The thread on aggressive drivers motivated me to write this. Skateboarders frequently start at the top of El Granada Blvd and shoot all the way down to the post office. I find this outrageously dangerous—for they are not only being suicidal (I’ve never seen a helmet on any of these kids) but they are putting others at risk too. I’ve tried everything from polite reasoning to yelling at these punks—but get nothing but a laugh or worse. I’ve complained to the police several times—but they don’t seem to take the problem seriously. If any of you are parents of these young men, I seriously hope you will take action to stop them before someone gets really hurt - although I’m afraid that’s what it’s going to take before anyone takes the problem seriously.

Having done that quite often in my youth I can understand the fun it is but they need to be smart about it.

One thing most people do not realize about kids on skateboards is that they are dramatically aware of your presence. Just because you do not see them does not mean that they do not see you. They are MOTIVATED to see everything, otherwise they get hurt.

The majority of Skate on Ped violence that I have witnessed in 15 years of skateboarding occurs when a Pedestrian tries to predict and dodge a skateboarder. The skater does not want to hit you anymore then you want to hit him so when you get unpredictable people get hurt.

It doesn’t excuse behavior or dangerous stupid stuff but before we wrap the kids in bubblewrap and lock them in the basement lets take a second to consider that maybe they are concious of the risk, know what they are doing and, just like most human children over the last few thousand years, think its a great deal.

They should wear helmets though, I’ll grant you that! Skateboarding is a really healthy, confidence boosting activity and I love seeing kids doing athletic things, we should encourage that.

John-

Pedestrians? I am not talking about kids on sidewalks—I am talking about kids skating at high speed down the *middle of the road* from the top of El Granada Blvd all the way down. Have you driven El Granada Blvd lately? It’s very tight and winds with several blind turns. Cars parked on both sides making it necessary to pull out frequently to let a car coming the other way pass. This is in no way imaginable a safe place for a high speed skateboarder to be! A residential street is not a racetrack or a playground. Not only are these skaters posing a huge risk to themselves—but they are going to ruin someone else’s life too when one of them inevitably causes an accident with a car. It’s not matter of if—it’s when. It’s sad that it’s probably going to take such a tragedy before any of these young men realize that what they are doing is insane. I just hope it isn’t I behind the wheel when it happens.

I dunno, I hear what you are saying but as someone who has done exactly that more times then I can count I have a hard time condemning it. Kids are kids and they do stupid stuff sometimes. I bet if you check you’ll see that the fatality count on that street from Skateboarder/Car collisions is hovering around zero.

Its hard as we get older to forget how nimble, alert and flexible we were. I find it best to try not to apply my current status to kids who are in a completely different physical and mental space.

Not condoning it, just not condemning it :)

CRAZY KIDS! GO WATCH TIVO!

I’m sorry, this is beyond “kids will be kids” mentality—but you are apparently not alone in this attitude, which I find truly scary. Frankly, I’m a little aghast that anyone would chalk this up to nothing more than good old athletic activity. Even as a rash kid, I would never have considered doing anything so foolhardy. One of those kids is going to get seriously hurt or killed, or they’re going to cause a driver have a wreck trying to avoid them. Their behavior is not only dangerous to themselves but in reckless disregard of others as well.

As far as past history goes, I was told by a long-time resident at the top of El Granada Blvd that a boy was killed doing exactly this some 20 or more years ago. But it seems history must as always be re-learned.

So what is your solution?
Arrest them and toss them in juvie ?
Take away the skate boards ?
Have the police call the parents ? I’m sorry but that one was for humor.

There is nothing you can do. Don’t get so upset. Spend that energy you are wasting on this doing something creative.

Kids will always do dumbsh1t thats how they learn. I don’t agree with this particular practice but there is nothing we/you can do about it.

It’s hard not to get upset when I have to nearly swerve off into someone’s driveway to avoid running over these imbeciles. Again, I think you are too dismissive of this behavior. Yes, I think this should be illegal if it isn’t already. Skating without a helmet is illegal I think, and I bet generally creating a hazard for others on a public street is a citation as well. I think increasing fines for the parents for repeated offenses and confuscation of the skateboards would not be inappropriate. And frankly, the way some of these kids have mouthed off to me—they deserve more than that from their parents when they get home. But I suppose the chances of that are nil—because they wouldn’t be behaving this way in the first place if their parents were paying any attention to their actions. I can assure you that if my kids do something so reckless and inconsiderate when they are older, the skateboards will be going into the trash permanently.

Sorry, but these kids are more than annoying and rude (which they certainly are), but they are also an outright threat to the safety of my family when we are driving on the same road. No one should have to accept that in the name of “kids will be kids.”

Just to make this discussion a little more concrete, here’s a story about a death that was the result of stupid skateboard behavior.  I found this in a journalists’ discussion of whether (heartbreaking) photo of the kid’s parents should have been printed:

http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/08202007news185908.cfm

Not exactly the same behavior, but you get the idea. From the editor’s discussion of the photo:

We did it because there is a much larger issue at play here: Learning from a tragedy.

So what if it were me?

No, I wouldn’t like it. But after grieving for the loss of someone close to me, I would use it to benefit others.

Think what a powerful story you could tell. Think if you took that image of pain and suffering to every middle school and high school.

If it were me, if it were a picture of me, I’d have it blown up on a screen covering a wall.

I’d look out into the sea of fresh faces, of those who believe they are indestructible.

I’d ask them to look at the pain in the photo that was captured.

“Look hard at it,” I ‘d say. “That could be your mother. That could be your father,” I’d say.

I’d go on to say how no one should have to grieve the loss of their sons or daughters.

All the while, they’d see the searing image of the pain that is sometimes caused by the crazy things we’ve all done as kids.

Hmmmm… I have mixed feelings about this. I’ve always thought that the sight of kids out on their bikes, skateboarding, playing road hockey, throwing balls, plotting to blow up the principal’s office, etc., is the sign of a healthy residential neighborhood. It’s great to see kids allowed to get out and goof around, not hovered over and chauffeured everywhere.

However, if the teens mentioned in the OP are indeed skateboarding in and around cars, then yes it’s a problem. For their safety, and for the safety of the motorists. I wouldn’t expect the kids to be overly concerned about reckless behavior (teenage boys and helmets? hahahaha), but the adults around them should be. The accident Barry referred to says it all… Here on 6th street we have kids out skateboarding between Le Conte and East Ave., but they seem to wait for all the cars to clear.

To the OP: Did the police suggest anything, or were they totally dismissive?

I’ve talked to the police several times, and they truly don’t seem to care. More than once, I’ve been told they’d send a deputy to take a complaint—and no one ever comes. The last time, they did at least ask me on the phone if the kids were wearing helmets to which I said, “No, never.” The last kid was barely dressed at all for that matter. One young man last year went so far as to openly mock me and said he’d pass on my comments to the deputy when he got down to the bottom of the hill. I have to say, based on the responses I’ve gotten on the phone, I’d say that young man was right to be unfazed by my threat to report his behavior to the police. Pretty abysmal in my opinion.

Wow. Sounds like the kids know the police don’t give a fig, which is not a great thing in this case. When you combine skateboards, motorists, reckless behavior and no helmets… someone’s bound to end up as pavement pizza. Maybe then the cops will care. :(

Here’s a web link to today’s story about a 12 year old in San Leandro killed yesterday while skate-boarding down a steep hill:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/29/BA87RQTDH.DTL&hw=skateboard&sn=001&sc=1000

Mary

It is not just up El Granada Blvd., but these kids are up Isabella near a very sharp curve where you can barely see if cars are turning. On several occasions, they have almost slammed into my oversized SUV which I am sure would cause a massive injury at minimum. I have slammed on the brakes with a 7 year old and an infant in the car many times to avoid slamming into these skateboarders.

Where are mom and dad? They will not care until after their kids are dead and probably deny even knowing their kids skateboard. Don’t we have a park in town for this kind of stuff?

Yeah, no helmets, big time attitude, no road manners. They are all over the street - not even just on the right side.

Stupid things happen to stupid people…it’s just a matter of time. There are many times I am going up Isabella and people fly out of the El Granada Road turn onto Isabella without looking or stopping so I figure it will be one of them and hopefully not me who hits these kids.

And then there are the people who come up my road at all kinds of crazy hours riding these mini-motorcycles…don’t even get me started on them…

-GraceAnn

I don’t buy the “kids will be kids so let them be” side. Everyone knows distracted, irresponsible, hyper male children should be put into Skinner boxes at age 10 and kept there until age 22—or 25 for those who can’t pass a social adaptability test earlier.

It would be easy to give the kids who get crunched a group Darwin Award and take solace in the fact their genes are removed from the pool. But the people who kill or maim them through no intent or fault of their own have their lives ruined as well. Even if they are entirely innocent of causing the accident, killing or crippling a child will leave most drivers emotionally scarred for life. It makes me angry that some are ready to excuse behavior by kids that will impose trauma on innocent others.

Carl May

Between 1963 and 1969, I did a lot of skateboarding. I was doing hurdles, downhill, and slalom before many had even thought of doing it on a skateboard. I admit to having inconvenienced a few people on the sidewalk, but then, I was a kid, and during the younger of those years, I had been dragged by a couple of storekeepers by my my ear while he called my parents and later had the crap beat out of me by my Dad; and rightly so.

When I tackled this hill back home that was a lot like a much steeper version of Trousdale Blvd, I started near the bottom and worked my way up, each time making adjustments to my board. So, while I was doing my analytical thing from the bottom up, I watched my mindless fearless teenage bretheren start at the top, some swearing leather bottomed loafers on a smooth topped board and paying no mind whatsoever to the mechanical challenges involved. They simply vibrated right off the board before ever reaching the steep section. During the few weeks I had made a series of trial runs, again, working my way up, I watched as one kid after another wound up ripping patches of skin off their hands, banging their heads and doing nosedives into the roadside bushes. At the time I made the only successful run from the top, I had lengthened my wheelbase, tightened the shocks, loosened and lubricated the bearings and pounded cut off nails into the top of the board, the latter so that my shoes wouldn’t vibrate off the board as I was matching the automobiles’ speed of 45 mph.

While I had my own logic in acheiving success back then, I look back and it was a stupid and inconsiderate thing to do. What I never even considered for one moment was the motorists who might have turned me into a hood ornament. At the time, success was about MY ability, not anyone else’s inattentiveness. So I seriously doubt that any of these kids has any motorists in mind, unless it has to do with avoiding one long enough to execute some peer pressure induced maneuvre.

Carl said it best, about the Darwin Awards. I’d also issue a special Platinum Darwin Award to those parents who condone it and who somehow feel that some ambulance chaser is going to make things right after things go wrong.

And yes, the police always seem to show up “fashionably late” enough to avoid doing anything. When some child dies here on the Coastside, and it’s only a matter of time, their contribution to the child’s death through avoidance of enforcement should be a factor in future discussions.

The tone of the initial responses to this thread really discouraged me—but I am relieved to see that there are others that agree with how serious of a problem this actually is. (Carl, your post in particular captured my sentiments on this subject.) Rather than be resigned to the eventuality of some tragic result, what preventative action can be taken?

I would like to make sure the Sheriff, the HMB Police Chief and Rich Gordon see this thread. Through combined enforcement of existing ordinances (helmets and creating a road hazard) and education, maybe we can solve this problem without a lesson the hard way first. Maybe CUISD can arrange to have some speakers and videos at the schools to show these kids just how dangerous and inconsiderate their behavior is. (Frank, based on your post, you would be a good candidate for that.)

I’d be willing to do that; speak, I mean. I might even have a few shots of me skateboarding from 40 years ago (for comic relief purposes), like clearing 36” hurdles. Forty years ago, I tied the national record for nose-wheelie duration, 14 seconds without stalling; not an easy feat.

I’ve had some run-ins with kids using the sidewalk in front of the store over the last several years. Some of them use the elderly pedestrians as slalom pylons, and I watched one of those exchanges a few months ago as one old man became very angry while being skated around in front of the old “Tokenz” location. The skateboarder just flipped him off. The only thing in these kids minds at the time is peer approval and self image. Looking at safety, logistics, and courtesy just isn’t in their skill set when they’re of that mind.

Just as driving courtesy was more prevalent 40 years ago, so was skateboarding courtesy, although I admit we did push that envelope. Believe it or not, when I was later stationed out here in 1969, the drivers were immeasurably more courteous and particularly more tolerant and observant of motorcycles. The recent trend toward self absorption while the parents are driving seems to have trickled down to the kids. Like I said, with the local position to avoid enforcement, it’s only a matter of time.