Santa Barbara City College and then Diablo Valley College.

Riojas were cross-town friends  — she went to and Hacking went to . He was a member of the Northgate water polo team.

"He passed doing something he loved," said Riojas.

From the Facebook Public Event:

We are trying to get the city of Walnut Creek to rename the nameless skate park Tucker Hacking Memorial Skate Park. Let's keep THacks alive forever through the one place he loved the most. We need to make the city understand that an entire community and culture exists at the skate park and Tucker was and is a huge part of it. He deserves recognition. We have lost a genuinely spirited person but we haven't lost the opportunity to immortalize his name in a skate park where he influenced many. Tucker Hacking was always full of laughter and had a passion for risk and adventure. Nothing would make him happier than to look down and see us honor a place where he loved to shred em with his homies. Tucker Everlasting