The kind people at the @tonyhawkfoundation have been a major help during our long journey. We would not have been able to get this far along with out them. Thank you times a million!!
・・・ #repost
This is what #SkateparkAdvocacy looks like. It takes passion, dedication, and most of all - tenacity. But the fruits of your labor could provide you and your community with a safe, free space for youth to build community, live a healthy lifestyle, and practice what they love! Change lives, get involved! #BuiltToPlay #DesignMeeting #roccitypark
I’ve been a maker all my life. I make drawings, tattoos, murals, mixed-media art, and I even made this person! My son was into skating for a bit when he was younger, and has obviously always been exposed to the sport and culture as his father Steve O’Malley was a Krudco team rider. We had ramps at the house, and when he was about 6 years old our friend Arden built a wall ramp at The Yards for a Wall/Therapy event. Martha Cooper, who has photographed every famous street artist all over the world, took this photo of Collin when she came into town to cover Wall/Therapy. Collin was really into skating for her, and she spent so much time capturing him. As kids do, he’s now chosen other interests. Maybe someday he’ll come back to skateboarding, or he’ll introduce other people in his life to skate culture. I can’t help but think that a skate park in downtown Rochester could be the place that reconnects him to this sport. Maybe it will be the art, music, or fashion that draws him back. Or maybe he’ll want to try BMX, scooter, or inline skating, because if we build the right park, we can support all of those activities. I just want him to have the choice to immerse himself in this vibrant creative culture that has meant so much to me. Building a skatepark in Rochester will create a place that brings together everything important to me about skate culture -- the art, the sport, and the amazing people who are the creators of it all. Thanks so much for reading this week. I’ll see you soon at the skatepark!
@marthacooper @walltherapy @theyards
#shredyourperception #roccitypark #formypeople
@ Rochester, New York
My college boyfriend, Jason Goodman, a NYC-based multimedia artist and Emmy-award winner for the Mad Men animated title design intro, was and still is an avid skateboarder as well as an incredible artist who did a lot of graphics work for pro-skaters. He even hand-carved vintage boards. Jason introduced me to so many pro-skaters, and spending time with him was total immersion in skate culture. On the weekends, we would go back to his hometown in a very rural area of Pennsylvania and hang out with his friends, including twin guys who had set up ramps to skate in the family barn! I’ve lived all over--in Pittsburgh for art school, then in Chattanooga, Indiana, and Atlanta for jobs in the applied artwork field (mainly in designs for apparel)--and in each place I found friends and inspiration in the skating community. My brother would come to visit (that’s him with me in Indy, in the US Mail cap), take his board out, and find the the skaters! During one visit, he showed up at my art opening with a young man who was deaf; they met while skating and transcended any communication challenges just by being on their boards. Creating a dedicated place for this community to exist and for these relationships to happen is my goal with helping to establish a world class skatepark in Rochester. Street art, tattoos, punk music, skateboarding --- there isn’t a taboo I’ve met that I haven’t loved! And the beautiful intersection of these subcultures happens at skateparks around the country. For all of us who are board members and supporters of Friends of the Roc City Skatepark, this is something we want for our community to thrive.
#shredyourperception #roccitypark #roc post by Lea Rizzo @lea_yolanda
The mid-late 1980s to mid-1990s were the days of Rochester shops Samurai Skates (opened 1982/83) and Krudco (opened in 1994), Vision Street Wear fashion, and the catchphrase “Skateboarding is not a crime” --- because, as a street sport, skating has suffered from an undeserved bad reputation. The ideal skating locale offers lots of concrete --- steps, curbs, plus railings and all the features for practicing and perfecting skateboarding tricks. My brother and his friend Rob skated wherever they could find spaces like that. In Canandaigua near the pier and Kershaw Park was a great spot. After the demo at MCC in 1988, a group of my girlfriends and I met up with a group of skater boys and we all went to a parking garage in the city to hang out and skate. This story is so typical of the skating community I grew up with. We made friendships that lasted sometimes just for the day, and some have lasted a lifetime. Owners of parking lots and garages and other hardscape public spaces have since the 1990s routinely posted signs that criminalize skating on those premises. Their reasoning is typically that it’s an insurance liability, but there are far less injuries reported due to skateboarding than there are reported for football, baseball, and basketball. Maybe we can’t change the minds of the owners of parking lots and public spaces, but we can build a place that is safe and dedicated to welcoming the sport and culture of skateboarding.
#roccitypark #rochesterny #585 #skateboarding #skateboardingisnotacrime #formycity #ifyoubuilditheywillcome
@ Rochester, New York
