10.11.2007
Skaters look forward to new shop
Jonah Bogeart’s skateboard hit the curb and he stumbled a few steps before regaining his balance.
Standing in the parking lot, he watched some of his friends in the Sk8ters of Statesville organization try similar stunts.
“My left ankle is messed up,” he tells one of them.
The 13-year-old didn’t own a skateboard when he moved from Knoxville, Tenn., to Statesville in August.
A few months after meeting some of the Sk8ters at the first downtown Art Crawl, he is now the club’s youth representative.
On Monday evening, he expects to stand up before Statesville City Council to tell council members why they should reserve some of the 2008-09 budget for a skate park.
“I do what is necessary,” he said, laughing.
Without a skating park, Jonah and his friends have to skate where they can, when they can.
Jonah learned how to skateboard from his neighbor when he was 10 years old. The first time he tried to get on a skateboard, it slipped.
“I just straight out fall,” he said. “I’m ... I’m dead. I don’t get up for another 10 minutes.”
After a few tries, he gradually learned to balance on the board, so his friend tried to teach him how to do an ollie — a jumping trick with the board.
At first, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the trick down, but eventually he learned it and several others.
Like many of his fellow skaters, Jonah has a host of stories about falling off his skateboard.
He has a scar between his eyes from when his board hit him during a fouled-up stunt.
He quit skateboarding — just for awhile — because it was expensive.
The Statesville High School freshman said he picked it up again when he moved to Statesville and someone gave him the white skateboard he now uses.
After the group finished skating, they started to walk toward La Dolce Vita Cafe, a popular after-school hangout.
It was on that corner where Jonah first met Computer Shop owners Jason Martin and Ryan Dillard.
Jonah said he saw them walking with Martin’s son 9-year-old son, Jayson, who was carrying a board. Jonah wanted to tell Jayson not to skate until after 6 p.m.
He was a little bit scared when Martin and Dillard turned around and walked toward him.
“They came up to me and said, ‘Do you like to skate?’ ” he said. The pair was interested in getting information for a skate shop they plan to open downtown.
When Jonah went home that night, he got on his computer and did some research on skating brands. He used the research to type a report for Martin and Dillard.
Martin said he was excited at the level of involvement Jonah has and how he has gotten other skaters excited.
“Jonah wanted to be involved,” he said. “This is not your perception of what a skater acts like,. Most of these kids are good students.”
A letter to the editor in the Statesville R&L:
You can support local youth by getting behind skate park
At 7 p.m. Oct.15, S.O.S and supporters of the youth of Statesville will attend the City Council meeting to ask the city to consider putting in a skateboard park for the many skaters of Statesville to have a place to develop their skills, have a place (other than the unsafe streets) to go and enjoy the sport of skateboarding with their families in a safe controlled park.
We are asking even if you do not skate, but do support the youth, come to the meeting on Monday night at about 7:30 or go to http://www.Sk8ersofStatesville.org for more information. Skateboarding has been in Statesville since the 1970s and is only getting bigger as it becomes more mainstream.
I can see it now, when the skaters are coming from out of town to spend their money here. We’ll need a new sign that says “Welcome to Skatesville.”
Shawn Baugher
Statesville