City, Spirit Skate Shop team up for camp

Etiquette School for Skaters

By Web Master, 7-12-08

If you’re a skateboarder, you’re going to fall.

At Kalispell’s Spirit Skate Camp, kids learn that falling isn’t failure. In fact, it’s what makes a skater strong.

This summer marks the fourth year the city of Kalispell and Spirit Skate Shop have teamed together to teach kids about city skating ordinances, safety, etiquette and self-maintenance. The goal is simple: to benefit the camper and community.

The skate camp, held in Woodland Park, is broken up into three, two-day sessions, with the first already completed and the second running on July 10 and 11. The final session is August 2 and 3. Registration forms are available at Kalispell Parks and Recreation and Spirit Skate Shop.

Although skating has gained popularity and acceptance in the Flathead Valley, mixed perceptions about skateboarders still persist. Recently, loiterers at the skate park have raised enough concern to warrant an informal work session with city officials. On July 14th the Kalispell City Council will discuss the fate of the skate park. No votes will be allowed at the meeting but the council will discuss temporarily closing the skate park. Skating restrictions within city limits and helmet requirements will also be discussed.

“Some people still view skateboarders as troubled youths, largely in part, because of their appearance,” Kalispell Parks and Recreation Superintendent Jennifer Young said. “But they are no different than any other kid; they deserve to have fun.”

Admittedly, Young and Spirit Skate Shop owner Mark DeLorme agree there are always troublemakers, but this problem, they say, is not necessarily the skateboarders. DeLorme and Young both point to the loitering problem, which prompted the July 14 meeting. The meeting is, in part, an attempt to improve what DeLorme views as a lack of communication between the city and the skating community in addressing concerns associated with the skate park.

But for the city and Spirit, the camp remains an important way to encourage dialogue and hopefully reach agreement on pertinent issues in the skate community.
James Reeves, a Flathead native, will be the camp instructor. He also did it in 2006. Last year Reeves spent the summer at Woodward West in California – one of the country’s premiere training facilities for skateboarding, gymnastics, mountain biking, BMX, and in-line skating. While in California, he received a promotion to the role of camp “fun director,” a position usually reserved for returning staff. He has also been invited to instruct at another Woodward location in Minnesota this year.

“I wanted to make sure Kalispell was going to have the best skateboarding camp around,” Reeves said.

Reeves has been skating for more than half of his life and understands the difficulty and precision of skating. It can be painstaking. But he says the exhilaration you get after days of tribulation is worth the pain.

At camp, when a rider lands a trick, skaters will begin to tap their boards on the ground. It’s a skateboarder’s homage: the sound of 20 wood boards tapping concrete. And it’s never more important then when a skater fails. It reminds them that perseverance is paramount.

“Getting up is hard,” Reeves said. “It’s the difference between a kid crying or trying again. It builds a lot of character.” [End of article]

Comment By mat, 7-12-08

Wow, so you build a place for kids to hang out and skate, then when kids hang out there, you wanna close it. I cant wait for all these old people to die, so we can take things over and start fixing everything all these walking corpses broke. Thats awesome there is finally something and someplace kids can hang out. Its really sad that you have to judge people based on what they look like and the fact they skate board. Skateboarding is not a crime, and we’re the future, so deal with it. If you close the park, where do you think all these kids are gonna go? They are gonna be back in the streets and they are gonna be pist because you took away their park. So choose wisely.

Comment By A.R., 7-14-08

Close the park! Fill it with dirt, pave it, and add more parking spaces for the cars that want to go to the waterpark. These kids have no respect. I propose to outlaw skateboarding, and inline skating in city limits. With a skatepark, we are a breeding ground for future criminals like the above poster. Put these kids on a chain gang of some kind, or make them work on a farm where they will learn discipline and hard work. As for a place to hang out- What ever happend to dances? Work hard, help society, then you can hang out. Why do kids think they deserve a place to hang out and do nothing?

Comment By Mat, 7-14-08

thats exactly the kind of attitude thats gonna get you put in a home once you get old. A really crappy home. Kids are the future so be nice. Its people like you that make people like me dislike and have to talk about on the jamhole. If kids dont need a skate park then all you old “people” dont need golf courses. Just fill the golf course with dirt and make another parking lot. If you dont want kids to be kids, QUIT HAVING KIDS!

Comment By Roark, 7-14-08

The morally disgusting thing about this skate park is that it was subsidized by the taxpayer.-and what happens?-well the obvious happened; you got a lot of foul mouthed no good punks spreading the nihilistic skating culture. Destroy the park.

Comment By missing the point, 7-14-08

Not surprisingly, we have yet another case of commenters missing the salient points in favor of trash talking.

The city (administration and citizenry alike) want to keep the park. It’s hugely popular, so that makes sense. What needs to change is the way it’s used. Skaters have to realize that vandalising/disrespecting City property and personnel runs counter to their goal of having a place to chill, ride and practice skillz. Ideally skaters “police” themselves, but unfortunately that may be too much to expect (insert comment here re: kids these days). It’s always been cooler to dis authority than side with it, but as one grows up (think about it Mat), one realizes that the “system” actually provides a lot of good for the people’s sake (taxpayers’ and even Roark’s). The skate park is an asset to the community and to close it would be shortsighted.

By the same token, the users need to take responsibility for what’s effectively been given them, and to play/live with some understandable (in my opinion) restrictions on that use. Should skaters wear helmets? Moms, Dads and ER docs everywhere say, Yes. Is it the City’s responsibility to make sure skaters wear them? At this point, yes, but I’m not the only one who knows how hard that might be to enforce amongst a bunch of authority-hating young adults. So, I say post a sign saying “ride at your own risk; skating is inherently risky”, and when Joey cracks his dome after trying some sick move he learns the natural consequences of arrogantly going against authority’s advice- brain spill.

The vandalism is another story. If it’s about tagging the park, let it happen- turns out graffiti art actually looks good and they’d be invested in keeping the result looking nice, presumably. As for breaking signs and keying cars- that happens all over, so deal with it similarly (send out regular patrols, investigate, replace the signs). Vandalism is a weak form of expression, and any youth working to destroy their own resource should soon see the folly in such an approach to getting attention.

Ultimately, I think the city is doing the right thing; providing an open forum for authorities and users to dialogue about how to improve an obviously caustic situation. Is there a reason not to foster a sense of community?

Comment By Brayden, 7-14-08

So go ahead and take away the skate park and outlaw skateboarding and everything else, it’s not going to stop anything. All that will do is start another war with another group of people, we have enough wars as it is going on in our own country and we really don’t need anymore. If you take that away from them and make it illegal they will still do it, then instead of your taxes you pay going to the skate park it will go to the over crowded jails to keep innocent people there just for skateboarding. Skateboarding is not a crime it’s a very good sport for young kids to pick up. I’m sure some of them are criminals but there’s criminals in any group of people. There’s a lot of skateboarders that are big contributers to society that do work full time jobs and do their part for society.

Comment By mat, 7-14-08

Roark, your an idiot, i’m amazed you’ve survived this long. Actually im not, any idiot can make money, and sadly, now a days money is all it really takes to survive. Were you ever a kid? Or were you born a full grown crotchety old piece of fecal matter. Anyways, like brayden said, kids are gonna skateboard no matter what. Its good that they finally have a place to do it. When i was a kid i used to skate board and we had no where to go, so we were constantly getting tickets and being run off of places by miserable people like you, and all that did was feed this lovely distaste i have now for authority and people like you. Love ya!

Comment By Sarah, 7-15-08

The skatepark is one of the last things in Kalispell that kids can hang out at. Don’t you think that having kids be able to skateboard would be a hell of a lot better than out doing drugs sitting on their couches not learning social skills? If you don’t like kids so much, stop reproducing if it is such a problem. Most of you are ignorant and bitter because you aren’t young anymore and you have nothing better to do other than ruining kids lives. Think of something better to whine about and get off the computer complaining about things that you cannot change.

Listen to http://www.thejamhole.com

Comment By A.R., 7-15-08

The world would be a lot better off without kids!!

Comment By mat, 7-15-08

You know something A.R., THE WORLD WOULD BE A LOT BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU!!!! Thats right, 4 exclamation points, and all caps.

Comment By Roark, 7-15-08

mat and Sarah, you just proved my point.

Comment By mat, 7-15-08

well then we’re all on the same page at least.

This article was printed from flatheadbeacon.com at the following URL: http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/etiquette_school_for_skaters/4347/