I think I figured out why people don't like skaters...

[SteveC]

This sort of thing still happens with parks.

But you're correct that it doesn't happen as much.

I believe many parks pay themselves off with the amount a city saves on repairing ledges etc

[dcphotos]

Yep, it's a good excuse either way you look at it. I think it's awesome that there are as many parks as there are now. Even the crappy ones, we had nothing to skate when I was into it.

[Skinart]

No, not having a park wasn't the cause of this. Their irresponsibility was why they did this. It isn't
the responsibility of the city to keep you entertained.

[msk]

I think the line right at the very end says it all: "Sorry you had to see that..."

[Pyrofly]

I don't know about anybody else, but I was cracking up when they couldn't land #### and then decided to wax the makeshift rail. Yeah... That's why you didn't land that tailslide...

[rawls]

Also remember that if the city would just build a park they wouldn't have to do these things.

Thats not correct. The lifestyle aspect of mainstream skateboarding has been previously established. what to wear, what to skate, what to behave. If the mindset, thru the media were to change, then the statement could become true. But there is still too much money involved in the "current" state of the mainstream industry to see a change. Although its being whittled away. The blank board issue is a very good indication that the mainstream is seeing some reality.

[rawls]

thats mall boarding, at its finest. two years ago those kids had scooters, next year they'll be driving cars and done with skating. Its looks like a closed down station to me.

[Directive0]

You guys are just old and don't skate if you fail to appreciate the artistry and coredom of that! Arrrrrr!!!!

Dig that post-apocolyptic Chevron. How is it that, at $3.00/gallon that thing isn't cranking?!

Sometimes people are so sarcastic, they tear a hole in space time.

Now is one of those times.

[tyler87]

If it was abandoned, really, who cares? Its just going to go to waste anyway.

Growing up in Ohio Suburbia Hell, we had a spot just like that, except is was an old bank. We used to do bomb drops of the ATM machines. There's also a giant candle factory in our town, so kids would get the deformed chunks of wax out of their dumpster and use it as skate wax at that spot, so it always smelled nice. That's just life.

Please people, get off your high and mighty snob boarding horse. If you don't like that kind of skating, don't watch it. You say kids like that give skateboarding a bad name, but try turning that judgment back on yourself and realize that people think longboarding is gay and full of liberal hippy douches because we think we are better than "shortboarders". Give it up. Its all skateboarding.

[rawls]

We lost an awesome ditch because the property that bordered the ditch had an 8ft tall fence that skaters (much like these guys) just could not keep from going over/thru to damage and wreak general havok on the out of business building inside the fence. I bet there's some videos on the internet somewhere too.

An out of business establishment does not give the green light to tear up the stuff.

We have several places in town, much like this one in the video, where skaters go and ride. When they dont tear stuff up, the sites will essentially last till a new business takes over the lot/building. Once someone starts graffity painting and tearing stuff up, it gets ended pretty quickly. The usual response is, no one is using the property. the idea of vandalism gets lost, because they still cant get off of their noone is using it concept. So they are just left dumbfounded that the authorities had the nerve to stop their skating.

this is like getting busted for skating in an area that has signs for "no skateboarding", then complaining because they're just skateboarding, and then starting all the authority hoorah stuff with the authorities violating their fun.

Its not a long boarding versus street skating issue, its simple issue of respecting things that aren't yours.

this stuff started in the early 80's pretty strongly when the skate and destroy and screw you attitude really cranked up. thats where it really began. the skaters that never saw this transition that occurred in the 81-83 time frame, only see the end effects and wonder why skateboarding is considered such a problem. Skaters want to be considered as worthy of being able to have fun. There is no fault in this line of thinking, BUT the whole picture has to change, starting with the mainstream skate media.

[HerBDerb]

Please people, get off your high and mighty snob boarding horse. If you don't like that kind of skating, don't watch it. You say kids like that give skateboarding a bad name, but try turning that judgment back on yourself and realize that people think longboarding is gay and full of liberal hippy douches because we think we are better than "shortboarders". Give it up. Its all skateboarding.

My thoughts precisely.

[worldwide]

yeah really, alot of the stuff i read on here reminds me why they dont like us.

but then again, i dont like the coastlongboarding fucxk you attitude either..

im somewhere in the middle, i dont "dance" but i also dont break things and swear at old people.

just rip it up without disturbing anyone, except people driving cars, theyre asking for it

[johnspurlock]

Unfortunetly even if they had a skate park next door some idiots will still have that "skate and destroy" attitude. Jerks like them is why we can't skate some very sweet garages here in Houston.

[worldwide]

well seriously though, it was raining outside, they went for the cover. unless people build covered skateparks then people will skate where they can.

i would hazard a guess that if the park was dry and accesible they would prefer to go there.

although theres more to it than that.- street skaters want to skate real street terrain and not skatepark terrain, at least some of them...

also at private session spots you have the thing to yourself. i would rather skate some banked alleyways than a skatepark full of kids, thats why i only go to the park when kids are in school

[ocian]

if you've never vandalized anything when you were a kid, you had a childhood without passion

[tyler87]

/\ Amen brother, preach it.

I'm the reason that the porta potties in my neighborhood parks have stickers that say "$100 reward for anyone who leads to the conviction of a vandal".

[worldwide]

portapoties are fun to push over, as are canada post mail boxes...

we just gotta not associate skateboarding with it so we can get away with more on our boards

[tyler87]

I never did it as a skate thing, again, it was just boredom and an idle imagination in Ohio Suburbia Hell.

We went one step further than tipping them. We would load them full of garbage and whatever else we could find, then take the plastic plate of the "vacant/occupied" sign and lock them from the outside then put the plate back on.

We had one sit out in the hot summer sun for about two months before they broke it open to clean it out. The inside was covered in black mold. That was a new neighborhood record and is still talked about to this day.

[sk8rs_dad]

So what message do you think this sends, if trashing somebody else's gas station is OK with you?

http://www.news14charlotte.com/conte...135772&SecID=2

CHARLOTTE -- Crews spent Tuesday morning cleaning skateboard tracks off the wall at Charlotte's Vietnam War Memorial. The Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department wants to make sure the vandalism never happens again. Local veterans say the insult is too great to ignore.

"It's like skating across my face and down my heart,” said U.S. Air Force veteran Quincy Collins.

What Collins is referring to are the skateboarders who used the wall as a ramp, leaving skid marks up and down it.

"There was no damage to the wall itself, other than just the desecration of a tombstone basically,” said Mack Robbins of the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department.

"This is the first sort of major devastation it has experienced,” Collins added.

The damage is also devastating to Collins himself. He was a prisoner of war for seven and a half years in Vietnam.

"Being a POW in Vietnam for that length of time, I was the dedicatory speaker for this memorial, so yes it does mean a lot to me,” said Collins.

"This memorial is a place of solemnity and history and loyalty and honor. It's not the proper place for kids to skateboard,” said Mike Cozza of the Park and Recreation Department.

The heaviest marks were on one part of the wall, and after just three hours, crews were able to wash most of it off. A number of lights were also broken out near the wall.

Although the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department doesn't know if the two are related, they are still increasing patrols in the park.

"We have park watch personnel who keep watch on all our park facilities. We're asking them to check here more often,” Cozza explained.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are also keeping an eye on it, but when we talked to Collins, his eyes remained fixed on the names of those whose memories were scarred decades after their deaths.

"I wish that we can find who they are and punish them and punish their parents,” Collins said.

The parks department is asking parents to make sure their kids are using the city's designated skate parks. The two they suggest are Grayson Skate Park on Beal Street and Methodist Home Skate Park on Shamrock Drive.

[ska1234]

thas kinda like something i woulddo if i could grind....notso bad i dont get why theyre ripping apart everything and kicking the big plastic barrles though......