Gillogly: Rethinking skateboarding’s stance in society

Much of society does not like skateboarding. Take my aunt, for example. She recently asked me if… Much of society does not like skateboarding. Take my aunt, for example. She recently asked me if I still skateboard, and I told her I still do when I have time. She answered, “Oh. I thought you would have given up that bad habit by now.”

I’ll also never forget the time a friend and I were skating down the sidewalks of New York when we passed by a young girl and her mother. Upon hearing the clack-clack of our wheels, even though we were a safe distance behind her, the young girl emitted a shriek of terror and quickly latched onto her mother’s arm. On the verge of tears, the girl turned to us wearing an expression of terror and loathing. I couldn’t help but mumble a sheepish ‘Sorry’ while passing by, as her mother gave us an icy stare.

Today skateboarding is prolific in movies, video games and big-name commercials for products like Coca-Cola and Apple. But the subversive stereotype persists that skateboarders are a bad crowd.

While some skateboarders might relish this image, there’s perhaps an unnoticed benefit provided by that humble piece of wood with four wheels. Then again, there’s legitimacy to all the disdain.

The skateboarder who says skateboarding is not a crime is lying — well, almost lying. “No Skateboarding” signs are as ubiquitous as parking meters. Property owners don’t want to worry about a potential lawsuit from the skateboarder who sustains an injury skating the stair set, handrail or whatever element of the urban playground he happens to launch himself down. In some territories, it’s a crime.

If you didn’t know, most of those knobs on railings and slats affixed to or cut into benches and ledges don’t serve any sort of ornamental or structural purpose. They’re designed to physically prohibit skateboarding. Bearing this restriction in mind, skateboarders aren’t fault-free. If you see any sort of ledge or bench with an ugly black stain running along its edge, you can probably blame a skateboarder. That marring results from applying wax to get the ledge greased up enough to permit grinds and slides with the skateboard’s metal and wooden surfaces. Over time, the wax heats up in the sun, gets ground in with heavy use and leaves a stain more stubborn than red wine on white carpet. Those surfaces are also prone to chip and disfigure after repeated abuse from skateboards.

Despite all its scorn, skateboarding provides an advantage to society — and I don’t mean merely a popular form of exercise or that it’s become a $5 billion dollar industry since 2005, according to CBS. Most skateboarders take up skateboarding for one simple reason — to have fun. Yet it also provides the perfect outlet to heed the rebel running rampant in seemingly any teenager’s blood.

It’s the unruly aspect of skateboarding that’s actually most valuable to the rest of society. Even as skateboarding moves slightly more into mainstream culture, its characteristic renegade appeal is firmly and crucially entrenched. Sure there are those illicit incidents when skateboarders ignore the “No Skateboarding” signs, but the crime could be worse. What about graffiti, larceny or any other defiant act that mischief-seeking kids could get into? Skateboarding might not earn scholarships, but it can offer an alternative activity that’ll satisfy that inner rebel — and no, you don’t have to skateboard where it’s prohibited to feel defiant, not that I’m endorsing that activity either.

Still, some might say skateboarding relates to, or leads to, more serious unruly doings. There’s bound to be trouble hanging around with the tough crowd, right? That could be true in some instances, but anyone who’s ever stepped on a skateboard comes to an immediate realization — it’s damn difficult to learn. The skateboarders who don’t give up in sheer frustration after a few weeks realize it takes real commitment to master. Once that drive sets in, skateboarding becomes — on surface level, at least — a constructive form of exercise for the nascent skateboarder. To some, it evolves into a real passion, even a form of art, whereas the skateboarder is probably skateboarding more for love of the sport rather than an attempt to bolster bad-boy appeal. Considering the effort it takes just to become fairly competent at skateboarding, all that time can’t be wasted on real mischief.

Oh, and another plus — skateboarding will also allow you to test the limits of your body, namely, the strength of your bone structure. But that’s a topic for another day.

E-mail Keith at kbg6@pitt.edu.