Cole Burgess

ENGL-2010
Brandon Alva
December 10, 2015
PEAR Paper
Skateboarding is a sport that has been growing in popularity almost since the day that it
was invented. However, over the past years it has been growing at an even more rapid pace. Due
to the growth of the sport there are also more and more issues arising with it, one of the largest of
the issues is the matter of where skaters should be allowed to skate. There are many different
views and opinions on the topic, and all of them yield a different result to how it affects the
community. However it seems that the most positive and beneficial solution to the skateboarding
issue is to embrace the sport and the culture that comes with it. When a community embraces
skateboarding rather than try to fight it, it proves beneficial for all parties involved by removing
social stigmas and stopping unnecessary controversy.
If skateboarding is such a widely growing sport, then it would make sense for
communities to begin to incorporate skating into their society. In various skate meccas around
the world they are beginning to embrace the sport and it has so far been yielding very positive
results. Places such as L.A, Vancouver, and Brazil have been making changes such as, building
new public skate parks, adding new elements to skate in public places and uncapping various
ledges. Not only did this do the obvious and make skaters happy to see, but it has also began to
improve the social stigmas set in place on skaters within the communities. It has improved
skaters in the public eye, and also reduced the number of vehicle break-ins on campus, according

to the Director of Security for the University of British Columbia. These few progressive
communities have shown and given perfect examples of how embracing skating can improve a
society for all parties involved.
One of the biggest issues facing skateboarders in todays society is the stigma that gets
placed upon the sport as a whole. The stigmas include things such as vandalism, swearing,
underage drinking/smoking and delinquent behavior over all. The unfortunate part about these
stereotypes is that they are often times very true for a lot of skaters but not all of them. This crass
skater persona that the world sees, has most likely been brought on by the oppression that
skateboarders have faced since the sport first began in the 1940s. Skaters take on a sort of
down with the man place in society because they are excluded for doing what they love to do.
If communities could embrace skateboarding and give those who skateboard a sense of
belonging in the society, the social stigmas on skaters would become much more peaceful.
Skaters would lose that down with the man persona, therefore changing how people see them
and improving the community.
These progressive communities have shown the benefits of embracing skateboarding and
should be an example for other communities to follow. If more places were to pass laws similar
to those in Vancouver and become less restrictive on skateboarding it could have huge benefits to
all. One thing that all pro skateboarding articles have in common no matter the source, is that
skateboarding is a sport and a means of transportation and should never be allowed to be fully
banned. As skateboarding grows so will the controversy on what is and isnt allowed, however it
is not a solution that can be reached over night. It is going to take many more communities to
stand out of the norm and follow the footsteps of those who choose to progress as a society.

Some would argue against the notion that skateboarding should be a sport that is accepted
in a modern society. There are many valid reasons as to why this would be believed, including,
property damage that skaters cause, the liability that they put upon the owner of the property and
especially the harm that they could potentially cause themselves and those around them.
Everyone has heard the stories of people being injured by out of control skaters, however there
are very few cases of skaters suing business owners due to injuries on their property.
The amount of money that property owners have to spend on repairing damages caused
by skaters is a number that is sadly too high. This fact alone could be reason enough to agree in
the outlawing of skateboarding in these public places. A property manager for a shopping center
called West Court Plaza estimated the damage costs for the plaza to be about $4,000, money that
had to be pulled from company budget. This is a very extreme example of skaters causing
property damage that needs to change. The question that comes up to the skeptics of
skateboarding is, why should everyday people have to pay their own money to repair damages
made by someone else? Essentially, citizens are paying for a sport regardless of if they are
involved in it. Although this seems very similar to tax payers dollars being used to build
stadiums, it is an issue none the less.
Skateboarding is truthfully a dangerous activity, there should be no argument against that.
Everybody knows that one of the true stereotypes of a skater is that they are constantly bruised
and beaten up due to the danger of the sport. This is something that comes with the sport and
those who participate dont seem to mind. However, this is not the main issue with physical harm
and skateboarding. The bulk of the issue is that skateboarding is causing injuries to innocent
bystanders. Sadly this is an unavoidable aspect of the sport, and yet the same goes for biking,

roller blading and even running. Yet these sports are not prosecuted as harshly as skating, largely
due to the stigmas that skaters carry.
Along with injuries being caused while skateboarding, liability plays a very large role in
this debate. If one was to be using the handrails or ledges in front of a shopping center and
injured themselves, they could very easily sue the owner. This concept sounds outrageous, that
someone could hurt themselves because of their own decisions and blame it on someone else, but
sadly this is the America we live in. The majority of the skaters that find themselves in this
situation would realize that their injury is their fault alone, and therefore leave the case alone.
Although there are occasional instances where skaters try to sue the property owner for injuries
on the premise, the vast majority of the cases end with the property owner coming out on top, if
the case isnt thrown out immediately. The case being thrown out is usually due to a simple sign
saying no skateboarding or skate stoppers which imply the same thing. The stoppers cost
somewhere between $3 and $25 each for property owners to install, but they can save them loads
of money down the road avoiding lawsuits and property repair. Liability shouldnt be a huge
concern for property owners if they take the very simple precautions to avoid it.
After reading through all of this research, questioning whether or not skateboarding
should be allowed and where it should be allowed. I decided to conduct my own experiment on
the topic. For my experiment I decided to go around to a couple different skate
spots and skateboard there for 30 minutes and see if I was told to leave. If I
was told to leave, I would calmly talk to the person who is asking me to leave
and ask them why they wanted me to stop and explained it was for a project.
One thing that I noticed was that when I simply said, Okay to the person of
authority rather than argue, and then calmly asked them why, they seemed

much more relaxed towards the situation. The places that I went to
skateboard for the experiment were; Liberty Park, the Nordstrom in City
Creek, Energy Solutions and The U of U campus.
The first place I went to test was Liberty Park, in a central area of the
park where skateboarders often go. While there I was using all sorts of ledges
which would be frowned upon in most places, however even though park
groundskeepers did see me, they just waved and went on their way. In front
of the Nordstrom in downtown SLC there is a stair set that I decided would be
fun to skate. However after about 10 minutes I was confronted by the
security guard who asked me to leave. I picked up the skateboard and asked
if I could talk to him about why he doesnt want me there. After a few
minutes of talking it came down to both liability of the shop and property
damage, just as I suspected. I then took a short ride to energy solutions
where I skated on the many stairs the have without a single issue. This one is
surprising to me because it is a place that could potentially be liable. The last
place that I went was at the U of U campus where skaters will get on trax at
the bottom, ride them to the top then skate all the way back down and
repeat. I tried this but by the second run down I was stopped by the campus
security who at first tried to take my skateboard away. I then explained to
him that I was doing it for a class and he found it amusing so we talked about
why I couldnt be skating there. He explained that the main issue is actually
the safety of others, because there are many students walking class to class
that could be injured by an out of control skater.

The experiment yielded the results that I had anticipated. I was asked
to leave the premises when skateboarding at privately owned places along
with places with dense groups of people. This was mainly due to the liability
the business would have if myself or others were injured on the property. All
in all, the restrictions set on skateboarding in the average community appear
to be far too severe. Embracing the sport would prove beneficial to the
community and its members, with very few drawbacks. The controversy
involves many aspects and is different and unique everywhere in the world,
but overall it is one that needs to be taken with a progressive state of mind,
attempting to satisfy all those within the community. The way that this can
be achieved is by accepting change and looking at what can be both
beneficial and helpful in moving the community forward.

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