I am passionate
about skateboarding. It’s on my mind all day long, thinking of places I’d
like to skate and new tricks I’d like to learn. There are some difficulties you
face growing up in Lethbridge wanting to skate and this includes the lack of
indoor spots/parks to skate during the long winters. During the winter my friends and I get restless and wish for nothing but to be skating again. The wind
is also an issue, making it very hard to skate in the park on certain days. The
skate park is designed to either skate west- east or east -west, and the wind
blows in those directions. The skate park is great and my friends and I make it
work, but for a demographic of our size the park is too small and this is a bad
thing because the park is usually crowded, with people commonly running into
each other. I have been run into my many children and even adults. A lot of these run-ins are caused by young
scooter kids who don’t know what they’re doing. Some parents even bring their
kids in tricycles, sleds and wagons and let their kids take over the park.
Parents should educate their children on taking turns and proper skate park
etiquette. The lack of street spots is also an issue; quality spots in
Lethbridge are almost non-existent. The good spots were capped a long time ago
because of the older generation of skaters who skated them. Street spots are
important when filming videos. Security is pretty active downtown making it
almost impossible to skate during the weekdays without getting kicked out
within 5 minutes. Security is also bad at the University. Don’t get me wrong I
love skating, but these are just a few things wrong with Lethbridge. 
There is a good in Lethbridge
too. I’m glad we got a new park built; it’s a lot better than the old one. The
old skate park was isolated making it quite dangerous at certain times of the
day. The ground there was rough making falling even more painful and it had a
lack of good street obstacles. The new park has obstacles for almost everybody
and for practicing different tricks. I appreciate what The Boarderline does for
the local skate scene. The Boarderline is the local skate shop and they are
regularly putting on contests and events, they also help out skaters with
discounts and cheap products. They have helped me out with free boards in the
past after looking at the condition mine was in. I’m lucky to have a great
group of friends too, who inspire me to get better. I enjoy the time I spend
skating with them. There are a few good skate spots in the city like
Chinook, a spot with lots of flat ground, ledges, benches and gaps. There is a
new spot in the industrial called Greggs Distribution that has two long ledges,
gaps, many pads, lots of smooth flat ground and ramps to wallie. The industrial
has a lot of new secret spots that people are discovering. The University also has a lot of spots across
the campus; we are still finding new ones when we visit there. On rainy days you
can go skate the Indoor parkade at the hospital, which has active
security patrolling the area or the indoor parking lot at the downtown Scotia
Bank after it closes. 
Lethbridge has a tight knit scene. I can go to the skate
park and recognise every local and they could say the same about me. There are
a few skaters who inspire me. Dylan “Dillz” Righthand is a Calgary skateboarder
that inspires me that through hard work and determination you can achieve
your dreams while still enjoying yourself. He is out there skating every day,
rain or shine. Dillz does innovative creative tricks and I like his clothing
style. Another inspiration is Ishod Wair, a skater who just focuses on skateboarding
and he is very talented. He also has a good style on a skateboard and an advanced
trick selection. He worked very hard to get where he is today and is being
rewarded for it. My favourite website to watch skateboarding is Thrasher
Magazine. I go here daily to watch any new skateboard clips. Thrasher likes to present
raw gnarly skateboarding instead of documentaries or dramatic videos that focus
on art or other stuff including little actual skating that other websites are
responsible for.-Brandon Amonson
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