Street level
January 30th, 2008 by dewsburyRolling through the battered streets of every city are packs of skaters. Their minds trained, as photographers’ are to shoot the best picture or footballers to score, they seek street obstacles to skate on.
Be it a handrail, a stair-set, a concrete ledge or a raised curb, each mundane piece of urban architecture is a blank canvas waiting to be painted with kick flips, nose slides, backside 180s and more.
Practising his repertoire of tricks in Preston’s Peace Gardens one Saturday afternoon is Liam Cronin.
“About three years ago I saw people skating and I thought: ‘I like that style’,” says Liam, 17, from Preston.
“I was rubbish when I started but I knew I could get there if I practised.”
He points to a red cone in some nearby road works and says he would like to make a ramp out of it.
“On the street we have to make things useful. We cat get a cone and ollie over it or we can manual on a ledge. It’s really creative.”
Liam’s adoption of skateboarding as a lifestyle - involving fashion, music taste and laid back attitude - sets him apart from passing shoppers. The palpable division between skateboarders and the non-skating public has caused conflicts with nearby businesses.
Opposite the Peace Gardens, the manager of Bar Censa complains about crowds gathering outside his shop. Round the corner next to the workers memorial, John Banks, manager of George Banks Jewellers in Lune Street, has complained to the Police and wrote several letters to Preston City Council about skateboarders being a danger to his customers.
“It’s very disturbing when the skateboarders are out here,” says Mr Banks.
“They’ve got no control over the boards. Quite often a board will fly off and bang into the front of our window.”
Mr Banks says he has worked with the Police for more than a year to have ‘no skateboarding’ signs installed outside his shop without success.
“Six months since I last spoke to the Police they haven’t got back to me,” he said.
“I have heard people say how amazed they are that pensioners haven’t been hit by a board in their ankles. That’s the worst of it and the skaters and Goths are very noisy.”
Around a hundred yards from Mr Banks’ jewellers is Scene, Preston’s only skateboard shop. The two resemble opposing battle camps separated by the heaving Ringway- hundreds of fun loving kids at one, middle class respectability at the other. Ironically they both want the same thing - somewhere for skaters to go.
“We’re sat in here with kids coming in and we don’t know what to say whey they ask ‘where’s the skatepark,’ says Fill Jackson, manager of Preston Skatepark Project.
“It’s heartbreaking when they’ve just brought their new skateboard and then they have not got anywhere to go.”
Jackson is a distinct figure. Although only 32, he walks slowly with a walking stick to aid a severe limp – the legacy of a skateboarding injury he suffered six years ago.
Perhaps not being able to skate has made him channel his energy into campaigning.
Jackson’s memory of the skatepark project since it started eight years ago is astonishing. From being promised a 400,000 dream park in 2006 to now: bitter, frustrated, angry and loosing hope, he remembers everything.
“It’s cost us £4,500 over five years. That’s complete running costs with absolutely everything. That’s petrol and time off work. That’s designs we have done for the council and booklets we made explaining what skateboarding is,” he says.
“I know all this because we have recorded every last penny, every last bit of paperwork.”
Jackson peppers the conversation with facts, figures and analogies. Some are obscure, some are striking.
“The main thing that annoys us is that they built a BMX track. There are only sixteen people in Preston that race BMXs and they are all from the same club. It’s a sport that barely exists anymore.
“There are about 1,300 skaters in Preston. They’re are all different kinds of people from kids just starting out to older generations that used to skate and still go out occasionally.
“If we had to actually add up the numbers we’d be a little bit scared at how many there are!
“I get irate when I see what the council are doing or more to the point when I see what they’re not doing. I get even more irate when I see I’m paying for it.”
Preston’s new city status in 2000 coincided with a government directive encouraging local councils to provide skateboarding facilities. Brighton became a city three years before Preston and now has two large skateparks. This makes Preston the last major city in the country without a skatepark.
Jimmy Khan, Head of Sport and Recreation at Preston City Council said it is not a good title for the city. He said: “We’re liaising with the group and we’re one hundred percent supportive of the proposals put forward.
“The difficulty is finding the money for funding and a suitable piece of land. We have had two or three false alarms when people have come forward with funding then backed out.
“Every time we get a sign of hop it’s pulled from under us. What we don’t want to do now is get people’s hopes up.”
One fear the Council may have about investing in expensive skateparks is that the sport is just a passing trend.
But the sport’s journey from 1930s California when children attached rollerskates to pieces of wood to today’s billion dollar industry, suggests it is here to stay. Jackson is quick to emphasise this.
“It’s winter and few outdoor sports exist during these plunging temperatures. No BMXers riding to work, the odd mountain bike and I’ve not seen anybody on rollerblades for years now – but day in day out, early or late, rain or shine, the skateboarders are still rolling around.”
By Ricki Dewsbury