|
||||
  
 
 |
New park attracts skate junkies By
Jason Robey Three distinct sounds fill the west end of Willow Park in Logan. As you move in closer, the first thing you hear is the scraping of wood on concrete resonating through the air like an airplane taking off from a runway only yards away. Moving in closer, that sound is layered with the sudden bursts of applause and cheering. Finally, as Logan's new skateboarding park and its patrons are within sight, you hear the echoed exclamations of "shit" coming from both ends and all points between. The skate park is approximately 100 feet long, 50 feet wide. It consists of twisted concrete ramps and hills, split into three main basins; with random and seemingly pointless metal railings scattered throughout the course. Once the skateboarders are added to the picture, the railings, as well as all the ramps, hills, basins, and other features of this new type of park all make sense. The opening of the skate park in early August was coupled with a collective sigh of relief from skateboarders from one end of the valley to the other. There was finally somewhere to skate legally in Logan. Skateboarding, along with in-line skating and roller-skating, is prohibited throughout the city, including the Utah State University campus. This could be one reason why the skate park has become one of the most popular spots for Logan teens. Even on a Sunday afternoon, when every other part of Willow Park is vacant, the skate park is full of people. Dozens of people, male and female, fill the inside of the course. Several people, including tired skaters taking a break and families, also line the outer edges of the park, sitting in lawn chairs and watching the skaters, while they catch some sun. The skaters fall in the age range of 15 to 30 years old, with a few exceptions. One that stands out is also one that is hard to see at first. A young boy, whose head is waist level to most of the skaters, weaves in and out of the other patrons, as if he were skiing between trees on a mountain slope. A visitor to the park asks a couple, who are taking a water break on the sidelines, if they know the boy's age. "He ís seven, and he's our son," answered the couple. At the first sight, it is obvious that skateboarding is more than a hobby for these people, itís a lifestyle with its own distinct personality. Very few participants stray from the standard dress at the park. Most wear extremely baggy, khaki or olive-drab pants or shorts, usually with cargo pockets. Those who wear shirts at all wear T-shirts with some kind of skateboarding logo or slogan, and the majority cover their heads with caps, all worn backwards. Most have at least traces of hydrogen peroxide streaks in their hair, if not a completely bleached head, and all wear worn-out tennis shoes that are barely visible under the rolled or torn cuffs of their pants. Even the seven year-old is wearing clothes so baggy it looks like a laundry pile with hands and a head sticking out. They also have their own language, which would sound completely foreign to an outsider. "Can you ride goofy and do a boneless on that corner," one skater shouts to another. Goofy means riding the board with the right foot forward, as opposed to the left, referred to as "regular." Boneless is the name of one of dozens of popular tricks. Blunt, Casper, Aciddrop, Ollie, Impossible and Grind are a few other well-known tricks, often seen at the skate park. The two most popular and basic tricks are the Ollie, in which the skater kicks the board up in the air with his back foot, and the Grind, in which the skater rides a railing or edge with the trucks of his board. Trucks are the mechanisms that attach between the board and the wheels. Skateboarding has been popular, in slightly different forms, since the 1960s, when skateboards were often homemade, and resembled crudely built wooden versions of the scooters often seen on the sidewalks now. The popularity of skateboarding rode a roller coaster with the young people of each generation since, repeatedly hitting the mainstream, then hiding in the shadows of other fads. After losing popularity for a few years at the beginning of the 1990s, when in-line skates were introduced to the streets, skateboarding has been regaining its appeal across the country in recent years, and Utah is no exception. In the past two years, several skate parks similar to the one in Logan have popped up all over the state. Although the Logan park is the largest in the state, and most skaters agree it is also the best, people travel from all over Utah, Idaho and Wyoming to use the skate parks in Park City, Taylorsville, Brigham City, and several other cities throughout the Beehive State. This is due largely to the sheer number of skaters in the state, and the desire of cities to keep them off the streets. "I got pulled over on [700 North], and was told I couldn't skate in the street. When I moved to the sidewalk, I was told I couldn't skate there either. I don't know where else I'm supposed to go," says Justin Ego, a Utah State student, about skating in Logan. The Utah State campus goes even further to keep skaters off sidewalks. "I've been busted twice for skating on campus. The first time was a warning, the second time I got a $50 fine," says Mike Woodcock, president of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at Utah State University, who have been working to promote a skate competition in Logan this fall. One reason cities enforce "no-skating" regulations is the fear of injury and liability, because it is a fairly high-risk sport. Ego, 20, also a member of Pi Kappa Alpha, has been skating since he was14 years-old, and in that time has suffered a popped ligament in his ankle, a broken wrist, a dislocated shoulder, road rash, and numerous scrapes and bruises. Woodcock, 21, has been skating since he was six, and in addition to a few of the same injuries, adds a concussion, being knocked unconscious, and a nose injury that required surgery. Not including medical bills, skateboarding is a relatively cheap activity, with complete skateboards ranging in price from $50 to $200. The price range is somewhat deceiving, because boards wear out and break fairly easily. There are three main categories of today's skateboards. "Old-school" skateboards are more simplistic in design, and are best suited for basic tricks, such as ollies and grinds. "New-school" boards are more technical, and designed specifically for tricks. The third type is the newest fad on the street, the long board. Long boards are just what the name implies, a much longer skateboard. Long boards are built for speed, and are becoming a popular mode of cheap transportation, but do not make good boards for performing tricks. Many skaters don't worry about safety equipment at all, but if you want to play it safe, a helmet, elbow pads, wrist pads, and knee pads are the basics. These don't cost very much, a good shopper could probably get an entire set for under $30. Just keep in mind, when deciding whether to spring for the pads or let your insurance company worry about it while you're in the emergency room, there are signs at the entrances of all of Utah's skate parks reminding you that you "skate at your own risk." Skateboarding is currently showing no signs of coming down from the high-point of the roller coaster, and for those brave people who aren't afraid of injury, there's finally a place in Logan to skate without being chased off by the police. For everyone else, there's still the cornmaze.
|
Archived Months:
January
1999 January
2000 January
2001 |
||