The author finds skateboarding's therapeutic benefits.

Going to a war is easy for a young person. You do what you’re told, carry a weapon, and run in formation every morning. You are constantly surrounded by people in your exact predicament. There is hardly anything to it. It was easy for me when I was a teenager. I didn’t even realize at the time that I was scared: I had very little to lose and the path to self-development seemed like such a suburban waste of time. On many levels my enlistment was a decision to avoid the social perils of work, health-insurance, and dating. Little did I know that these problems would still be waiting for me four years later.

How do these veterans cope? What hope is there in treatment, be it medical or spiritual, for ex-soldiers with mental illness? What exactly is it about emotional trauma that demands such a thorough and time-consuming healing? How is that healing facilitated in post-modern suburban America? One surprisingly effective answer for many veterans has been the local skateboard park.

Go to any skatepark in America and an astonishing number of young veterans from every political and economic background will tell you about the curative properties of skateboarding. Many claim there is a meditative quality to the sport that promotes relaxation and emotional balance. Some claim skateboarding as a miracle cure for their various ailments. Before looking into the physical and mental benefits of skateboarding, it is necessary to take a moment to realize the more important community benefits of the skatepark itself.

Skateparks are centers of community. They serve distinct groups of individuals, and provide a place for a popular sub-culture to gather. They are sometimes counter-cultural temples where the disaffected gather to express themselves and socialize. Skateparks encourage a spirit of community among folks who would otherwise end up skating in dangerous and unclean places. Best of all, if they designed with the principle of community in mind, skateparks can be a place of great healing.

From time to time a skatepark activist will have the opportunity to deliver a presentation on skatepark development to their community leaders. At Skaters for Public Skateparks we encounter the same thing on a national level and we never pass on a chance to share our opinions on design and development.

This year we've decided to share our annual presentation with our readers so that they may see what we're telling Parks planners and City officials. You are welcome to use these graphics and language if you like in your local effort to promote skateparks. This presentation can take as little as 45 minutes to fly through or up to 90 minutes if you explore each concept thoroughly.

In this feature you will find an image (JPG) that can be placed right into your Powerpoint, iMovie, or PDF. You may also find this PDF useful which can be printed out beforehand for each of your attendees. It contains all the of the presentation's main points.

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You will also see italic text that indicates the language we have generally used for that slide. You may use it as-is, change it, or use different language altogether.

Enjoy!