Skateboarders Are Unjustly Oppressed

As a very wise t-shirt once said, skateboarding is not a crime.

Except of course, that it sometimes is.

A skateboarder not being able to skateboard in 2011 is like a woman not being able to vote in 1912. (I can hear Gloria Allred calling now...)

Ok, so bans against skateboarding may be a notch or two below some past social injustices, but it is still a bizarre and stubborn stigma that doesn't seem fair when skateboarding is compared to similar activities.

Writers note: I think it's important that I make clear that I do not skateboard. I tried skateboarding for a short time in the seventh grade, but I wasn't any good. And it wasn't very fun. And the shoes were way to wide. And this kid Josh who lived down the street from me was the best skateboarder in the neighborhood and lots of girls liked him and none of them liked me so I always thought he could just go fu– well, I just didn't care for him that much. So yea, I never got that into skateboarding.

The “No skateboarding” signs that can be seen outside many storefronts are just the most blatant examples of opposition against skateboarding.

The others are the unfair prejudices that make people look down upon skateboarders like they are social pariahs.

It's interesting that the case is different with another wheeled group: bicyclists.

Why is cycling such an admired form of alternative transportation but skateboarding is seen as an intolerable plague spread about town by juvenile delinquents?

Let's just look at the tools – bikes and skateboards – and forget about who rides them. Other than the amount of wheels and the position used to ride them, both function as a transporter of a single individual.

Pretty similar, right?

Yet the connotations associated with cyclists are all positive: smart, efficient, environmentally conscience, etc. And the connotations associated with skateboarders – punks, hooligans, vandals – are, of course, all negative.

Granted, bicycles are much more practical forms of transportation, but that's not the debate. The debate is not what should be used as transportation, but why skateboarding is deterred while biking is encouraged.

Look, Mr. Geoffrey, if that is your real name, why don't these poor oppressed skateboarders just ride at the skate park?

True, there is a meager skate park in Fair Oaks Park that is available for use by the riders of scooters, bmx bikes, and skateboards.

But skate parks are only good for those who want to use skateboards for “extreme” riding. You know, all sorts of kickspins and fliptricks and X-Gamings.

Hoping that the existence of a skate park will eliminate skating in all other areas of town ignores that people may just want to ride to get around.

Most people that ride skateboards are young, too young to drive. And if they prefer skateboarding to bicycling, that's their prerogative.

Maybe that's the issue. Maybe the fact that teenage boys are the most prevalent riders is what drives the prejudice. Teenage boys are the arch enemy of those who like things nice and orderly. And understandably so, because I know that I was nothing short of a horrible person during some of my teen years.

Has anyone considered just banning adolescent boys from shopping centers and sidewalks? I'll get a letter drafted.

Skateboarding should not be outlawed. At least not more severely or in any different capacity than biking.

I think skateboarding is a lot of things: dangerous, exhausting, and not at all for me.

But it is not a crime.