ABSTRACT
Skateparks – like any public gathering place – are sites of social forum in which views and perspectives are expressed and challenged. As skateboarding has grown older and more diverse, the presence of such a varied range of participants brings different dynamics to the culture. This includes a wide range of people who aren’t going to sit back and allow misogynist, homophobic, and racist language and actions to go unchallenged. Skateboarding practice is marked by bodily movement and routes to bodily sensations that are frequently likened to gliding, to cheating physics, and to flying. The skateboard offers participants a freedom of movement that goes beyond the possibilities of the body, and with such a broad range of movement that the possibilities of tricks and combinations performed on different obstacles and terrain are seemingly endless. The practice of specific skateboarders highlights the ways that a person’s somatic heritage informs the innovation and development of their own style and technique.
