Olympic skateboards
RIDING A SKATEBOARD CAN GET YOU ON THE OLYMPIC TEAM
In the recent Winter Olympics, the only clean
sweep by the Americans was in the
snowboard event where
they won Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals.
When I asked the public relations director of the U.S Alpine and Snowboard
team, “How many of his snowboarders used to skateboard?”
His reply was, “Virtually all of them got their start in sports through
skateboarding and all of the half pipe riders still use skateboarding as a form
of training. As a matter of fact we send the entire snowboard team to
Pennsylvania every summer for two weeks because it is the best skateboard park
in America.” (600 new skateboard parks have been built in America in the last
two years.)
You can imagine my surprise the other day when I asked a man who has been a real
icon in the ski industry for years for some donation money for our Orcas
Island skateboard park that we are building, his reply was a bit of a surprise,
“ I wouldn’t give five-cents to that bunch of body pierced, tattooed,
pony-tailed, pot smoking bums.”
Forty years ago when skateboarding got started in Southern California in my then
hometown of Hermosa Beach, that might have been the case. Then as now it has
always been against the law to skateboard anywhere except on your own private
property. Today more American kids are skateboarding than are playing baseball.
Don’t forget that in any Little League Baseball game, nine kids always lose
right along with their eighteen parents.
In a skateboard park however everyone always wins because there is no score.
The main reason or its rapid growth is that it offers the same freedom that a
pair of skis or a snowboard does without buying a ski lift ticket. Skateboarders
do many of the same tricks that a figure skater does only without bolted
on shoes.
Last summer I was at the skateboard park near the Space Needle in Seattle and
watched a young black skateboarder with long dreadlocks, lots of tattoos, half a
dozen body piercing’s, and raggedy Levis and tank top, perform so well on his
board that within a few minutes everyone else in the park stopped to watch him.
A few minutes later, two businessmen in their suits and ties showed up. I
thought they were just going to watch, but they took off their coats, folded
them neatly and draped them over the fence. Then they took their skateboards and
sneakers out of their briefcases and performed skateboard tricks that the
young black man couldn’t. In less than ten minutes these three unlikely people
where busy trading tricks. Each could do a special trick that the other couldn’t
and soon thereafter all three of them where explaining to some of the younger
kids how to move up to the next level of freedom on their skateboards.
Freedom is what I have been showing in my ski films for the last 53 years and I
believe that “Man’s basic instinct is his constant search for freedom.”
A skateboard will be doing all of that for many of the young kids here on Orcas
Island that are latch key children because both of their parents have to
work.
The local kids also have double the booze and drug consumption of the rest of
the state. During a thirty-day period 73% of the seniors drink alcohol two or
more times a month and almost 54% use drugs the same amount.
Sooner or later, some of these kids are going to run up against the law, wind up
in the slammer and when they do, it’ll cost taxpayers $25,000 a year to keep
them there. I know our skateboard park will turn a lot of kids around before
that happens and all we have to do is change the path of six of them and the
park will have paid for itself.
To date we have raised $70,000 of the $150,000 it is going to cost us to build
our park with no administrative overhead or government support. We also have the
land, the insurance and the bulldozing donated. We have a 501-c3, tax-deductible
corporation set up and since you have some funds left over after your taxes this
year, why not send us a check? Any amount will do.
Oh yes! We are also building some barbecue grills and picnic places so that
anyone can come and watch the skateboarders. If you would like to have your name
on a bronze plaque on one of these barbecues, the barbecue is yours for a
$5,000 donation.
You can send a donation in any amount to: The Orcas Island Skateboard Park
P.O. Box 350, Deer Harbor, Washington 98243. We have no paid staff and once it
is built, anyone can come and ride the park free while you can camp out in
nearby Moran State park.
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