Skaters Vs. Scooter Mum -Video Opinion.

Watch video:
Skaters Vs. Scooter Mum Video

The first thing i have to say about this video is that they all have as much right to be there as each other, yet it is at the risk of their own safety!!!
In saying that I think it is important for us to look a little deeper into how this skate park dynamic…. is often not so dynamic.

The parents are arguing that it's a public space and their kids are just wee toddlers on scooters and therefore the older skater kids should give them right of way and ensure they do not hit them. After all, they are just precious wee kids learning their first motor skills. The skateboarders are saying that it's a "Skate park" designed for skateboarding and they are utilising the many design features in the manner they were planned out to be used and that they are unable to concentrate on difficult maneuvers  because there are toddlers riding through their path with no consideration for what they are trying to achieve.

So lets get down to the nitty gritty. Hooten Reserve skateboard park was designed by skateboarder Jason Parkes  (Premium Construction) specifically for skateboarding.
Some skateparks such as Vic park are designed to accommodate BMX as well. But Albany does not appear to have any BMX specific obstacles. Skateboarders from these communities have put in painstaking work to petition these parks into existence. The scooter fad did not exist when the likes of Albany, Vic and barry curtis were planned and built. Therefore this issue was not foreseen although it has been of growing concern for years now.

This may annoy a lot of skaters but i'm just going to say it. Scooters have as much right to ride the park as skateboarders. Just like skateboards, scooters and bikes have as much right to ride on footpaths and roads as pedestrians and cars.
The exception here is that toddlers, on or off any sort of wheeled device, do not belong in the midst of a heated skate session unless they know how the park works and aware of the dangers. In respect of those dangers, they need to give way to those that are bigger and better than them, parents need to be realistic and respect that this is a sports arena crossed with a busy street, not a playground. There are intricate unwritten guidelines for survival in this arena, and for the same reasons you don't send your toddlers out to play in the middle of a game of rugby or the middle of a busy road, you don't set them loose at a skateboard park and expect them to be the focal point of everyones attention and pampering. After all the skateboarders are there to get good at skateboarding, not babysit.

On a positive note, I like to think of the skateparks we have as experimental works for future developments. Skateboarders have worked extremely hard in conjunction with the councils to build these average sized skate parks. For this we are grateful as these are the best skateparks we have ever had in New Zealand, well except for Skatopia from the 70's. And despite a new level of design and construction, we are still lagging behind the rest of the world, especially in our city centers.

The solution to this situation is that we extend skateparks and playgrounds, make them as big as we possibly can, with lots of flat ground and paths where kids can learn basics out of harms way.
We could even be so futuristic as to have a kindergarten area where parents can take their kids and let them rip. Allow them a space to get used to balancing on wheels before they are put in with the big kids. Help them develop their senses of peripheral vision, control, plus the reflexes to arm them with confidence. Lets teach them skills that are valuable to all areas of their future lives.

In the meantime, my advice to parents who bring their kids to skate parks is to sit down with your kids, have a chat to them and explain how the skate park works, before you set them loose, have a look at where the busy parts of the park are and tell them to steer clear of them. You could even go so far as to educate yourself further about the art of skateboarding, you may feel a sense of enlightenment. You may even find yourself out there skating and learning along side your kids.
Happy skating and scooting out there! Stay safe.

Hilloween 3 Clip By Josh Morph!

Rugged and raw, no fancy HD or fisheye. This is the real deal, only the best for you my lovelies!

Hilloween Bowl Painting, Graffiti by Devos and Keios!

Ever since i moved to Dunedin i have wanted to paint the town bowl. I could see it's potential both visually, aesthetically and physically. Finally we made it happen! Spending much time filling every crack and rough surface to make it faster and smoother to skate. I guess we got sick of seeing all these cool as bowl's around the world with amazing paint jobs and there was no reason why ours couldn't have the same. The raw concrete of the bowl; tends to soak up moisture in the minter and parts of it never dry over the cold months. A thick layer of paint should keep this moisture on the surface and will be able to be wiped away with a towl making the bowl skatable no matter what the weather is doing.

The Thomas Burns skate park in Dunedin is situated next to a cool old railway bridge and lies directly in front of the spectacular Dunedin train station. So another part of the idea is the concept of beautifying the skate park with art and making it more of an attraction, less of an eye sore and uplifting the image of skate parks and skateboarding within our community in order to try and get funding for more new parks for the youth and making sure the current park remains where it is and grows bigger in the future. Enjoy the artwork, we hope to bring you more in the near future! Thanks To Hell Pizza, Sam Robertson, Devos, Keios and everyone who is enjoying the new surface and clean look of the Bowl. ~Ligga

Hilloween 3.... Tales from the crypt!!!

Once upon a time in an imaginary world where there are drinking fountains on every street corner, Footpaths are wide and vast enough for us all to co-exist and weave our paths through life like the Matting of our ancestors spirits…….. Wake up!!! You're dreaming!!!!

In the savage gothic wastelands of the doldrums of the Dark and deadly Dunedin. Pits of fire await you all around so you must ride your stunt wood into the night and fear no one and nothing but terrifying fun. They must be Vampyres!!! A ghoulish band trio perch like buzzards over the edge of the bowl, their eyes like beaks overhang the Bowl looking for a shred of meat. And the shreds of meat began to be extracted from the coping of the bowl. GG Allin was there in ghost zombie form, he was missing an arm but still flaring airiations (new word meaning air variations.) The Dark Lord Trash arrived in signature trench coat, machete up each sleeve and throwing them into his rock n' rolls, and with Backside Disasters sliding down razor blades into alcohol baths. Shotgun blasts started a race between a giant Alphalpha and a 1970's John Walker as they battled time crime laps around the scum bucket. The train station clock tower cast a dark and chilling shadow over the park as bats kissed and bit the sky turning it blood red. The sounds of guitars, cats dying and the howls of wolves were heard as the famous mexican sorcerer and conjuror of hawaiian shirts began to make the concrete quake to their foundations and Hammer Bloody tranny-furr to the bowl flats. There was a bearded vagabond who was destroying the bowl, I asked someone in the coffin next to me why he was so remorseless? They replied that he was the heartless one, as someone had apparently Nicked it;) The Ghostrider collected lost souls around the bowl and ground them into a paste that haunts the coping forever more, The 27 degree heat was baking his head to the point that it burst into flames that licked the faces of passers by. The Evil Twins from the Wanaka mountain caves tricked and terrified everyone into confusion, slapping horsey peasants lumpy heads with kicktails while emitting tar from their eyeballs. Nasty Niwa was in ka-Hoots with a spear throwing ripper and reverted back to the wisdoms of useless wooden toys days. The new paintwork on the bowl began to melt and bubble, cracks opened up and graffiti characters by Devos and Keios broke through from the underworld while the people feasted on cursed pizza's made of fire and brimstone straight from HELL. After the prizes were awarded to the deserving ones and a plan was devised for some hill murdering we went forth, with some indecision due to the rain that had started to fall, we picked our balls up and took on the greasy wet roads. With a little bit of carnage and collision, facing the werewolf on london street, The Viddler OnThe Roof got loose! No major injuries except one, a run over snapped board (my Hosoi ):tear:( RIP) then, with the rain putting a damper on the end section of our night, everyone went on into the night in their own ghoulish fashion. I feel the urge to bomb hills still now! But it's still wet out. We will have our hill fun..... maybe next week, i'll keep you posted!!!!! Special thanks go out to: Hell Pizza, Bones Wheels, Creature Skateboards, Anti Hero Skateboards, Trash Skates, Endless Line Productions, Quest Dunedin, Ligga's Lemonaids, Dean from Hirequip, The Scarers and Kylie, Igor, Simon Clayton, Craig Strong, Devos, Sylvia, Hans, Emily Cannan Morph, all the people that came along and anyone else i missed. Look forward to more madness and mayhem next year! Until then my fiends…..

Hilloween 3. Oct 31st 2011

Its that time again my friends and fiends! Hill-o-ween! Sorry about the short notice but you knew this was coming. It's annual, we do this every year and it's been unofficially happening for years before that. So make your way to the gothic city of Dunedin, come dressed to kill and ride your wheeled dagger into the Twilight Zone! This year we have actual sponsors and prizes for the best dressed, best trick, ramp to ramp distanc...e challenge and of course the unofficial self rewarding speed that happens when we take it to the hills later in the evening. This year we have got a special guest coming down from Auckland, Repping for Bones Wheels we have Mike Bancroft!!!!! So it's gonna get real freaky! Parents bring your kids down, get dressed up, watch the skating, get involved, have fun! Thats what it's all about. Big ups to our spoonsors, Hell's Pizza, Bones Wheels, Anti Hero, Creature, Quest, Trash Skates and LIgga's Lemonaids. For more info contact Quest Dunedin. Or we'll look forward to seeing you there!Its that time again my friends and fiends! Hill-o-ween! Sorry about the short notice but you knew this was coming. It's annual, we do this every year and it's been unofficially happening for years before that. So make your way to the gothic city of Dunedin, come dressed to kill and ride your wheeled dagger into the Twilight Zone! This year we have actual sponsors and prizes for the best dressed, best trick, ramp to ramp distanc...e challenge and of course the unofficial self rewarding speed that happens when we take it to the hills later in the evening. This year we have got a special guest coming down from Auckland, Repping for Bones Wheels we have Mike Bancroft!!!!! So it's gonna get real freaky! Parents bring your kids down, get dressed up, watch the skating, get involved, have fun! Thats what it's all about. Big ups to our spoonsors, Hell's Pizza, Bones Wheels, Anti Hero, Creature, Quest, Trash Skates and LIgga's Lemonaids. For more info contact Quest Dunedin. Or we'll look forward to seeing you there!

PS. For those in Auckland,Scott lai is organising one for you cats as well, i hope it enbds at liverpool in a pool of liver! Muahahahahaha!