Closing Bell: Snowboarding on the Urban Slopes
From jsjcreative comes a video of people snowboarding in Fort Greene Park, the day after the big storm. More experienced boarders are teaching younger kids, and everyone is having a great time playing in the snow, and life is good. Unfortunately, it seems that it is illegal to snowboard in New York City parks, and…
From jsjcreative comes a video of people snowboarding in Fort Greene Park, the day after the big storm. More experienced boarders are teaching younger kids, and everyone is having a great time playing in the snow, and life is good. Unfortunately, it seems that it is illegal to snowboard in New York City parks, and rangers come over to let everyone know. Talk about taking the wind out of your sails. The people who were snowboarding, and the filmmakers who made this video, want to petition the city to change this policy. I can see where boarding off Riverside Park onto the West Side Highway would not be a good thing, but surely, there should be places in many of our parks where snowboarding could be allowed. What say you?
As I understand it from some friends of mine who work for the parks department, the real problem with skiing or boarding in City parks is that it destroys the lawns underneath and means that the parks dept will have to spend $$$$ that spring to have the lawns re-sodded.
The first four minutes of this video were beautiful.
I guess there are no laws against white people in yuppie snow-gear cross-country skiing in New York City parks, but somehow there is a law against snow boarding? People are allowed to ride bikes, skateboard and do many other silly activities, but there is a specific law against this one activity? This really can’t be a law.
. . . . . WTF?
Abeni,
I agree about the Guy in Yellow, and overall was touched by it. The smiles on the kid’s faces is priceless.
There was a group I became involved in a while back that tried doing the same…i.e. getting companies to provide free gear, and resorts free tickets, so that mentor boarders (like you/me)could take kids w/no resources or role models out to nature and and get those smiles lit up when they finally stand up on a board.
Will look into this guys group, and let me know if you know of others like it.
BSD, didn’t even think of that! Good point!!!
The Guy in the Yellow has a good heart though, he’s trying to start a foundation to teach urbane youth to board. He has a short called Hoods To Woods.
I only hit Ft green Park once. Wasn’t worth the gas/cab fare to lug my gear there for a small kicker. I’m starting to miss my parents backyard in Pa.
Abeni
This is great, I’ll be out there with my board now that I know it goes on.
I do cringe at seeing newbies being send down that hill though. Without proper control, they may become one with a tree trunk.
I see nothing about snowboarding being prohibited…http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/rules_and_regulations/rr_1-04.html. But if it is, post that petition. I’ll happily sign.
If a big storm catches me by surprise- I got to Prospect Park or Owl’s Head Park to ride. Never had any problems there and the runs are longer.
I have often thought that the hillside mausoleums in Green-Wood Cemetery would make excellent rail slides. I guess the kids could smuggle their boards in by hearse?
As someone who grew up in the great white north, I love to see urban kids picking up the sport, and I think anything that can be done to encourage them should. Vancouver has built a massive halfpipe right downtown for the olympics. Why not NYC?
Keep the snow boarders, who do no harm. Get rid of the soccer players who monopolize the open space and turn the park into a dust bowl.