Skate park ideology

I feel sort of silly and mom-like for thinking there should be some rules for the skatepark, but I do. Here is what I'm teaching my kids.

*If you aren’t having fun then it’s time to go home.
*Always wear your protective gear.
*Make eye contact with those around the bowl before you drop in.
*Take turns, and don’t over step your turn.
*Always bring your gear including:
Skateboard
Pads
Helmet
Ice water
Antiseptic of some sort
Skateboard tool
Cell phone
Broom
Towel
*Be kind. We all were beginners at some point so be mindful to people who are new. They are taking a step out of their element and that is brave.

*Don’t trash the park.

New haps

I haven't skateboarded much in the last couple weeks. I miss it. This weekend I will be on my board. I will!!

In the meantime I've been busy trying to help my son out with some of his stuff. He is now in middle school and they are trying to get a skateboard club together. So, being the good skateboard mom that I am I volunteered to be the parent sponsor. Fun times. Now my daughter wants me to sponsor the skateboard club at her elementary school! haha!! I hope I can do both. Also, my son's birthday is coming up so you can imagine how much board stuff he wants. Glad I have my skater girl friendly list. WooT!

I did buy my b/f a new board and some new bushings. He needed them and the guy at our local shop laughed when he saw the bushings. Yeah, they were that bad!

So, yeah, I'll be up super early on Saturday to get out and board before I have to do more "stuff." I need to clear my head with some good carves.

For the love of it.

Yesterday I got the new issue of TransWorld Skateboarding magazine. Immediately I opened it up and began flipping through the pages. I saw familiar face after familiar face. All of them were faces of the men. It was no surprise to me since I don’t know when the last time I saw a woman skateboarder in a skateboard magazine, but it still always manages to disappoint a little, tiny bit.
I took the magazine to the gym with me and read it while I was doing my time on the elliptical. There was an article about a guy who was from a small town in the South who dreamt of becoming a sponsored skateboarder. His inspiration came from videos and magazines. He knew that if he just worked at it and made it to California he could get sponsored and get in the magazines and videos, too. This was his career goal. A path to making money at something he loved to do. It was a nice story, but it made me realize the true difference between women and men that skateboard, and it has nothing to do with athletic ability or talent. It does have to do with the love of a sport without the opportunity of financial support or gain.
Women who skateboard don’t get to look at a magazine or a video and get inspired by other women. We have to look to the men to see skateboarding. The tricks and the terrain don’t care if we are men or women. The physics is the same, but the faces and the style are different. Another boarder in the same issue was talking about how much easier it is to skate when you can visualize yourself doing a trick and the clothes and the shoes and the board all fit. Well, the last time I was in the mirror I looked nothing like a man in physique or dress. So, how do we visualize the trick when all we’ve seen are men doing it? We can’t so instead we work hard to get it down and have it fit us in our bodies. That’s how women get it done without the representation in magazines and videos.
When a female skater is practicing and falling on a trick for the 50th time she doesn’t have the hope that someday she’ll be in a big name ad. It doesn’t work that way. She won’t get to grab the golden ring when she has a stash of tricks, because for women there are no 4 star tours through Spain. As a rule, women that make it don’t get ads, they don’t get months in Barcelona and they don’t get a board with their name on it. What they get is the admiration and love of all the other women out there that support them. What women skateboard for is simply the love of it. That’s it. The love of being on a board and riding for ourselves is why we skateboard. Period.

Thought for the Day

this thought brought to you by Patti (From my skateboard mom's group)

Friday, 9/7/07

There Are Millions of Us.Did you know that 2.3 million American women and girls skated at least once in 2006? That's 23.8 percent of all American skateboarders.You are not alone. We're all in this together.Keep rollin'!

(Source: National Sporting Goods Association, http://www.nsga. org/public/ pages/index. cfm?pageid= 156)

Women Friendly Skate Companies ONLY

For some time now (since I've been skating) it's been apparent that women are not well represented in the skater world. We do get blurbs now and then, here and there, but for the most part we are pretty invisible. Pick up a skateboard magazine and the only women you are likely to see are bimbo'd out babes trying to sell product to teenage boys, or in the unfortunate recent case an obese mother being told to have another twinkie. And all of that is fine. It's private industry advertising their product they way they want. The good thing is that I don't have to buy products that hate on women and don't support women skaters. So, that's just what I'm doing. In the near future I will be posting links and giving information to female skater friendly sites, products and groups.

I'm not saying down with the man (or panda) at all. I'm just saying that if the man doesn't want to highlight women in a positive light I don't have to give him my hard earned dollars.