Gilroy
– A sign hanging on the fence of the skateboard facility at Las
Animas Veterans Park reads that helmets, knee pads and elbow pads
must be worn at all times, but many skateboarders take little
heed.
Gilroy – A sign hanging on the fence of the skateboard facility at Las Animas Veterans Park reads that helmets, knee pads and elbow pads must be worn at all times, but many skateboarders take little heed.
“It’s restricting,” said Eddie Winslow, a skateboarder who frequently skates at the park’s facility. “In this kind of skating – street skating – there’s a lot of arm and leg movements. Pads get in the way. You don’t get as much range of motion.”
Gilroy Police Sgt. Wes Stanford said enforcing safety equipment is difficult, and most complaints the department receives are from noise. Officers respond to complaints on a call-by-call basis, and patrol the park when time allows, Stanford said.
The department received more calls and issued more citations when the park first opened in 1999, Stanford said, but things have calmed down since then.
“Personally, I think much of the responsibility with safety equipment lies with the parents,” Stanford said. “They’re the first line of supervision, and they’re in a better position to enforce that issue.”
Stanford said he wasn’t aware of records of citations issued or injuries reported in the skateboard facility. He said he suspects many injuries go unreported.
Not wearing safety equipment isn’t so much about maintaining the “cool” factor as it is being able to learn new tricks and enjoy free-form skating, Winslow said. And because Gilroy’s skate facility doesn’t have the extreme architecture as some skate facilities, Winslow said he doesn’t think safety gear is truly a necessity.
“Some skate parks have huge bowls, and then there’s a little more risk involved,” he said. “The most you’ll get here is a couple of scrapes or bruises.”
Chad Engle, a 35-year-old who has been skateboarding since he was 6, said he thinks helmets are a good idea for children learning how to skate. But for experienced skateboarders, Engle said, it’s different: Risks are worth taking if it means you’re improving your skills.
“It’s a philosophy,” he said. “Your day’s gonna come and you’re gonna fall hard. Sometimes it’s just your turn. Real skateboarders know their limitations.”
Money also is an issue for some skaters who use the facility, Winslow said, as a set of elbow pads, knee pads and a helmet could cost as much as $100.
“A lot of kids from this area live in government-supported housing, and their families can’t afford the gear,” Engle said. “And the parents aren’t really concerned, because at least they know where their kids are and they’re not getting into trouble.”
Winslow and Engle said they see police patrolling the park regularly, but skateboarders not wearing safety gear rarely are reprimanded, they said. Other violations that often go without punishment are BMX riders using the facility and people spraying graffiti after dark, Winslow said.
A little less than three years ago, Sgt. Noel Provost spearheaded the effort to raise the fence that surrounds the facility, Stanford said. The fence is meant to help discourage people from using the facility for BMXing.
“That used to be much more of a problem,” he said.
Bill Headley, the city’s facilities manager, said the city intentionally left the facility dark so as to not encourage using the facility at night and causing noise. The facility’s official hours are from 7am to dusk.
“There’s a lot of concern about putting a skateboard facility anywhere, so one compromise to putting it at Las Animas was to leave it without lights,” Headley said. “We surveyed other communities and found that very few had lighted facilities.”
