Broderick Gumpright, owner of Orchard Skateshop in Allston, said that after 24 years, skating is still his passion.

With that in mind, he said, he tries to offer local skaters a place to ride in a city with few areas for skaters.

“We try to stay involved and keep skateboarding exciting,” Gumpright said. “We do skate jams, which bring people together.”

As the construction of the Charles River Skatepark approaches, Boston’s skateboarders said the city has a long way to go to improve the environment for skaters in the city.

“[Boston] has a great skating scene, but we’re many years behind as far as skate parks,” Gumpright said.

Skateboarders have waited more than 10 years for the new park, which will be located under the Zakim Bridge in East Cambridge and will be open to skateboarders, BMX riders and inline skaters.

The Charles River Conservancy, which is in charge of the project, plans to open the park by the end of 2013.

A number of skateboarders said skate parks in the Boston area are not high-quality.

“[The Reservation and Harborside skate parks] were sub-par when they were built in the ‘90s,” Gumpright said.

These parks are far away on the outskirts of the city, he said, but people still go there.

“Someone told me Boston is the only big city without a skate park,” said skater David Cooper, a senior in Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Cooper said he has never been to either park because he heard they were not put together well.

“I heard [Harborside] was pre-fabricated and just has a couple of obstacles on top of an old tennis court,” he said. “That’s kind of thrown together and a makeshift, cheap way of building a skate park.”

Boston skaters face not only technical challenges, but harsh weather as well.

Andy MacDonald, an X-Games gold medalist and Boston native, said this makes Boston skaters unique.

“There’s a tougher skateboarding attitude in Boston than on the West Coast because of the weather,” he said in a phone interview. “People have to deal with rain and snow and cold temperatures. They appreciate it more.”

Rather than congregating at a skate park, skaters can enjoy a make-shift park at Orchard Skateshop.

“Orchard is one of the best skate shops I’ve ever been to,” Cooper said.

The store has a half pipe, and anyone 18 years and older can come to skate for free, Gumpright said.

Aside from skateboards and gear, the store features an art gallery, pro demos and contests, he said.

However, without a central place to practice, skaters said they are limited to fewer ideal spots around the city.

“I skate around Allston in places like the Walgreens parking lot, or the lot at an elderly home,” Cooper said.

Cooper named the Aquarium, Copley and an area downtown nicknamed “Eggs” as popular skating spots.

However, skating in public areas upsets some people, Gumpright said.

“It creates problems with businesses because some people don’t think they [skaters] should be down there,” he said.

Cooper said he could see why businesses would not welcome skaters.

“I guess skating is essentially destroying property, and the noise is a nuisance,” he said.

Metal pieces called skate “stoppers” have been welded on to many of these spots to deter skaters, including the once popular stone benches of Marsh Plaza at BU, Cooper said.

Gumpright, a Massachusetts native, said other cities are more skate-friendly.

“In some places they build things that are purposely skateable,” he said. “In New York, they built these incredible ledges by the ferry terminal. They were obviously built with skateboarders in mind.”

Despite the occasional tussle with the city officials and business owners, Gumpright said people do understand their predicament.

“I think some people have sympathy for us, though, because they understand we have nowhere else to go,” he said. “The police aren’t too tough on us.”

The new Charles River Skatepark might help solve some of the problems plaguing Boston’s skaters over the years.

The Charles River Conservancy held a meeting on Sep. 19 to review plans for the park, including park design.

“We want people in this meeting to understand the timeline of this project,” said CRC President Renata von Tscharner to The Daily Free Press in the previously reported story. “It is a long process that has not been easy.”

MacDonald, who left Boston for the southern California skating industry, said the people designing the new skate park know what they are doing with the design and build of the park.

“The new park is going to be awesome. The whole idea was to make it an East Coast destination — the way Pebble Beach is for golf,” he said. “We want to attract people from all over and maybe bring some competitions to Boston.”