[Johnni]

Well yesterday was my first real ride in a week (I rode oncee in a parking lot and in front of a friend's house but those were just short little putt arounds) since I had a nasty biff last Sunday going down a hill. Me and my buddy rode around Whyte, a bike trail and around the U of A campus before making our way to the Heritage Festival in which we had to carry our boards around. Got some odd looks as well as some "Ohhh those skateboards are huge" or "Why is that board pointy?".
On the way out we rode part of the parking lot out of Hawrelak Park before the stairs that went up a hill. There were two cops who were on break. So me and Josh decided to go talk to them. The cops were complimenting our boards and thought that they were pretty sweet. One cop asked how fast they went. Josh said "Before you die?" Everyone had a chuckle and I responded with "Depends on the hill but it's possible to do 50". Some more small chit chat about other things and then I asked about rumors on riding boards on Whyte. We were told that it's technically illegal to ride on the street and sidewalks anywhere and that the only legal place to ride is at a skatepark. Then he went on to say that they're generally stricter on Whyte because there're might be 500 people in the span of two hundred meters whereas some residential there might only be one or two people who you could accidentally run over.
Then he went on to say that unless they see you as a risk and are causing trouble they're not going to bother because they've got more important things to look out for on Whyte like purse snatchers, aggressive panhandlers and people fighting. Yaddi yadda they said we looked like decent people so we shouldn't have much to worry about but If someone did write up a ticket, don't be shocked because it's technically illegal to ride skateboards around town. Josh was like "This is a skateboard?" "Errr...yeah" "I guess so since it's a plank with wheels". We wished each other a good day and then made our way uphill. Once we got to the top we hopped back out on our boards and rode back towards Whyte when it started to drizzle. Rode to Remedy to get shelter, food and chai lattes. I'd say it was a good day. Felt really good to be out there riding around again.