Skateboarding,         Space, and The City 

My Story

 

My name is Brennen Schedler, I have been skating for three years, and been competative with my riding for one year. I picked up the book Skateboarding, Space and the City in my AP Human Geography class when assigned a book reaserch project. Although this project seemed like it would be a hastle at first, the second I picked up this book I felt connected to its words and ideas. I started to want to dig deeper, learn more and more about the sport that has not only shaped world culture and atcitechture, but it has also shaped my life. This book has actually inspired me to become more involved in the "fight" to legalize longboarding. I now know that all the skaters before me have had to fight to spread the stoke, and to be able to skate. With architects and governments against us, we keep evolving our sport to match the new landscapes. Just in the last 3 year of my life, I have seen the number of people at skate events nearly double, and I have seen the culture grow and change. While some people still see skaters and satan worshipping drug addicts, if you really look deep you would see how our culture is more accepting, creative, and mixed than anything from your neighborhood book club to religious and local communities. I can see this sport is growing, and I can see how it will change, and how it will continue to change my life, and the life of everyone connected to this globalizing world, even if you do not have anything to do with skating. Skating saved me, but with so much pushback, it could be the death of me.