This past summer I was skateboarding with friends in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We had been on this sidewalk that we found for hours trying tricks, pushing ourselves and each other to learn new things, when a random person came along and stood in our way and started screaming at us that we were putting people in danger. 

We tried telling them that we were not harming anyone and that we would leave, but they forced us to stay and called the police. A couple of minutes later two cop cars came and made us leave downtown and said if they saw us again they would take our skateboards. 

After all this, I posted a message online about my experience that day and found out that unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones to get kicked out of downtown Portsmouth for skateboarding. A handful of people reached out to me and told me this has been happening for over 10 years, with some experiences that sounded much worse than ours. 

An old friend I used to skate with at an indoor skatepark called Rye Airfield, told me that one time he had been stopped by the police for 30 minutes because he was simply using skateboarding as a transportation method to get to his work.

Skateboarding is a sport that people enjoy all over the world and brings people of all different backgrounds together, and has recently become an Olympic sport. It is a sport without barriers. 

This is why I will never understand why towns and cities feel the need to outlaw skateboarding in public places. I have seen so many people come up to me and tell me that what I’m doing is amazing and some people are the complete opposite and will just stand in my way and argue. 

From experience, the main reason people argue with skateboarders is because they think skateboarding destroys property, and may cause harm to bystanders, but if they just sat and watched what amazing things happen when skateboarders try tricks and how strong friendships are between skateboarders they would most definitely change their minds and let us continue.

When skateboarders come together something forms between them even if they’ve never seen each other in their life. They always encourage each other no matter what skill level or age, which almost makes skateboarding like a team sport but no one competes with each other and everyone just has fun. Even in the Olympics, you see skateboarders from all over the world hugging each other because they share the same passion or love, skateboarding. 

When you see a skateboarder on the street, don’t always assume the worst, instead try sitting back and watching the amazing things that happen during a skate session.