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Letter from Boston

Skating Daredevils

By MASAKO YAMADA


無鉄砲なスケーターたち

アメリカではインラインスケートやスケボーが大流行。雅子さんも小さいころ、ローラースケートをして遊びましたが、それはいまやインラインにとって代わられています。そしてインラインやスケボーをする大半は大人たちで、昔とずいぶん勝手が違うようです。

When I was in elementary school, I used to roller-skate around my home. Once in a while, I'd even go to an indoor roller rink. There, the roller-skating track is polished very smooth, and there are flashing lights and loud music, so it encourages people to move fast. It's dark inside, and people can buy glow-in-the-dark wands to hang around their necks or on their skates. There is usually a food court where people can buy pizza and drinks. It used to be a great treat to go there to hang out with friends.

Nowadays, roller-skating is passe. People feeling nostalgic might pull out their roller skates for old times' sake (I remember having gone to the local rink with a bunch of my friends from high school. I had to hold the hand of a friend for the entire time because it's dark inside the rink, and he had night-blindness), but for the most part, roller-skating has been completely supplanted by inline skating. Inline skating is not just a fun activity for kids. In fact, as Bob Yampolsky pointed out in an ST article June 27, 1997, most skaters are adults. They often use skates as a transportation device. Skaters are so common that many stores have signs that say "no Rollerblades allowed in store." This shows that inline skaters have become somewhat of a public menace.

Unlike roller-skating, skateboarding seems to be standing up to the test of time: Not only did it exist when I was a child, it still is alive in its original form. My childhood best friend, Lucy, had a cute pink skateboard, and current skateboards don't look too different from that model. The rise of snowboarding — that fashionable mix of skiing and skateboarding — certainly hasn't caused the decline of classic skateboarding.

That said, skateboarders are not as ubiquitous as inline skaters. I often see very proper-looking men and women skating down the streets to school or work, but it's rare that I see skateboarders waiting at traffic lights. Skateboarders tend to congregate around large patches of concrete that have handy obstacles for jumping over, riding on or maneuvering around. It seems that they are more interested in using the skateboard to perform tricks than to get anywhere. Most of the skateboarders I've seen are young guys who have a distinctly punklike look. It's no secret that they consider skateboarding to be a performance art in which one person tries to outperform another.

Although I don't see as many skateboarders in crowded thoroughfares as inline skaters, skateboarders are still considered to be a nuisance to the public. Indeed, there are laws that prohibit Boston skateboarders from skateboarding in public places. There is a nice patch of asphalt near the Boston public library that is a skateboarders heaven because it has a ramp. However, there is also a large sign by the ramp warning skateboarders that they may be subject to prosecution. An older woman who was interviewed in the local paper said the skateboarders startled her. It seems that many adults agree.

The piazza in front of the BU science building is also a place where skateboarders congregate. The piazza is fairly large, and it has a lot of benches and ledges off which skateboardes can do tricks. I suppose one of the reasons institutions don't like having trespassers skateboard on their property is because they can be held liable if any of the skateboarders — or passersby — get hurt. But I've never seen anybody get hurt, and I have never thought of them as being in the way. I find it pleasant to watch the daredevils, especially in the evening when nobody else is there.

A few days ago, I stood outside the building to watch them skateboard. Just then, a police car pulled over, and two cops emerged. They commanded the skateboarders to stop. Most quickly ran away but a few were caught. The crime was benign, so the skateboarders were just given a warning. I can just see the scene on the piazza tomorrow, the skateboarders showing off their tricks — and telling tall tales about their run-in with the law.


Shukan ST: March 13, 1998

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