Skateboarding Essays (598 words) - Skateboarding Tricks,

Skateboarding 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.