Photo gallery: Parks and Rec makes skateboarding fun

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

FLY ON: Timothy Roberts, 8, from Anderson Heights seems to float through the air as he comes in for a landing. Roberts has been boarding for over a year.

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

ROLLING STOP JUMP: Cody Richards of Cottonwood and Victorville started skateboarding four months ago. He uses the skateboard park whenever he can to practice and learn new tricks.

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

CATCHING AIR: Eric Craighead, 9, from Happy Valley Primary School practices maneuvers and tricks at the Anderson Skateboard Park.

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

HOLDING THE BOARD: Tyler Vaughn, 14, from Oakview High School in Anderson practices at the Anderson Skateboard Park waiting for the Night Skates to begin.

Lights, music, action and beat the day heat.

A Night Skates was held June 28 at the Anderson Skateboard Park and another will be held there on July 26. The Anderson Parks and Recreation (PAR) and the Anderson Citizens on Patrol program co-sponsor the event.

A pick-up truck sets up the sound system with large speakers and lights are set up to shine into the skateboard park.

Of course all skateboarders must have on the proper safety equipment in order to skateboard at the Night Skates.

A skateboard camp, for those 8-12-years-old, will take place on August 8, 9,10,15,16,17, Wednesday–Friday, 5:30-7 p.m. at the skateboard park. The cost of the camp is $15 and includes a camp shirt.

Basic safety, fundamentals, skills and tricks will be taught by instructor Joe Nixt. Camp members should preregister with PAR and bring skateboard knowledge, safety gear and a good skateboard. Skateboarding began in the 1950s about the same time surfing became popular. Skateboards were usually homemade and constructed of flat wooden planks attached to roller-skate trucks and wheels. By the mid-1960s, a number of surfing manufacturers started building skateboards but skateboarding popularity began to drop. Interest remained low until the mid-1970s when skateboard wheels made of polyurethane were created.

Skateboarders started creating new tricks using the vertical walls of empty swimming pools during the droughts of the 1970s. With better control, skaters could skate faster and perform more dangerous tricks. Liability concerns and increased insurance costs started the development of improved knee pads with a hard sliding cap and strong strapping. Skateparks contended with high-liability costs and many parks closed. Most people could not afford to build ramps or did not have access to ramps so street skating gained in popularity.

Streetboarders started to look for shopping centers and public and private property to skate as opposition to the sport, and threats of lawsuits, forced businesses and property owners to ban skateboarding on their properties. Street skateboarding remains popular but the high attrition rate does not appeal to everyone. Longboarding, speedboarding, downhill sliding, pool or bowl skating, slalom, and ditch skateboarding are still successful all over the world.