Fun Lovin' Criminals

Fun Lovin' Criminals

by Karla Vierthaler

Remember the group of kids that rode skateboards in the early ’90s? They used to glide down the streets in packs, and one would do some sort of flip off the curb with his board every couple of feet. They dressed alike, with their black Vision T-shirts and long khaki shorts. They generally wore Vans sneakers, because they had flat soles that clung to their skateboard.

The kids that skateboarded weren’t very into anything else. They were tight with their friends and rode their boards all the time. Some of them had gotten really good, and could do the kind of skateboarding tricks you see on EXPN, ESPN’s extreme sports programming.

Until recently — until the release of the PlayStation video game named for and designed after pro-boarder Tony Hawk — skateboarders seemed to have fallen off the edge of the earth. Now, more and more are people taking up the sport again — or for the first time, according to Zach Wenrich, a 15- year-old skateboarder, who says the game inspired a new generation of kids to start skating.

Tony Hawk is the master of the skateboard. On a halfpipe, Hawk does flips you couldn’t imagine being done on a small board with four tiny wheels. Numerous skateboarding competitions are played on EXPN. Watching skaters do jumps, flips, and skids this time around is even more exciting. Thanks to the consistent coverage of extreme sports, America has been reintroduced to the skateboard and the things that can be done with them.

But where are the skateboarders in Harrisburg?

Wenrich, a native of Penbrook, will be entering 10th grade this fall and has been skating since he was two. “I was in the fourth grade when I really got into it.”

He says he has noticed the sport of skateboarding steadily gaining popularity since the early-’90s. “I think a lot of kids see the Tony Hawk game, and want to start skating.

Sponsored by local Funtastik and a Christian skating company in California, Weinrich has won numerous skateboarding competitions. He has a half pipe (the carved out ramp skaters use to do tricks) in his backyard, and skates everyday.

“If I didn’t skateboard everyday,” said Chris Merritt, one of Wenrich’s friends, “I don’t know what I’d do.” These boys — along with friend Chad Jarret — are serious skaters, but they have friends who have given it up.

The public areas around buildings or schools ideal for skateboarding have been marked clearly with “No Skateboarding” signs and the closest skatepark is 45 minutes away in Manheim.

“A lot of my friends quit skating and do drugs and stuff because they have nothing else to do,” says Wenrich.

Mike Helman, a 29-year-old skateboarder from Mechanicsburg who is also sponsored by Funtastik, has been skating since 1985. He knows people who have given up skateboarding or moved away due to the lack of local places to practice their sport. “A lot of my friends have moved out of the area because there is no public skating,” says Helman. “Harrisburg really needs a [skatepark] for kids to go so they don’t get in trouble.”

Street Skating: BANNED
The best place to street skate around Harrisburg is in the city, confirm local skaters. Street skaterboarders need railings, stairs, and walls to practice tricks. River Front Park, City Island, the Capital Complex, and the area in front of the Hilton and the city building have walls, curbs, and benches that make a skate boarder’s mouth water.

“Right when you start skating, you are asked to leave,” says Wenrich about skating in the city. “Every time you go out street skating, you know you’ll be harassed.”

Wenrich and his friends say the cops generally ask them to stop skating, take their name and give them a warning.

Skateboarding is prohibited in the streets, garages, and plazas of Harrisburg’s Central Business District. City Island allows skateboarders, but only on the sidewalks, which does not give kids the opportunity to get air so they practice their tricks. The crime is punishable by a fine of $50 to $300.

Sixteen-year-old skateboarder Dan Lauver, an employee at local skate shop Fishbone, says he known people who have gotten fined. Wenrich, Jarret, and Merritt know a boarder who was fined the full $300 and had his skateboard taken away. “If you even put your skateboard down on the Capitol, you get warned,” said Lauver.

Tina Manoogian-King, Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Harrisburg, says skateboarding is illegal due to property damage caused by skateboarding. Randy King, Press Secretary for the Mayor’s Office, says skateboarders have caused significant damage to public property, “to the tune of thousands of dollars a year.” The skateboarders damage handrails, trashcans, park benches, curbs, and walls when they grind and jump on these surfaces.

When asked what kind of damage skateboarding caused, Lauver replied “not as much as they make it out to be; you really don’t ruin their property skateboarding.”

“A park bench could get chipped, a ramp could be scratched,” said Wenrich about possible damage.

Manoogian-King also says the law is there to protect the safety of the general public. “It is not our intent to round up the skateboarders and arrest them.” She says innocent bystanders could be injured, as well as the skateboarders themselves.

Each municipality around the city has their own skateboarding laws, but the places to skate are more limited. Most schools do not allow skateboarders on the grounds, and shopping centers and other privately-owned businesses don’t want skaters, either. Helman says the problem has gotten worse since he began the sport. “There are a lot of places that have signs posted ‘No Skateboarding or Rollerblading.’”

“If you don’t skate at buildings or schools, you have to make your own [places to skate],” said Wenrich.

Skateparks: An Alternative
The first skatepark was built in Florida in 1976. If you’ve seen skateboarding on EXPN, you’ve seen a skate park. They can be indoor or outdoor, public or private, and made of wood and metal or concrete. A skatepark essentially looks like a grouping of gigantic empty bowls. The idea came when skaters discovered the joy of riding in an empty swimming pool.

Skateparks are generally thought of as more safe because ramps give skateboarders movement and are constructed for skateboards to do jumps and other tricks.

There are three private skate parks in Manheim, Lancaster, and York. The Keystone Skate Park in Manheim costs $8 for a first timer, and $6 every time after.

Cities across the United States have built public skateparks for skateboarders, seemingly to solve the problems associated with street skating. Both Helman and Wenrich travel to Philadelphia’s public FDR Skatepark, which is located inside FDR Park among baseball, basketball, golf facilities.

The city of Philadelphia built FDR Skatepark in 1993. Soon after, skateboarders in the area raised funds to expand the park and cover it in concrete, which offers a smoother ride than wood ramps. The park is now nationally known in the skateboarding community, and was used as a terrain choice in the Tony Hawk ProSkater video game.

The FDR Skatepark posts signs advising skaters that they are using the park at their own risk. The park is located underneath Interstate 95. “If you’re not there to use it, you don’t know it’s there,” said a Philadelphia resident.

Ocean Bowl, the public skatepark Ocean City, Maryland, was built by the city in 1976. Dave Kotter, an Ocean City employee, explains that the park is “the only place you can skate in town.”

The small college town of Athens, Ohio, also has a city-owned skatepark. The park was built in 1997, and will soon also be larger and concrete thanks to a contribution from Ohio University.

Kevin Schwartzhoff, Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Athens, said they city just added the park on to their liability coverage. He says the additional coverage was not a huge expense, about $1,000 of the $12,000 yearly bill for the city’s insurance. “Luckily, we haven’t been sued,” says Schwartzhoff. “We recommend safety gear.”

So Why Doesn’t Harrisburg Have a Skatepark?
Manoogian-King says, “the biggest obstacle is insurance.” Harrisburg is a self-insured city, and “our insurance carrier will not cover a skatepark.” She explained that a skatepark also takes an enormous amount of maintenance and upkeep to meet safety standards. “It comes down to liability,” Manoogian-King said. “We get lawsuits from people who stub their toe at a public park.”

“There’s really not that big of a market in the city [for a skatepark],” says Manoogian-King. “The city has many other needs.”

According to Helman, there have been numerous efforts made over the years to bring a public skatepark to the area. “I know a lot of people who have hoped to get the city to help,” he says. Several groups of skateboarders and parents have expressed interest in bring a skatepark to Harrisburg. “People in the area are trying [to build a skatepark], but if they had support from local government it would be easier,’ said Helman.

Yet, the importance of a skatepark is relative. “The kids that turn away from skateboarding would do it [turn away] anyway,” said Tito Martinez, the manager of Funtastik’s Union Deposit Road location. Martinez says that kids have been skateboarding in the area for years without a park, “but there are probably kids who don’t skate now who would if there was a park.”

Fun Lovin’ Criminals?
“Skateboarding doesn’t build character, it reveals it.” So went a slogan for DC Shoes, a popular extreme sports clothier.

These kids aren’t criminals and they aren’t rebels. They’re just revealing their character — four wheels at a time.

So Now You Want To Skateboard? CLICK Here.