Saturday Skate Session

Sat morning me and boys headed up to Guthrie to skate.

First of all its a zoo with traffic due to all the soccer games, etc... at the rec fields. I eventually found a parking spot. Soccer moms were parked along every single red curb in the area, but no tickets were being given out. Pretty messed up considering if a skater parked along the red curbs in front of the skate park good old "Mr. Policeman" would find every excuse to ticket the skater car. Seems to me that parking along the red curb when its busy is more of a fire hazard than when the skaters are parked along it with no other cars around and the area is quiet. Sounds like good old fashioned Police harrasment to the skaters.

Also why can't a soccer mom just come to the realization that there is no parking right next to your kids game, you are going to have to actually walk to the field. Stop circling the parking lot for 45 mins hoping a spot opens up, you could have already parked and been there already! Besides you are making traffic worse.

Parking aside, we roll up to the park. Only to be greeted by a sign that says. "Park closed until 11 am, private skateboard lessons in progress." Since when did skateboarding go "Deer Valley" on me and get exclusive? The beauty of skateboarding is its not exclusive. You have more diversity and opportunity in skateboarding than any other sport. I only see diversity in SLC at the skatepark. I dont see it on the football field, the slopes, etc... This made me unnerved.

Let me explain the scene I witnessed. A group of kids had the park to themselves since they are willing to pay for the lessons. A bunch of soccer moms and dads are sitting in their lawn chairs shouting words of encouragement to the youngters. I was wondering if I was at a skatepark, or a football practice? The instructor had them doing drills, kinda like what you would see at a basketball pratice. The scene looked like how Communist China would approach skateboarding if it became an olympic sport, set practice times, set drills, etc.... Also I am glad the parents enjoy their kids skating, but skateboard with them, but don't yell at them from the sidelines. Save that for the soccer games! You are introducing something to skateboarding that is not good. Skate camps have been around for a long time, I just think they have a different approach to bringing out the best in the youngsters than what I witnessed. They dont follow a basketball camp approach. Knucklz has been teaching skateboarding to kids for a long time, and I have never seen anything like I witnessed the other day.

Was skateboarding cooler when it was frowned on from the mainstream, or is this really what we wanted from skateboarding? Is this what we envisioned when we were getting arrested and having our skateboards confiscated from the same school where the skatepark is now located?