Editor,
With the current demonizing of skateboarders in the headlines lately, I feel it is time to hear a skater’s opinion.
I am a full-time student, and I use my skateboard to get to campus and to classes. Note, I ride a skateboard, not a longboard. I started skating a decade ago and have some useful knowledge and tips that may help clear up the misdirected feelings aimed at skaters “grinding on public’s patience.”
UNM’s sidewalks are busy, there’s no doubt about it. Skateboard and longboard popularity is at an all-time high, with what seems like dozens of students purchasing their first boards every week. I have seen multiple collisions between skateboarders and pedestrians.
These accidents are almost always caused by novice riders with little or no board control, and/or people completely oblivious to the world around them as they walk. I’m talking about those people who leave class, don their earbuds and dark glasses and stare at their phone all the way to their next class.
They are basically asking to run into something or someone, and all the new skate and longboard enthusiasts on campus only increase the chances of a collision. I have never seen a seasoned skateboarder run into a pedestrian, probably because most of them have the good sense to get off their boards and walk through the most congested areas on campus (around the Duck Pond, near the dorms, etc.).
A recent article in the Daily Lobo said that skaters who do tricks and grind ledges are the biggest threat to people walking on campus. I beg to differ: The biggest threat to pedestrians are longboarders, who completely adhere to the campus “four wheels on the floor” policy that UNMPD enforces.
Not all longboarders are a threat. The ones you should be worried about are the ones who have never ridden a longboard in their lives, purchase one, and subsequently decide the best time to learn longboarding is between their classes at UNM, when sidewalks are packed. Our sidewalks are hard enough to navigate on foot, much less a 4-foot-long sidewalk surfboard with no brakes.
Please learn to control your longboard or skateboard before you use it to get to class. You are giving all skaters a bad name, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the University banned skateboards altogether if this trend continues.
Daily Lobo, there are those who like to do tricks and have never so much as brushed a pedestrian as they skate. Also, think about the pictures you choose to run. I’m talking about the one of the trials bike rider doing tricks outside the SUB, which was published the day after your article warning of those pesky skateboarders “grinding people’s nerves.”
What, are bikers okay and skaters just a bunch of punks? I expect a prestigious paper like the Daily Lobo to take a balanced approach rather than allying with one side or the other. Thank you.
Agustín McCord
UNM student
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Editor’s Note: “Skateboarders grind on public’s patience” by Felipe Medina-Marquez, ran in the Sept. 12 edition of the Daily Lobo.
