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Written by Evan Knappenberger
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Monday, 09 November 2009 00:00 |
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.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 December 2009 15:56 |
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Written by Peter Whitley
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Sunday, 25 October 2009 00:00 |
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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.
sps_presentation_handout
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!
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 December 2009 16:24 |
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Written by Peter Whitley
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Tuesday, 29 September 2009 00:00 |
Not all skatepark providers are created equal. Find out what makes them different in our new producer interviews!
Skaters for Public Skateparks is frequently asked "who is the best supplier of skateparks?" and"who should we hire for our skatepark project?"
The answer is that the best skatepark designer (or construction company) is the one that delivers the skatepark that meets your community's need and budget. Although you can probably count all of the skatepark companies on your fingers and toes, they all have different qualities and capabilities. Some of them will work with you from the earliest design stages all the way to opening day and others just performing one of the phases of the skatepark development process.
Our recommendation is that you should get to know the companies currently doing business and get a feel for the priorities and characteristics of each. These companies also have reputations among skaters that are deservedly earned and fiercely protected. Your local skatepark experts should be able to produce an enthusiastic “wish list” of designers and builders. Additionally, the communities these companies have worked with should be investigated; were they happy with the experience and did the skatepark achieve the desired results?
To make this process more convenient for you, we've interviewed the nation's most well-known skatepark producers and will be publishing those interviews over the next few months. In this first installment we introduce a nice variety of professionals that you should find revealing and educational.
The presence of absence of a company here is not meant to suggest an endorsement of that company's products or services. If a company's interview is absent and you'd like to see it included, we invite you to drop us a line at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Last Updated on Thursday, 03 December 2009 01:13 |
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