Damn Cops

Holy cow can I just quote this for agreement 500 times.

When I was a stupid teenage skateboarder I had the worst attitude towards cops because they kept raining on my phat grind and skate video parades. I had the whole "skateboarding is not a crime" going and everything else.

Then I grew up.

And now I realize I was really messing up curbs, benches, rails, and picnic tables as we slathered skate wax all over everything that never washed off, messed up all kinds of paint, and just generally cost taxpayers and business owners tons of money as they repaired or replaced everything we were slowly destroying.

Now I can't help but laugh when I hear skater kids complaining about cops.

 

Hrmmmm.... brand new skateable benches. Where did you say they are?
Just kidding of course, that does suck and I feel your pain on that one. Skateboarding ruins objects, it's the nature of the beast. What is crazy is the people that don't understand why, they think skaters just ruin curbs and rails as like a form of vandalism, like and F YOU to society or something. That's not true of course, it's just the nature of our hobby. Skateboarding requires sliding rails, grinding curbs, and doing tricks down stairs. The problem I had growing up was there just wasn't anywhere to legally skate, there wasn't tons of skateparks around like there are nowadays. So being a teenager and going behind my local grocery store to ruin their shiny red curbs was pretty much my only option. It's not like I hated the grocery store or anything, in fact I picked the most out of the way place behind the store where no cars were, no trucks unloaded, and would generally be out of everyone's way. I didn't WANT to attract trouble, I just wanted a place to skate. I've been to countless city council meetings lobbying to get a skatepark built, only to have it shot down every time because of insurance reasons. So basically, the police and city's answer to kids like me was "better get another hobby". Wow. What a brilliant solution. It was very frustrating as a youngster. There were places to play basketball, football, baseball diamonds, a roller rink (no skateboards allowed there either), a dirt bike track, an RC car track, golf course & driving range, an ice hockey rink, even a freakin horseshoe pit. All within a few miles of my house, yet there was absolutely nowhere they allowed somebody to skateboard. So illegally taking it to the streets was really our only option. It's not fair skaters ruin people's property, no. But it's also not fair to not provide an adequate place for people to participate in the hobby of their choice. Anyhoo, a few years ago skateboarding got classified as a hazardous sport, therefore making the insurance liability for skateparks be more of a non-issue. And now you see many skateparks being built. I'm an old man now, so don't skate as often as before, but when I do I usually just go down to the skatepark. It's just easier, no one hassles me and I'm not vandalizing anyones new picnic benches or anything. But skateboarding's roots will always be in street obstacles. That's part of the fun, scoping out some architecture that's clearly not meant for skating and then finding a way to skate it. It's just the way it is. And just so you know, my dad is a retired Sheriff's Deputy (as well as Vietnam Vet and volunteer Fireman) so I respect the Hell out of what you do for a living. As was said, there are good cops and bad cops, nothing will ever change that. All I ask from police is to be treated fairly, and talked to like a human being. They don't even have to be nice, I understand you have to be a little dickish when dealing with the public like you do. But sometimes they are just so overzealous, and self righteous, that you feel helpless as they abuse their power. But as I said in my earlier post, some cops have been super cool to me as a skater over the years, and I will always appreciate those officers. Hell, a good majority of the cops that stop me for skating start off with "I use to skateboard back in the day..."

Oh and TBQH, the BMX bikes are the things that REALLY f*ck up curbs/benches. Skating might make it waxy and black, but the bikes take huge chunks of concrete out, and basically destroy it enough to where you can't even SKATE on it anymore. Sorry bikers, I like you guys, but it's true. So JC be on the lookout for those guys

Wow, sorry but that is spoken like a true poser. I'm gonna take a guess here, I'm thinking you're probably in your mid-twenties. So, about ten years ago, that's when skating really started getting popular. The X-games had been around for a few years, Tony Hawk came out with Pro Skater as well as busting out a 900, skateboarding was THE cool thing to do at this time. And so I'm sure that's when you decided to pick up skating. I'm guessing you weren't very good at all, cause skating is one of the hardest "sports" to learn in the world. It takes years of dedication, and countless hours daily of practicing to even become somewhat decent at skating. I'm guessing you didn't skate for more than a year, maybe two tops. Then when the fad died down a little, or you moved onto another hobby, you dropped skateboarding and decided that it was just a stupid kids phase. And that's where I think your point just fails wildly. Skateboarding might have been a misguided fashion trend for you, but for countless others it's not just a lifelong hobby, but a passion that cannot even be described. It's the kind of thing that will consume your very being, become your constant infatuation, be the thing that you just cannot stop thinking about. It's basically something you can't explain, and to those that don't also skate they will never get it. And this is how I've determined you are a poser. I have quite a few very close friends who are accomplished professional skaters. They travel the world for free many times over, all have now bought at least one house, own extremely nice cars, and make salaries well into six figures or more. But I'm sure someday they'll grow up and move past all that, right?

Ok, I am coming off extremely harsh towards you Hodapp, it's not totally my intention. Are there knuckleheads out there that destroy property and are dicks to cops and others on purpose? Absolutely. Those people may have skateboards, but they are certainly not skaters. REAL skaters only care about one thing, skating. They'll never be dicks to someone for no reason, or destroy property just cause they can. They just want to get their skate on, and if it means you gotta skate on some other peoples property then so be it. Sorry, no malicious intent, it's just the way things are. I'm sure you could find something about EVERY sport that's either damaging to property or our environment. We shouldn't play baseball anymore cause all the trees we kill to make bats, or not let anyone jetski anymore cause it pollutes the water. Or can somebody PLEASE think of the poor piggies we kill to make a pigskin football!? NFL banned. Unfortunately, skateboarders during the 80's and early 90's picked up the stigma of being punks, and scums of society, and for the most part they did act that way. But a lot has changed since then, those types are still around but there's a whole slew of skaters who grew up with decent families, stayed out of trouble, aren't drug addicts or criminals, etc. Skating is just their passion. It's a hard stigma to shake, as skating is such a new activity, relatively speaking. Ok, this is possibly my longest rant ever, it's just hard to explain my point. Maybe I'm wasting my time, I just think it's asinine to prejudge skateboarders as stupid kids that vandalize property for no reason, and they should just grow up and quit being so smart allecky. I mean, maybe all of us should just grow up and quit dicking around with these silly iPhone games, too.

Well then, might I suggest some shiny new Stefan Janoski's?? This is one of the accomplished pro skaters I spoke of earlier, and a good friend of mine. Better hurry and snag a pair, before he "grows up" and starts doing something productive with his life.

 

Not really, I still skate, just at skate parks. Although, after various injuries and just getting old in general I don't skate anywhere near as much as I used to. Instead I'm more in to community activism and played a part in getting my local park district to allocate some funding to build a park in my area. I've also been involved in a few different charities/programs to get inner city kids in Chicago off the streets and in to skate parks as well as helping indie skate companies get online in my spare time.

Tentatively working with Native Skates next, which is run by a good friend of mine who was has skateboards of his on display at the Smithsonian.

It's not as much fun as skating, but getting kids involved is pretty rewarding. I actually recently gave my last board away to a kid who snapped his, so I haven't been out this season at all.

As far as ruining your grocery store's curbs as your "only option", CCS has been around as long as I can remember and has always sold ramp and rail kits. Hell, you can build your own ramps and rails with construction scraps and other materials that can be found cheaply and easily at your local hardware store.

There's really no excuse for damaging property with your hobby, regardless of how you rationalize the "need". Calling me a poser because I respect the financial investments taxpayers and business owners have made in public and private property is kind of naive.

 

He's not allowed to retire without finding a beer nut to take his place.