Half pipe dreams
Tuesday, January 6th, 2004 • Filed under Uncategorized
Skateboarding is in the rise in America. One of the consequences is increased wear and tear on sidewalks and concrete surfaces, many of which are private property. Business owners have taken to installing metal “skatestoppers”, which are brackets that act as mini speedbumps. They have pretty much make skating impossible. The response from skateboard enthusiasts has been less than warm.
“It’s kind of stupid to put them on the ledges and just ruin a nice-looking park,” said skater Jacob Witkowski. “I mean, we don’t ruin them that much by skating on the ledges.”
Gee, they aren’t doing “that much” damage. How representative of what’s wrong with America. Skaters are not just deriding property owners for safeguarding their property, they are issuing death threats and sending obscene letters.
But the boarder backlash has been fierce, with skaters firing off dozens of nasty e-mails to [Chris Loarie, inventor of skatestoppers] every day, vandalizing his trade show booths and even telephoning in death threats – prompting the FBI to step in.One letter read “Go to hell, on behalf of skaters,” according to Loarie.
Talk about a sense of entitlement. I can only hope that when these kids grow up, one day they will understand.