Help repeal pad laws in California
We love to help out our less fortunate neighbors in such skateboard repressive states as, uh, California? From the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC):
As many of you know, IASC has been working tirelessly for many years to change the laws affecting California’s public skateparks. We were previously able to extend the bill which protects public skateparks, but in doing so, had to make some concessions in the bill. Recently IASC has been working to remove the outdated clause under which skateparks must require elbow and knee pads to be worn while skating in public skateparks.
That’s right, according to state law, you must wear elbow and knee pads at public skateparks. I know thi law isn’t enforced everywhere, but it still needs to go. Apparently the repeal has passed the State Assembly 76-0, which is stellar news, but it still has to pass through the senate. If you live in California and want to find out how how to help the effort, visit the IASC site for details. However, If you want some super stylish kneepads, check out these licensed Speed Racer knee pads with clear caps that double as Speed’s visor. Pretty cool actually, especially in combination with the Mach 5 roller skates.
– Thanks to Roger Harrell for the tip.
wow those would probably fit on my elbows perfect.I’m all over it
The little skateboard track in my home town is completely pad-nanny monitored full-gear required all the time no-exceptions.
They used to allow no kneepads as long as you were wearing pants. For a while you’d also see kids with cut off socks as elbow pads, but they’ve now changed their tune so it’s full gear (must be “manufactured pads”) all the time. You see a lot of the cheesey Barbie or SpongeBob pads.
If this passes state legislature, wouldn’t each city still make the call on what the rules are?
Yes, a city could still choose to require full pads but currently the law requires all “skatepark operators” to require full pads in order to have immunity from any liability. In most cases cities are just trying to cover their asses from the perceived threat of being sued. Something that has never actually happened in California, go figure. The change in law would give them continued immunity which is all that most cities really care about.
Don’t know if this will help anyone fighting the good fight, (and it’s actually kind of depressing that county Parks & Rec types should have already known this for years), but, it turns out that the dedicated June 2003 issue of Parks & Recreation Magazine (called, ironically enough, Skateparks 101) contains the following, on page 24.
“Paradoxically, the Skatepark Association of the United States of America is seeing a slightly higher injury rate among pads users. The reasons are unclear at this time. Nonetheless, at this time, the association doesn’t recommend enforcing pad requirements for skaters.
Even if you do require helmets and pads, don’t use the police to enforce these requirements. Police should check on the park to keep drug dealers, gang members and pedophiles out; officers have real crime to attend to. If you want to enforce helmets, then staff the park or place the responsibility where it belongs – on the parents. If they want their child to wear a helmet, they can come to the park and sit with them.
Helmet and pad enforcement is a matter of civil rights. Do you ticket baseball players for not wearing a batting helmet? Do you ticket kids playing football without pads? Do you ticket kids playing a game of ice hockey in their jeans and jackets? If not, then you need to ask why you enforce skateboard pad requirements.”
Of course, “the reasons” that pads promote injuries are hardly “unclear at this time” to those of us who actually skate both with and without False Security (btw, duz anyone remember that AOF song?). Anyway, that magazine is put out by the National Recreation and Park Association (which may still be at http://www.nrpa.org), if anyone wants to track down a copy to wave about. (‘Who knew the government was endangering skaters while making them smell worse, and when did they know it?!’) But the above paragraphs are quoted 100% verbatim, so one should not necessarily need a visual aid to wave. That article’s author is Heidi Lemmon, founder of the Skatepark Association of the United States of America, who might still be at http://www.spausa.org.
heidi encourages “shared usage”
therefore, heidi sucks.
Yeah, and so if one were to cite her to get the California senate to get right and drop pad requirements, the California senate would surely cite her stance on sharing parks, which I’m sure they know ALL about, to justify adopting sharing requirements. Don’t make us start thinking you should be named bailbrain… it’s not like that was saying she should be considered a damn hero for being right about something (in fact, it was implying that she was a bit clueless for her “the reasons are unclear at this time” statement). I hope if you have a daughter she doesn’t think like you did there, or the poor creature will be a virgin forever. Keep it pure.