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WHAT ABOUT SKATEBOARDING IN NE MISSISSIPPI Many of the communities around the area have built skateparks. Though they should be commended for the effort, I think many of these parks were designed and built with little to no input from skaters or any investigation of what is going on with skateboarding. Because cities have "outlawed" skateboarding, skaters are happy to get anything. With a poor facility, skaters will go somewhere else. This somewhere else may be the streets or some other communities park. Contact me if you are interested in getting together on this issue. Many have been designed to be used as something else when skateboarding is no longer around. Well, its been 30 years since I first stepped on a skateboard. Skateboarding is still here. In 2004, Skateboarding was ranked 5th in the increase of participants as indicated by http://www.nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=151 . There were an estimated 12 million participants in skateboarding. More than TENNIS ! Yet some of the thinking is that when skateboarding dies out, many of the "modular parks" can be used as tennis courts or basketball courts. If you count the participants at the skatepark in Iuka vs the number of tennis players in that same park it would open your eyes. Skateboarding participation doubled from 1993 to 2004 exceeded only by snowboarding . Here is the report http://www.nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=158 In the town of Iuka, we have an asphalt slab with 3 fabricated ramps. These ramps are WELL built and are VERY heavy. This park is MUCH better than the threat of being taken to jail or your board confiscated however it is one of the poorest designed public parks I have been to in the southeast US. There is no park in Corinth, Tishomingo, Booneville or Saltillo. Saltillo is in the process of organizing a park. Though a little far, this would be great for people in the very Northeast corner of Mississippi. If you are a skater in the Corinth or Booneville area, contact me to see if we can get some places in the area to skate. I have been to Collierville Tn, Florence Ala, Huntsville Ala, Little Rock AR, Southaven Mississippi, Oxford Mississippi, Nashville Tenn, Memphis Tenn, and Savannah Tennessee. All of the above mentioned parks are either entirely concrete or at least a slab of concrete with ramps built by people in the industry . The ramps are built and designed with skateboarding in mind. (The ones in Iuka are painted with epoxy paint which is VERY slippery but the asphalt slab is DANGEROUS. The surface is irregular, lods water, and in some cases, the ramps have ssunken into t he asphalt). BUILD CONCRETE ! The concrete parks (Oxford, Nashville, :Little Rock, Huntsville) are great.
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