shaggy
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Indeed , The visionary decision by Ennis town Council of passing a by-law banning skateboarding , cycling and rollerblading goes a long way to help in the campaign against childhood exercise. A far too high proportion of the youth poulation of the town are involved in sport and exercise and something needs to be done about it. Some of these kids aren’t even fat never mind obese and others have failed to apply themselves to the time honoured traditions of smoking ,drinking and petty crime. Congratulations Ennis town councillors , those €1200 fines will soon have the kids back indoors watching telly and raiding the drinks cabinet. 😮 :confused: 😡
I and a few others have been heavily involved in trying to get quality skateparks built. With only public skatepark in the country and a very poorly designed one at that (waterford) the central location is not a priority at the moment. I’ve travelled to Australia and NZ to skateparks so an extra few miles isn’t gonna bother many skaters. Currently we have to travel to the UK to skate concrete parks.
We regard the design of this first wave of parks to be the most important key to their success. We have in fact discussed the posibility of some of the people behind the Burnside Oregon project (mentioned earlier) coming over to lend their expertise. The style of park we reccomend is one built in concrete incorporating both bowl and street features. Heres an example of one allready built in Dublin. Oh Em thats Dublin OHIO of course.
http://www.dublin.oh.us/quality/skatepark/
The main stumbling block is as ever insurance. Irish public bodies mutual (council insurance providers) are looking for a €25’000 a year premium with an excess of over €300’000 !!!!! The exess on the waterford park is only €5000. Why they are seeking such hugely different excesses between Dublin and Waterford I have no idea.
The other main problem is over estimation of costs. The Fingal County council feasability report on providing a skatepark in the borough quoted hugely inflated costs for the provision of a basic skatepark. I have written to them questioning where these figures came from but have had no reply.
Notjim you’re right that a skatepark doesn’t have to be in a park, there is skateparks in warehouses under motorway flyovers next to playing pitches under grandstands and in a multitude of various sites throughout the world. I do think that a mini ramp (small halfpipe ) would be an excellent idea for stephens green though ,it’d be something interesting and attractive for non skaters to watch too and a nicely built wooden ramp looks quite nice in a park.As a 33 year old skater I’ve been dealing with this issue for more than half my life and there is a solution. The knee-jerk council and business reaction to skaters is generally to make everything non skate-able using skate stopper devices. Despite the breaking of their own planning regulations (Civic Offices) and preservation orders ( BOI baggot St) and the added danger these devices present they persevere with this regressive approach.
It doesn’t work , skatestopper devices are easily removed and skaters will allways addapt to whatever the street envoironment presents them with.
The answer to the problem as other citys like Barcelona and Auckland have shown is to skate-PROOF street furniture. This involves the addition of protective metal edgings to benchs curbs and street furniture.
Hence no need for curb wax , no wax on your clothes,no chips or splinters (skate trucks are aluminium which will not damage steel).
With no public skateparks in Dublin (theres only one in the whole country, in Waterford and it’s a disatarous case of bad design and lack of research and consultation) there is no choice but to street skate. Do DCC expect us to give up skateboarding? Cork city council certainly want that as they are trying to pass a bylaw banning skateboarding !!
As a skater I am biased , I think it’s the most enjoyable ,creative and worthwhile pursuits that anyone can possibly do and I fail to see how anyone can be small minded enough to think that it is something that should be banned!
Can someone please explain to me why rolling around on a lump of wood is a social evil that should be made illegal?
Every week kids get beaten up by irate security guards, threatened with arrest and have their boards confiscated by Gardai not to mention the hassle they get from druggies, drunks and the shiny tracksuit brigade.
Do they deserve this for becoming skateboarders?
