Ultraskate
I mentioned this briefly to some of you at the Outlaw Madness, that I would love to hold an Ultraskate event, that is a 24hour skate, usually to raise money and awareness for a worthy cause. Here is the site that usually organises it: http://pavedwave.org/
The next one is slotted for the weekend of 25th-26th September, which is pretty close, but far enough away for those interested to get ready.
I have been thinking about it and I thought that a good local loop would be from Burleigh to Broadbeach, as there is continual bike paths and bike lanes, over the distance of 9k's which makes for a good loop. This is the route:: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3946658
Now the interesting bit, or should I say controversial, is that as it is over 24 hours and about 1/3 of the above route is on the bike lane of a road, any night participants would technically be breaking the law. So, I thought why not make that the focus. I think that we, as skaters, should have equal rights and responsibilities as any other non motorized transport (mmm... bikes). ie: lights for visibility at night and helmets for protection. So, the worthy cause that I am thinking of is "Skating for Skate Awareness".
So what I envision is this: get as many people as you know on a board, blade, pair of skates, whatever... stick a helmet on their head, and lights on the helmet or person (for the night), and meet up at Burleigh point car park on the 25th September. At 9am we roll for 24 hours. If you can't do that amount, then turn up at any point for a roll. I would particularly like to see heaps of skaters for the night time - extravagantly lit up (glowsticks, helmet lights, portable chrissy decorations?). Maybe we could have some sort of prizes for the longest ride and the best lit :-) 9am Sunday finish then breaky barbie at Burleigh, maybe $1 sausage sanga like at the Outlaw madness?
I would still like to raise money for a charity maybe we can pass the hat around for that too.. any suggestions on a worthy cause? (and no.. your new Nemmy is not a worthy cause ;-P)
So there is my crazy idea. What do you all think?
The next one is slotted for the weekend of 25th-26th September, which is pretty close, but far enough away for those interested to get ready.
I have been thinking about it and I thought that a good local loop would be from Burleigh to Broadbeach, as there is continual bike paths and bike lanes, over the distance of 9k's which makes for a good loop. This is the route:: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3946658
Now the interesting bit, or should I say controversial, is that as it is over 24 hours and about 1/3 of the above route is on the bike lane of a road, any night participants would technically be breaking the law. So, I thought why not make that the focus. I think that we, as skaters, should have equal rights and responsibilities as any other non motorized transport (mmm... bikes). ie: lights for visibility at night and helmets for protection. So, the worthy cause that I am thinking of is "Skating for Skate Awareness".
So what I envision is this: get as many people as you know on a board, blade, pair of skates, whatever... stick a helmet on their head, and lights on the helmet or person (for the night), and meet up at Burleigh point car park on the 25th September. At 9am we roll for 24 hours. If you can't do that amount, then turn up at any point for a roll. I would particularly like to see heaps of skaters for the night time - extravagantly lit up (glowsticks, helmet lights, portable chrissy decorations?). Maybe we could have some sort of prizes for the longest ride and the best lit :-) 9am Sunday finish then breaky barbie at Burleigh, maybe $1 sausage sanga like at the Outlaw madness?
I would still like to raise money for a charity maybe we can pass the hat around for that too.. any suggestions on a worthy cause? (and no.. your new Nemmy is not a worthy cause ;-P)
So there is my crazy idea. What do you all think?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by jay cottrell on -
its a by- law in surfers not to be able to skate in the cbd area which is 2 blocks either side of cavil , if you wanna turn it into a protest skate you are not doing the community any favours by breaking the law while you do it. p.s any road under 50 kms an hour is illegal to skate on let alone at night , and yeah it possible the cops wont catch ya but again its just gonna pis them off and the next guy will pay for it , again , not good publicity ,
the only thing i thought about the bike tracks was that you wouldnt be breaking the law aka good publicity , and yeah i know the surf clubs dont own the footpath but if you look at the route it goes right in between both their car parks and front entrances , again do i have to say -> bad publicity , protests usually make a point of something , not just piss people off.
Yeah its true you can bling up for a night skate so that ya can be seen , the only point youll make by getting a shitload of people to skate on the road at night is that you have no reguard for laws that are already in place , do a night skate where you are allowed to skate and get the media there so they can see , it could still be a protest , you have to play the game , not tell everyone to just fuck off and well do what we want .......
Tim (Skittles) said:why the hell is it illegal??? and wouldn't that make it better for protest sake? because riding on the road at night is also illegal, and it's not like the cops will be able to pull all of us up and give us a ticket, especially since we will be skating in a big group, and can just skate away.
Just saying, but if you want to change routes just incase, that's all cool.
and the surf clubs don't own the footpath, that is council isn't it?? so if they want to complain, they can, but there isn't much they can do about it because they don't own the property.
and again, if they have something against skaters, that is what the protest will be standing for, equal rights?
jay cottrell said:Sounds interesting , what are those 2 surf clubs the route from burleigh to broady goes straight past the entrance to ? might be a problem getting them to agree to a heap of skaters going past their front access doors , and also did you know its illegal to skate within 2 blocks either side of cavill ave in surfers even on the bike\walking track on the beach and yeah straight past the cop shop.
Dont get me wrong something like this would be cool but i can see alot of obstacles arising.
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Skittles on -
haha, good point there...
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Permalink Reply by Robbo on
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Cops deal with all sorts of domestic shit. The gold coast is about as drunk and disorderly as a city gets. I know a lot of cops and believe me skaters are the least thing they give a damn about.
putting graffiti on a public building or bashing somebody as protest is bad publicity
Skating at night in protest about skateboard laws is entirely appropriate and does damage to nobody's cause. The main way people protest about certain laws is by actually braking that law in official protest and attempt to get the media to give a damn. This is called civil disobedience and happens everyday of the year all over the country. Some people get the attention of the media but most don't and given that almost all skate laws are about civil order rather than safety you will have an uphill battle just to get the police to actually fine you. Remember what you are doing is a misdemeanor that is significantly less serious than littering or parking in the wrong place. Can you imagine that the general public let alone the police really care. If you are really lucky you will cop a $50 fine that you can hang on your wall in a frame
The only way you will get any media attention for this is if you can get the police to fine everybody in attendance. If they don't do that or more likely don't care, it will be yesterdays news.
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Permalink Reply by Odiwan on
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Well after being away for a couple of days I see that that there are a few points of debate arising. as far as Cavil ave goes, i suggest we walk it... it is only 300 meters, and I don't want anyone copping a fine / pissing off the cops/ generally bringing disrepute to our sport. I looked at google earth and, correct me if I am wrong, but the stretch of road between nobby to Mermaid is "islanded" which means it is illegal for a car to drive on that strip of asphalt, at all. As such it is obviously not a bike "lane" as such, as a bike lane is a part of the road that cars can use for purposes of parking, turning, etc. As this stretch follows on from the bike path (Miami at one end, Mermaid at the other), I believe that it is a bike path and that we can skate it, day or night. I could be wrong, but I believe that in the stretch from Burleigh to Labrador, the only place we can't skate is around Cavil... 300 meters out of 22 k's about 1% of the whole distance, which I am quite prepared to forfeit.
I am actually getting over the idea of this being a "protest", bugger it... the only thing that I really want to do is participate in an Ultra... if I have to do to much organising, legally, whatever, I get a bit disinterested, same with the protest idea. I agree with Robbo, cops have bigger fish to fry than skaters... there might be some power trippers in amongst them, but overall, if they see a bunch of people skating with lights on, not breaking any laws, then they are not likely to do anything.
As far as the surf clubs go, the southern one is north Burleigh and we skate past their access to the beach, not the surf club foyer which is away from the bike track. Now, Broadbeach on the other hand, we would be skating right past their front doors, so I just suggest that at that point, be careful! Give way if you have to, and if there are crowds going in and out, just skate through the car park which is right next to the bike track there anyway.
So in a nutshell, my aim is to skate an Ultra. If this is "about" anything then it is to show that skaters can be responsible, and aren't out to totally disregard the law, courtesy, common sense, property, safety, etc. I would still like to use it as an opportunity to raise money for charity, so if we can do that with out too much official crap, then that would be great; if there is red tape involved.. then we skate for skating sake! I think that it would be great if everyone at least wore helmets and had lights at night, and maybe slide gloves, other than practicality and safety, a clap from slide pucks is as good as a bike bell for pedestrians.
Finally... how do we feel about the date? 25th-26th = school holidays or 2nd-3rd = not school holidays?
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Skittles on -
Yeah, just checking my diary, it conflicts with uni, because our holidays don't actually match yours, I don't think that I really want to go in to study for exams and lessons completely tired on monday, and probably the whole week.
If you are willing to do another one in the summer holidays, I would deffinately try and make it.
and your plans sound pretty good, I think if you are going to be doing it for a charity, it should really be for 'raising awareness', rather than fund raising, just because you will have to worry about collecting, carrying, and deposition funds, which will take time and energy, that you will probably be needing for the second 12 hours, if anyone makes it!
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by haggy on -
Go for it Odiwan!
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Tim that is a great suggestion.. raising awareness as opposed to funds makes the whole thing a whole lot simpler. I was actually basing my holiday estimate on Qld school holidays, but I had a look and you only get a week off for Uni hols... so, would you still be interested in the original date of 25-26th? This gives you the rest of the week to recover, just means a little more foot traffic on the paths which I think we can deal with.
Cheers Haggy! may you have dry roads and little traffic on your journey as well!
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Premium MemberPermalink Reply by Skittles on -
mmm... I want to, but probably would have stuff on, and rehearsals, music uni holidays are basically non-existant. I would deffinately come for a couple of hours on either dates though.
We should organise something for over the large break though.
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Finally got my act together and did a flier up. I have changed my mind (again) in light of what is happening in Pakistan, and now I am doing the Ultra to raise awareness of the plight of the Pakistanis affected by the floods. I am taking Tim's suggestion and making this skate about raising awareness, as opposed to collecting funds., which means all anyone has to do is do what the flier says and google "Pakistan donate"; there are heaps of aid agencies involved, Mercycorps, Unicef, Oxfam, CareAustraia, SaveTheChildren, lots - just take your pick to help.
As for the ride itself, I am liking that the full moon and spring equinox, occur 2 days before, which means more light at night, and another reason to ride. My next step is to create the FB event, and get in touch with other skate communities (inliners and derby girls) to get some more numbers up. - Attachments:
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Ultra12!.jpg, 51 KB
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Cheers Robbo! I couldn't quite work that bit out about posting attachments on here. How'd you do it?
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