BRATTLEBORO — A ton of reasons keep me driven to bring a skatepark to Brattleboro. The top three are drawn from my practice and pleasure of skating every day, my experiences traveling around to different parks and skate spots, and the sweet fringe benefits of immersion in the skate community and culture.
This complex weave involves health, vitality, law, parenting, rebellion, individuality, creativity, friendship and more - but it's all made simple by the fact that skating contains and illuminates cherished ideals, is ever fresh and satisfies in a way that transcends words.
I'm pretty sure my perspective on this is uncommon.
I got into skateboarding avidly at a time in my life when the more “normal” age-appropriate activity would have been billiards or bocce. Although I rode a steel-wheeled plank as a kid, that would hardly constitute a background in this sport.
The specific impetus for starting to skate every day was to share the action with my son and to see if I could extend the snowboard season by some similar side-sliding and gliding activity.
A few years before this, some of my students in town were complaining of having no place to skate and being constantly harassed and kicked out from everywhere they went. Seeing their passion, I got curious, started checking it out, and talking it up.
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Once the fire had been lit, I was overwhelmed by the joys and challenges of skateboarding.
I also experienced the lack of local options and felt the persecution firsthand, so there was no choice but to become active.
The more I traveled around and savored the stoke, the deeper my commitment got. I saw that not only was skateboarding a truly universal language and art form, but it also was a refuge and oasis for souls of all ages and types who love the feeling of freedom and playful physical exploration.
As all this was unfolding, a few of us older skaters in town organized and began down the long and twisted road toward getting a park of our own.
There were many setbacks, obstacles, and unexpected slams - this has been documented elsewhere, so I won't rehash it here. At the same time, the conflating of skating with loitering was bringing heat down on kids, and many - mine among them - were put off by skating out of a fear of entanglement with the law. This caused me great chagrin, and this area is still in need of redress.
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When I think of the skate scene in Brattleboro, what comes to mind is a surrealist painting - where striking elements are strangely juxtaposed, and things don't quite add up.
But it is what it is, in all its beauty and confusion.
We've got this long history of great skaters riding sparse and forbidden terrain, amid an equally dubious history of skating being unfunded and, even at times, actively maltreated and prosecuted.
We've got this rocky history of a search for a venue for a public skate park, and an equally sad history of legal threats, zoning blunders, stereotyping and back-burnering the issue. Stark contrasts abound: skaters skate and thrive in the immediate moment, town politics moves at an almost glacial pace.
On the other hand, there is clearly widespread support now.
The selectboard, the town meeting reps, the school board, recreation board, a majority of writers of letters to the editor - all speak of a sizable group of people who get it, people who want this sport and art to be on equal footing here as with other towns around the world. This despite skating's risks, its dangers, its unapologetic iconoclasm.
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Most people, even skaters, know merely a sliver of the whole.
Besides the history, the storied ups and downs, eras of renown and infamy, there's an array of styles; freestyle, slalom, street, vert, pools, parks, downhill, sliding - each with different legends and developments. Each calls for different board setups, different skill sets, different venues.
Most kids don't know or care about this tapestry. For the majority of skaters around here, it's about landing tricks, hanging out, and “not getting busted.” Or hit by a car. Stealthy moves, uncertain outlets and outcomes.
For me, the hold comes from pleasures of a trek along an endless learning curve.
There are boons to balance and stamina and courage, exciting measures of growth and progress. Then there's the opportunity for unexpected connections and relations.
It seems only natural to have an outlet where I live and pay taxes. To help make a fun and safe place for present and future generations feels like the least I can do.
There's no way to convey all the many facets and dimension contained in this world. Through online sites like Old Man Army, Silverfish Longboarding, and Geezers of New England, I've found a community of peers outside of town to skate with. Mythic aspects are revealed in publications like Concrete Wave and epic skate mags like Thrasher and Juice.
It's a vast world, and it has been a shame that Brattleboro is out of step.
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So what are some options, close by, for the diehard skater?
The Boys and Girls Club continues to offer a valuable asset with its indoor park. But as a small, age-limited (8 to 18), indoor and often-closed private facility, it hardly fills the town's need. Adults can volunteer there as a way to learn from their betters, and keep up the form. Otherwise, if you can drive, Greenfield and Northampton, Mass., Keene, N.H.; and Manchester and Bondville, Vt. all have skate parks of varying designs and size.
More and more parks are built, with greater artistry and ambition, all the time.
Big cities and small towns alike are investing in this positive trend. New York City and Boston, Stamford and Bristol, Conn., South Hero, Maine, and remote Nova Scotia all recently poured concrete that dazzles and challenges the gamut of skaters.
Which brings things back to the question of skating in Brattleboro.
Relative to the large numbers of those who participate, I continue to wonder why so few step up to give time and effort in support of a legal and inspiring place to skate?
Maybe the mixed signals over the years have kept people at a distance. Again, that appears to be changing now with BASIC, the newest formation of citizens and advocates who are on the job, with an eye on the prize.
This is the gap we are currently on the verge of bridging. Achieving mainstream support - by way of providing a healthy outlet, a positive venue for social and dynamic interactions, a place for families to play together, by way of giving a range of age groups, vehicles, styles, and riders a place to go.
Getting our own park seems closer than ever to really happening, but still the funding is untapped, the mandate not yet manifest.
My hunch is that this checkered history has just been the seed ripening, a long germination, and now something amazing is about to flower here.
For those who don't participate, or appreciate it, this may all seem a big bother over something pretty insignificant. But for numerous kids and adults, some adept already, some on their way, some wishing to start, some who have already enjoyed years or decades of delight - this is a way of life with incredible value.
It's going to take a chunk of change. And we know these are hard times. But as a similar magic number has been reached recently at Harris Hill, Holton Home and other worthy institutions, Brattleboro has the capacity to make it happen.
Now that the lease has been signed at the Crowell Lot, and the stage set, I hope the money and good will flows - as it should, for this worthy cause.