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.