Soccer moms and skateboard parks don’t mix. Skateboarding at Penasquitos skate park has changed over the years. This is a great skatepark and I would highly recommend it. That is, until now.

The story goes like this. I watched a skateboarder show up to the park. He came into the park and put on his Ipod, helmet and elbow pad. They recently started enforcing elbow pads at the skatepark. Most skateparks in San Diego only ask you to where one elbow pad as most people fall forward onto their arm if at all. Then again most people hit everything else besides elbows and knees. But the many skatepark operators know this and therefore only enforce one elbow pad. This guy puts on his one elbow pad and cruises around the park.

He spends time talking and laughing with the kids. He gives them a show and gives them a pat on the back when they land a trick. Everyone is excited to have this guy here. Apparently that wasn’t good enough though and a skatepark employee was not satisfied. This woman comes out of the booth and tells him to put on an elbow pad as he skate by. She is commanding him with a normal volume as he is skating by. His Ipod is on and he’s just cruising. This guy does not acknowledge her prescence simply because he does not notice her prescence. She called to him one more time in vein. I could probably tell you her story in a nutshell. Her son skateboards at that park all the time. She has volunteered to work at the skate park to make a difference in the community even though she has no other connection to skateboarding. In her eyes all skateboarders are defiant and disrespectful. Rancho Penasquitos demeanor at its finest.

This woman “tried” to tell him to put his pads on but he “ignored” her the whole time. This is justification to involve the authorities. One of the kids effectively communicated with this guy. It was incredible how simple it was to contact him. This kid walked up to the guy and stood in front of him and spoke. This is such a simple way of communicating with an individual. It seems the kid told that guy what had just happened because that guy put his other elbow pad on.

An hour and a half passed and then things got hairy. Two cops rolled up to kick this guy out. Every question he asked and statement he made was immediately controverted regardless of how pertinent or accurate it was. The cops didn’t care what he had to say, they weren’t paid to care. The police are paid to defend the highest bidder. In this case the highest bidder is the woman in the booth because she is older and does not ride a skateboard so clearly she is in the right. What amazes me is that this guy did not raise his voice, defy or argue about it at all. The cop was yelling more than this guy was. The entire skatepark was stopped. Not one person was skating the whole time. No one understood what was happening. There was this guy skating with all the kids and having fun with everyone, and he was being KICKED OUT BY THE POLICE!

I saw him come back an hour later and he was talking with the people in the office for a few minutes. It looks like they accepted his apology because they let him back in. But 10 minutes later he stormed out because the people in the office had a problem with his friend not wearing knee pads.

This would be a great skatepark that could make a lot of profit. This could be a place that people would hold competitions and events. This could be a top skateboard park in the state. However if they continue this poor management and incompetency they are going to lose money and eventually it will shut down. On a Saturday I counted at most 15 people there. This park could easily hold 30 comfortably throughout the day. The only people skating there were young kids with their parents on the side lines. The Rancho Penasquitos skatepark is losing its reputation and no one is willing to deal with the red tape anymore. Skateboarders deal with cops all the time. They go to a skatepark so they don’t have to deal with them. If there is someone that is so trigger happy with calling the police then what difference does it make if you are at a skatepark or a school. You’ll get kicked out of either place but the school is free.

It is a shame that this park is so concerned with liability and cutting costs that these conditions occur. The cops did not want to be there, the skate park employee was quick to make an uneducated decision.

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