Skateboarding.
A massive overhead existence burning like some hurdling star through the streets across benches and tables over planters and stairways, shredding on the ramps and parks that have grown from this now very human and essential need that people find in there souls, Screaming.
Skateboard!
Skateboarding, with its gritty punk enthralled surf inspired roots all the way to today’s millionaire superstars and Olympic athletes.
Oh wait I don’t think it has hit the Olympics yet but it certainly could.
Skateboarding is about individual freedom, it is about the counter culture tribe. It is about friend’s comradery and blasting past the normal limits of gravity and society.
Skate boarding is about style and charisma and just as much as the big wave surfers of the 50’s in Hawaii. It’s about finding what’s true.
Finding out who you are and at the same time inspiring the world around you.
Or just saying Fuck Off I’m doing my thing!
Ha!
That’s why the Skateboarding has been banned.
That’s why Skateboarding has been embraced.
When I went to La Sierra’s Skate Park Fundraiser in Carmichael this past Saturday I rediscovered my inner skater.
Not necessarily something I had lost, just a stage of life that I’ve already lived.
And it was Awesome to see it flourishing!
The La Sierra Skate Park is a home away from home for a great group of kids who all have one common interest in mind and that is skateboarding.
And let’s not forget those razor scooter riders who were blasting out of those ramps too!
Wheelies, kick flips, air grabs, board slides, half pipes, rails, fun boxes, ramps ollieing over girls legs while flying out of the half pipe!
La Sierra Skate Park unfortunately is in danger of closing.
Skate Park Facilitator and idol to all those rad young people Bob Kerr got a few great musicians together (Adrian Bourgeois, Genrenaut and Issac Bear) and organized Saturdays fundraiser to save the park for these kids. Kerr said that previous cost estimations on keeping the park open were some where in the range of $25,000 per year. And he knew that the kids “needed someone to stand as there face, to try to keep the skate park open.”
When I asked 13 year old Shredder Scott Wilkins what skate boarding meant to him he said matter of factly “Improving”.
When I asked him if he could ever stop skating he said “No”.
Another Exuberant Skater Kyle Stendel was quoted after finally sticking a trick he had been trying all afternoon “I’m So Happy! I DID IT!”
Seeing the seriousness, the joy, the focus and the elation on all those young faces in that park is the most that any great teacher or guide could hope for and that is what Bob Kerr sees every day when he goes to work.
Lets make it happen for’em folks you can donate to the park itself or look up Bob Kerr or Team Ninja Midget and find out how to help. Visit the links below for more information. This is an excellent opportunity for businesses, skate shops or just any one who wants to help keep these kids engaged in a fun positive safe and challenging atmosphere.
Make a donation or for more information visit
http://www.carmichaelpark.com/skatepark.htm
Or contact Team Ninja Midget at
Or on facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Ninja-Midget/144149898963060