Skatepark madness - I just don't get it!!!!

[Bushwacked]

Just been down the skatepark to enjoy the sun before it scarpers for the day (Had an awesome session and wanted to stay for longer but my lunch break is only an hour).

Anyway, I was down there and these young kids about 8-10yrs old turn up on roller blades, no pads, no helmet etc. I know as a parent that you shouldn't wrap your kids in cotton wool etc or let them go feral but a happy medium is always good. It just surprises me that these kids are let out the house to go skating, bmxing etc but the parents almost don't know what they are doing and how dangerous it is. These kids were so bad that it made me look good!!!  One of the kids had a BMX with him and he was complaining his brake wasn't working, I had a look and there was everything minus the lever blade - again if I was his dad I'd have had that fixed ages ago!!!

On the flip side, people take the mikey out of us old 'uns going out on the "kids" bikes but during all the piss taking do people really understand the risk we put ourselves in to enjoy it? No they just think we arse about popping off curbs.

 

Sorry - I'm having a rant as I've been away for the weekend with some of my MTB friends who spent most of the weekend ripping the michael out of me for riding a bmx. So I've invited them to come out on the ramps for a morning to give it a try!!! Then we'll see if they can still rip the piss!!!!

[HEYWOOD BMX]

  `Tis a sensible rant! I get pee`d off with idiots at my local track,who think they have the right to let their dogs crap all over the place,ride horses round it or start crying when you "accidentally on purpose"  squash their RC cars.....Some parents just don`t deserve to have kids.


                                James




Getting more bitter & twisted by the hour!

[OrgasmDonor]

the entertainment value the kids give up at hartlepool track is priceless we've been just sitting back and watching the carnage arm n knee pads should be manditory but i never wore them as a kid as too uncool n scars rocked

[sonic-1]

my son whos 13 is an inline skater , he s quite good to can do some very mad stuff  but he allways uses his pads n they have lessened some very nasty lobs
but when he go s to local outdoor park the other kids ripp the piss bigstyle till he starts skatin , he s still progressin so bins it quite a bit tryin big stuff , most of the kids dont even try as they get hurt n go home
iv had a real bad off when i first started back with bmx thought i could still hop ok !!!!!! errrr didnt n ramed a step n chipped elbow through a elbow pad !!!!! even made me puke  my lad rolls up to me on the floor n says dad yer sposed to hop!!!!!!! mmmmm think i got that    worst of all had to carrie 35lb bmx home as wrecked the front wheel

[Gary72]

I have this problem with my 7 year old, throws a wobbler if I say put on your helmet, He will wear it once in any skatepark, but not too it, not even from the car park to the entrance, hangs it off the bars and bashes him in the knee.
We do watch quite a few DVD'S and web videos, most riders not wearing helmets. Even showed him Jimmy Le Vans coma crash on a skateboard and told him what happened. I know like someone said above used to go to rOm allday no helmet or pads just a pair of Farah's and a T-shirt, now I go helmet(piss-pot) elbow and knee/shin pads.
Well worthy of a rant 

[welsh denny]

my son whos 13 is an inline skater , he s quite good to can do some very mad stuff  but he allways uses his pads n they have lessened some very nasty lobs
but when he go s to local outdoor park the other kids ripp the piss bigstyle till he starts skatin , he s still progressin so bins it quite a bit tryin big stuff , most of the kids dont even try as they get hurt n go home

a  local inliner from barry island (richard taylor) was pro, competed around the world and was a sound bloke. seen him around the local ramp/street spots around south wales many a time but sadly he died street skating a few years back just down the road from his house. a big fast 180 drop gap went wrong and he hit his head against a lamp post. he never regained conciousness. the new skatepark in the knap, barry is kinda dedicted to him. shows you never know what can happen in life.
R.I.P.

[superbikedan]

if you do these sports them pain will happen, this is a strange one for me at the mo, when billy took his slam

a few weeks back, to see him go down as hard as he did was bad enough, knocked himself out and was wearing a bell fullface,

fractured his shoulder and crushed his spleen, when he was laying in his hospital bed, ready for his op, tubes coming out of

him everywhere, looking ill and in a lot of pain,  my mind was racing, i truly didnt want him to ever get back on a bike again,

to look down on my boy and see him like this was too much and he was padded up and wearing a fullface helmet when he took his slam and he still came out

worse, these kids who wear nothing dont get my sympathy when it goes wrong

[macky]

The thing is... these kids may fall and really seriously hurt them selves...

then the kid's parents will probably try'n sue the council...


seen many a ramp torn down because some dopey ghetto kid broke an arm on it!!

[Bushwacked]

That's sort of my point, I'm new to this and I always thought the same as my mates - it was just larking around on a kids bike - but now having tried it and being caught hook line and sinker, I can see how bloody dangerous this is. It all comes down to calculated risks but these kids don't understand this and if they don't, the parents certainly don't and will raise merry hell when it does go wrong.

You wouldn't let your kids drive a car without a seatbelf and learning to drive and I don't think driving a car is as risky as BMXing. Its like the other day there was a news story about a 15yr old on a moped dying after being chased by police in south london after not stopping when being asked to. Firstly, why didn't he stop? Secondly what was a 15yr old doing on a moped in the first place and lastly where did his folks think he was? And to top it off I bet the Police get sued for causing it!!!  I tell you the state of the country!!!

 

[Obbie]

I hears ya's , i never ride at all with out shin , knee , elbow , ancle gaurds and me moto7r and not to forget me Vision Street Wear 14000's , most people have that horrible crash the one time they don't wear it . I have always preached the fullface helmet to all my friends , Sam Ward was the first one i converted and we all seen the way that changed his riding , since then i've talked about 6 or 7 people into getting them , most just say i can't see or they just don't like them , i say "better than eatting ya tea through a straw tho or having a metal cage around and screwed to ya head " lol ,  get it together people .....

[Shings]

I went over the bonnet of a fiesta when I was 13 while riding a raleigh burner with no brakes- whilst on the way to scouts.

Next day at school Mr Delderfield confiscated the same bike because I was giving someone a backy on it- still with no brakes.

Inner city Birmingham was a tough place when I grew up and still is now... I couldn't afford brake cables... let alone new tyres or inner tubes when they wore out..... I remember trying to patch a hole in a tyre with a bit of carboard.... so why would I possibly even consider buying safety gear- and as my dad was on the rock for pretty much 10 years during my childhood my parents couldn't afford it either.

I get what your saying guys - but spare a thought... not everyone has the money to buy anything for their kids other than the bike/board/blades in the first place.

I dunno what my point is.... but there is one.