Monday, February 22, 2010

Some Positives and Negatives on Skateboarding


For this weeks post I decided to write about some of my thoughts on skateboarding. There are several things I enjoy about skateboarding, but there are also a few things I wish would change.

In skateboarding, I enjoy the fact that the idea of skateboarding is being free. It’s about you and your skateboard with the possibility of an endless amount of tricks. You can skate whenever you choose to and like many other sports you can learn a lot from skating. Skating has taught me that life is not easy; this includes the classic example, if at first you don’t succeed, then try again.

In skateboarding I also enjoy the fact that anyone can do it. In skateboarding, it doesn’t matter what age, race, or gender you are, even dogs can skateboard. I find it interesting how rapidly skateboarding has spread across the world.

Some things I wish I could change would include the negative stereotypes of a skateboarder. Many people look down on skaters and believe skating is a negative activity for their children. I believe some of these negative feelings come from the skating advertised in the variety of shows on TV, such as Viva La Bam and Jackass. These shows do not portray skateboarding in a good way due to the reckless behavior.

I also wish I could change several minor aspects such as getting kicked out of spots. There are not many skate parks around Ohio that are made for “street skating.” Skating spots within the community is fun, but depending on the spot, you can get kicked out very quickly. I also wish skateboards were cheaper. In the early years of skating, a board could last you months. As you progress and begin to skate stairs and gaps, all it takes is to land in the wrong position to break a board. Without the trucks and wheels on a skateboard, the board alone will cost about 50 dollars.


3 comments:

  1. Antonio, you are writing these well enough that I feel like I can offer some criticisms of style as well as content.

    Content-wise, I would have liked to seen a conclusion. This post ends abruptly. Plus the last paragraph puts two separate ideas together. Stylistically,I would suggest that you put the picture of the dog skateboarding next to the sentence that you actually mention dogs skateboarding. And where are the links? Surely you can link videos (or other ways of explaining) to some of these phrases:

    "if at first you don’t succeed, then try again" (show this in skateboard terms).

    "Viva La Bam and Jackass"

    "negative stereotypes of a skateboarder"

    These are just examples.

    As far as negative images go, I had them of skater dudes when I was in high school. Back then, there was a popular rallying cry amongst the skaters: "Skate or die, dude!" A friend of mine rearranged it to "Skater dude, die!" To quote the venerable Bob Dylan, "Ah, but I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would have loved to see a bulldog on a skateboard- that would have made my day. Maybe those negative stereotypes are there for a reason. Most of the skaters I knew were usually "selling" something they probably weren't supposed to be. Well, that's not important.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice man. I like wat ur puttin out here. I personally think activities that are easy to participate in make for a more fun experience

    ReplyDelete