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You’re also such a great advocate for the sport, you founded the The Skatepark Project. Can you tell me more about that?
I started the foundation in 2001 as a reaction to seeing that there was not much interest in skating all at once—especially in the late ’90s and early 2000s—and a severe lack of facilities. Like, there were very, very, very few public places. There were some private facilities, but it was like, how could cities be in denial of this surge of interest? Then I started seeing some cities sort of figuring it out and developing skateparks, but they weren’t involving the actual skaters in the design process, so the parks ended up being these terrible designs and really not fun to ride at all. I think it was through that I recognized maybe I have a voice that could affect change in this area and hopefully make cities recognize the need for skateboarding, but also to involve the skaters from the start. Most important, too, was to get funding and resources to more underserved areas where kids are at risk. In those days, it was a hard sell to pitch a skatepark to a city council, but eventually they would agree. They would see how much use it gets, and they would end up almost always building more.
For sure. Just look at all the parks you’ve helped develop or rebuild right here in NYC—like Brower Park in Crown Heights, Allerton Park (Bronx Skate Park) in the Bronx, and the upcoming Mount Prospect Park project in Brooklyn.
Yeah, and that just took the spark of finally getting a solid park in one of the five boroughs, then it spread like wildfire. Like, oh… kids love this place. They converge here. They feel safe here. I think people undervalue the importance of skateparks and how they can be a really great gathering place, a place to share ideas, a place of support. I mean, if you go to any skatepark right now, there are probably people there, and it’s probably crowded. It’s going to be people from all walks of life: all ages, all genders, all races, all backgrounds, and even all skill levels. And there’s just no other sports facility like that. You know, you’re not going to go to a basketball court and see LeBron there. I just feel like skateboarding has a really unique space that it holds, and people love it because they can do it at their own pace, do it in their own style, but they’ll still be part of this really great community at the end of the day.
It’s really fulfilling seeing things like the X Games League, because I came from a time when skating was the furthest thing from cool. Now there’s just such a supportive, eclectic community that skates, and it’s not strange for anyone to be skating at all. It’s not strange to be a woman skating. It’s not strange to be an old man skating. It’s just come around so far—how it should have been all along. The most fun thing for me is that I get to live vicariously through witnessing these skaters, but I also am still part of this culture and the scene.
