Skatepark Etiquette

Tim Roxburgh photo John Gabler

With the winter being as brutal as it's been in the Northeast everyone has been flooding the parks. With packed sessions comes alot more collisions. I think it's due to the younger guys out there that have never been taught to wait their turn or if they're gonna take a run to keep their heads up at the park and pay attention to their surroundings. Nothing can be more dangerous to a younger dude on a bike riding "blindly" and have somebody else coming full steam at something in the park and and having the two collide. Or even worse have someone doing a huge air and a dude ride under them, the dude in the air has nowhere to go but down and if your under him, well....BAM! As an older rider, when I'm at the park and I see a younger unexperienced rider doing something wrong I feel it only necessary to correct his actions as it could prevent someone from getting hurt. I urge any dude to do the same. I think we were all in this stage once in our lives and I don't think there's anything wrong with younger kids going to the park. I just think that they need to learn to be alert in a skatepark surrounding. It's something that their parents can't teach them. It has to be learned. Have some patience with the younger dudes...you were once in their shoes. Set an example.