Skateboarding Is Not A Crime Essay, Research Paper
Skateboarding is not a Crime
Throughout the eighties and even still into the nineties skateboarders have been
stereotyped, fined, arrested, and kicked out of places for simply having fun. To many
people this doesn?t sound that bad since skateboarders are a bunch of punks and cause
trouble all the time. They smoke pot and get high and do nothing with their lives. These
last two statements could be seen as false since they could be disproven in many ways.
Tony Hawk is a pro skater who has achieved many goals in his life. Many people
won?t know him but for the people that followed his career as a skateboarder they would
know that is the ?Michael Jordan? of skateboarding. Tony started his career in the
eighties and at that time skateboarding was not too popular with the authorities. He has
dealt with the hardships of being discriminated and rose to the top. He was in the movies
Gleaming the Cube and Police Academy four. He also came up with his own company
which is Birdhouse, and has invented many of the tricks for vert skating, such as the
Madonna and the Bennihaha. This past year in the X-games he landed the impossible, the
900. This trick involves two and a half rotations. I don?t think Tony Hawk is a trouble
maker and a punk for skateboarding. I think he is a great role model to many of the other
skaters out there working hard to do well at the sport.
Ed Tempelton is a pro skater for Toy Machine. He has run in with the law for
skating plenty of times. On the Toy Machine Video, Jump off a Building, Ed Tempelton
is shown getting kicked out of some place. Most of the graphics on the bottom of the Toy
Machine decks are painted by Ed as a way to show his artistic ability. He said that he got
into painting because he liked it even though he said his first paintings were crapy. He
said it was better than getting into drugs and that he really doesn?t drink. Ed Tempelton
is just another skater that doesn?t fit the stereotype of skaters.
If you heard of Andy MacDonald it was probably from the latest commercial
Where Andy speaks about skateboarding and his version of getting high. This was one of
those Drug awareness commercials telling kids not to do drugs. Andy is 27 and has
chosen skateboarding other than drugs and hanging out getting into trouble. He has also
accomplished many things in life. He has been a pro for about 7 years and he now does
commercials and is on TV on such Stations as Espn, Fox sports net and Msg. He has
helped in Board Aid which is an event where snowboarders and skateboarders have a big
demo and people pay to listen to music, watch the sports, and the main reason is to raise
money for Aids awareness, and also for drugs.
To talk from experience, I have been kicked out of school property, the mall, the
parking lot of Betz Funeral home and the police have shown up to my door also. In each
of these incidents neither my friends or I were not doing anything wrong except
skateboard. I got kicked out of the Middle School parking lot with my friend because the
lady said that we were going to sue the school or something. In contrast if my friend and
I were riding a bike or on rollerblades doing jumps we would have never even gotten
hassled.
Skateboarding has progressed but some of the problems that skaters have faced in
the past are still here in the present. For instince in Albany the police can take your board
and in many places in California theres signs saying no skateboarding or the authorities
just love to hassle us skaters still.