canberra session
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Aaron Baygell on
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do people ever skate mt ainslie dr? Looks like a sick bomb...even has a runout at the end so you don't have to come to a quick stop like blacko...
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Permalink Reply by Henry King on
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yeah, we'll hit it tomorrow after the ditch, it is pretty quick but fair chunderous....
meet at 1 at the ainslie drains for an epic days skate.
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Owen on -
i'd be keen for a ride this afternoon.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Bailey on
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yeah id be up for a ride this arvo. have anything in mind?
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Owen on -
yeah I think we should hit up ANU someone call me and come pick me up I am stuck out in bruce with no credit.
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Permalink Reply by Lachlan Kennedy on
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Story time kiddos'
First time I have ever been told off for skating in O'malley
So earlier today me and a bunch of my other friends were skating O'malley and we had been skating for about a hour and a half when we were all standing at the top of that really really mellow near flat hill just up from the playground. We were just standing there talking as we saw a black car slowly approaching so as usual we moved out of the way and waved but this time the car stopped and a woman pops her head out of the window and tells us its illegal to skate anywhere but a skatepark we responded with a "we're pretty sure its legal on this road there are no double lines and such". Then out of nowhere she says shes calling the cops revs her engine and speeds down the road only to park 2 houses down from where we were standing. So we continue doing our thing while she stands on her driveway glaring us down with a phone presses to her ear.
skip ahead a hour and a half
The cops show up . . . they come over and tell us they got a complaint saying some woman had to swerve out of the way to avoid hitting us (not even remotely the case by the way we werent even on our boards at the time) and they tell us nicely we have to leave. So I say "correct me if im wrong but isnt it legal to skate on a road with no lines down the middle of the road and with the speed limit under 50kph" cop says "uh probably but you gotta leave and why arent you in school" then we got into a mad convo about how we're all in uni and another cop car shows up then they tell us "well you're all adults we're gonna tell you to leave but if you choose to leave or stay is up to you theres not much we can do about that" and leave so we decide to go get food and let the lady cool her jets for a while then come back.
So after getting food and junk we head back . . . literally within 5 seconds of us getting back to where we were before we have another car pull up, this time with some bogan as fuck guy wearing a wifebeater and short shorts. He pulls up and asks insnt there a skate park around here somewhere and we're all like dunno so he says yeah theres a new one somewhere around here why arent you there. so we start going on about how our boards aren't exactly designed for parks then he says well get the fuck off the road because its illegal. then we go on in literally the nicest non threatening manner you could ever imagine about how the cops were called before and they told us it was technically legal just frowned apon due to traffic danger and this guy flips his shit. He starts screaming at us saying were all fucking little liars literally yelling at the top off his lungs and all of us are standing there like of what the hell is going on today. After about a solid minute or two of verbal abuse he speeds off and pulls into the same driveway as the woman from before 10 seconds later shes out the front on her phone glaring us down again.
This time cops are a no show but seriously today was messed up I have never had anyone react like that even in the slightest.
On another note I'm mad keen to skate this weekend and I'm potentially selling a set of barely used yellow stims if anyones interested.tl;dr bitch went psycho called cops , they were cool with us skating , random guy went psycho at us
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You played it right by keeping calm and not responding in an aggressive manner (hard to do in those situations especially when you know they're wrong). the best thing to do is not engage with people who react like that. There are a few reasons people react like this to longboarders.
Longboarding is still a very grey area not just in the eyes of the law but to people who arnt familiar with it as well. If ASRA is anything to go by than roughly 2000 people do this sport competently (ie not just cruise around in thongs). In terms of a sport, especially in a population of 22 million, thats tiny. People arnt yet accustom to seeing a skateboard on a road like they are a bike for example. they don't understand how it works, how controlled we are and most importantly how we break. everyone grows up riding bikes as an almost social dependency hence there is an understanding about how they work and what they can be used to do. this dosnt exist for longboarding and it can come off as quiet alien which means its easily rejected especially by a bogan. You might as well have been refugees riding on small boats for all he cares.
The truth is it is illegal. Our sport is based around doing something illegal and its just something we have to deal with. only under very specific circumstances (such as O'malley) does it slip into the realm of legality and that still depends on how you interpret a recreational vehicle under the A.C.T and NSW 'roads act 1993'... This sport really hasnt even been in Australia for more than half a decade and the only laws we have to go by are from 1993.
the last reason is because we are skaters therefor we are associated with the inherent negative stereotype of a skater. Councils recognised that they could contain skateboarders by building skate parks and therefor restrict the demographic to a specific area. seeing them 'out of there cage' so to speak can make people feel uneasy. Countless times I have explained to people the differences between the sports and the cultures but i doubt that would have made a difference to the narrow minded people you were dealing with today.
Despite all of that it doesn't mean you or any other longboarder deserves the abuse that I see so frustratingly often. This is the first encounter I have heard of in O'malley as its usually a pretty friendly place but hey... everywhere has its bad eggs. The truth is we'll keep skating there and she'll get over it because in the end we don't cause enough trouble to be worth pursuing. Continue being polite and waving to the angry people who should really be finding something better to do with there time instead of pursuing there own warped sense of social justice. heck.. next time ask if they want to have a go at it, just make sure they wear a helmet =P.
A few tips for avoiding it would be:
- give extra way to cars (ie when you see them get off the road)... not for your own safty but for the piece of mind of the driver
-if you arnt skating (just chillin or watever) make sure you're completely off the road. Once again for the drivers sake.
- try not to 'loiter' too much in general... sounds dumb but it sends bad vibes to those rich folk... "damn kids and their.... standing around with their... skateboards and not doing.... anything..... IM CALLING THE POLICE!!" etc.
- a wave and a smile goes a long way.
-get some Gobsmack pucks because if it does lead to violence... you'll win... and their gobs will be smacked.
also... how much for said stims?
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Permalink Reply by Ash on
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guys if someone asks you to piss off and is getting that worked up and calls the cops. especially in one of our favourite, just go. don't hang around and make them more angery, don't come back in an hour. Just go sesh another spot, there is no lack in omally. you can go back to that spot another day, we dont wan't people to hate us, it will make things hard for all of us.
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i'm with ash, no point pissin people off. gotta remember that these people live there all the time, if you piss em off they can make trouble any time we're there.
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hey lachlan, bring your boys to the drain today, do you know where it is? gonna be an epic sesh today, see you all at 1
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i hate to be "that guy" but can anybody give a pickup/dropoff at ANU for today's session?
i'll be your best friend/sugar daddy.
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Drain is a no go for me
got uni through till 5 same with all of my regular crew bar one.
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