posted on Jan, 19 2009 @ 06:30 PM
I find this topic particularly interesting as I spent over a decade riding skateboards and consider it a very formative part of my life.
First off, I don't know anyone who has skated for any length of time that has not had a bad run in with the cops, including those who are respectful
to EVERYONE. Once I was riding a sidewalk headed to a bus stop in Charleston, WV and a cop retractable batoned me, cursed me out and dared me too hit
him. I just got up once I caught my breath and rode along listening to him use many colorful adjectives. This was definitely not an isolated incident.
Everyone I've ever met who has been a lifetime skater has had similar experiences. I even saw a cop hassle a fellow skateboarder while ignoring a
drug dealer flagrantly selling drugs on a corner, when you ride a skateboard you are going to be getting a lot of trouble regardless of how you handle
yourself. Additionally, all kinds of people WILL threaten you, I rode up to a bus stop once and a lady at the store in front of it threatened to call
the cops on me, this was when I was standing waiting on the bus, not riding, not tricks, just standing their holding it. MANY cities and towns do not
have skateparks as well, and most that do it is going to cost money to get into. Also, I've never heard of any verifiable lawsuit from a skater
falling on private property. The ONLY injury lawsuit I ever heard of I could not verify and truly wonder if it was fabricated.
Many of the skaters I've met grew up in urban environments which gives a radically different view of property. Many of these kids grew up in concrete
jungles with NO public property at all. This is something that people from towns or country areas simply do not understand. The simple act of going
outside for fresh air is illegal if you stand in one place too long. (loitering) Some places if you try and sit on a corner cause your tired you are
ticketed for loitering as well. The concept of PUBLIC PROPERTY is a dying idea in this country. People cry about waxed curbs , worn down planters,
paint scraped off rails, kids in the past could simply go into the woods, climb trees and even hang out in groups around town and in parking lots
without trouble, not any more. These ideas are being chisseled away. The skateboard is much like a car to many of these kids, they modify them and
practice on them religiously and use them as a fun form of transportation. Additionally it is a much less expensive hobby than most, I got started on
a used Powell deck for $30.00 bucks and slowly upgraded part by part till I had a sweet rig, to this day you can part by part a board together and
never spend more than $50.00 on the most expensive part(the deck, their are some high end bearings that cost more, but there are effective inexpensive
substitutes if you don't need the extreme performance).
Skateboarding to me is similar to how surfers described their experience. It is a oneness with nature, the world, the city that I can not describe.
You can feel the concrete breath as the carbon monoxide stings your sinus. Meet fun and interesting people and be mistreated by them. A since of
freedom that seems to be dying in this country, freedom now means getting daddy government to defend your property from skaters. The idea of sharing
or working out a deal where skaters can use it at night when no one is their are dead, places with good stairs, curbs and planters will try and run
you off and post signs even when they don't use the property. Closest thing an old time experience of community is skateboarding. You have a busted
truck or frozen bearing, one will give you his, you get hurt, skaters you've never met will drop everything to help you. Someone threaten you, they
will defend you. People today are less interested in creating a community than keeping kids away from their daddy government authorized property.
Every skater will understand this, and every non skater will think these statements are nuts.