Throughout the eighties and even still into the nineties skateboarders have been
stereotyped, fined, arrested, and kicked out of places for simply having fun. To
many people this doesn’t sound that bad since skateboarders are a bunch of
punks and cause trouble all the time. They smoke pot and get high and do nothing
with their lives. These last two statements could be seen as false since they
could be disproven in many ways. Tony Hawk is a pro skater who has achieved many
goals in his life. Many people won’t know him but for the people that followed
his career as a skateboarder they would know that is the “Michael Jordan” of
skateboarding. Tony started his career in the eighties and at that time
skateboarding was not too popular with the authorities. He has dealt with the
hardships of being discriminated and rose to the top. He was in the movies
Gleaming the Cube and Police Academy four. He also came up with his own company
which is Birdhouse, and has invented many of the tricks for vert skating, such
as the Madonna and the Bennihaha. This past year in the X-games he landed the
impossible, the 900. This trick involves two and a half rotations. I don’t
think Tony Hawk is a trouble maker and a punk for skateboarding. I think he is a
great role model to many of the other skaters out there working hard to do well
at the sport. Ed Tempelton is a pro skater for Toy Machine. He has run in with
the law for skating plenty of times. On the Toy Machine Video, Jump off a
Building, Ed Tempelton is shown getting kicked out of some place. Most of the
graphics on the bottom of the Toy Machine decks are painted by Ed as a way to
show his artistic ability. He said that he got into painting because he liked it
even though he said his first paintings were crapy. He said it was better than
getting into drugs and that he really doesn’t drink. Ed Tempelton is just
another skater that doesn’t fit the stereotype of skaters. If you heard of
Andy MacDonald it was probably from the latest commercial Where Andy speaks
about skateboarding and his version of getting high. This was one of those Drug
awareness commercials telling kids not to do drugs. Andy is 27 and has chosen
skateboarding other than drugs and hanging out getting into trouble. He has also
accomplished many things in life. He has been a pro for about 7 years and he now
does commercials and is on TV on such Stations as Espn, Fox sports net and Msg.
He has helped in Board Aid which is an event where snowboarders and
skateboarders have a big demo and people pay to listen to music, watch the
sports, and the main reason is to raise money for Aids awareness, and also for
drugs. To talk from experience, I have been kicked out of school property, the
mall, the parking lot of Betz Funeral home and the police have shown up to my
door also. In each of these incidents neither my friends or I were not doing
anything wrong except skateboard. I got kicked out of the Middle School parking
lot with my friend because the lady said that we were going to sue the school or
something. In contrast if my friend and I were riding a bike or on rollerblades
doing jumps we would have never even gotten hassled. Skateboarding has
progressed but some of the problems that skaters have faced in the past are
still here in the present. For instince in Albany the police can take your board
and in many places in California theres signs saying no skateboarding or the
authorities just love to hassle us skaters still.