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No "No Skateboarding" premiere in Silver Spring MD

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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:54 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 28 Nov 2003 Posts: 784 Location: MD, USA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...12-2005Mar12.html

Turning Camera on Her Cause
Md. Filmmaker Aims to Increase Awareness, Parks for Boarders

By Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 13, 2005; Page C08

For those who don't know their grommets from their rippers, Lisa Jaeggi is here to help.

The 20-year-old skateboard enthusiast and graduate of Montgomery Blair High School is hoping her documentary, "No No Skateboarding" -- to premiere at 7 p.m. tomorrow in Silver Spring -- will educate the uninitiated about the skateboarding world. She's also hoping the 15-minute film, shot over winter break with her father's camera, will boost fledging efforts to build skateboard parks in that community.


"People who don't know about skating should understand what happens with skaters in Silver Spring," said Jaeggi, who took up the sport when she was 16 and passed her passion for it down to her younger brothers, Daniel, 18, and Isaac, 13.

The documentary explores the frustration that skaters in Silver Spring and Takoma Park experience as they search for places to skate. In numerous scenes -- almost as soon as skaters land in a spot with the right kinds of hips (riding surfaces designed to be ridden, grinded or aired over) and banks (inclines on which skaters ride up, do a trick and then ride down) -- they are chased away by a security guard or an irate resident.

Although skaters across the country have written letters and spoken publicly about their frustration, Jaeggi, a sophomore at Guilford College in North Carolina, thinks seeing the problem captured in the film sends a much stronger message.

Jaeggi said she thinks part of the conflict is that adults don't understand skaters and often are intimidated by teenagers.

But she said she understands that there are other issues.

Her film includes interviews with merchants and government officials who say they fear lawsuits and worry about paying for structural damages caused by skateboarders, who skate at strip malls and office buildings.

It's a critical time for area skaters. Skate parks have been growing in popularity in the region: Virginia boasts 40 parks; Maryland has at least two dozen sites, with tentative plans for a handful of other new public parks; and the District has one skate park. Jaeggi is hoping her video will help push those tentative plans -- such as a fledging one to build a park near East-West Highway and Fenton Street -- forward into the building stage.

Derick Berlage, chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board, said he supports building a new skate park, but he notes that it is just one of several projects competing for funding.

"Skateboarding is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States," he said. "More kids are using skateboards than playing softball, so there's a recreational need out there that hasn't been met."

According to the Skatepark Association of the United States of America, there were about 1,000 skate parks across the country last year, five times as many as in 1996; skating (including inline and skateboarding) is an industry with $3 billion in annual sales.

Glenn Kreger, who leads a team of county workers focused on community planning in Silver Spring and Takoma Park, and who is featured in the film, said it is not just skaters who are pushing for new skate parks. Businesses view skate parks as a public safety issue.

"There's a concern among businesses that if you don't provide a legitimate place for skaters, then they'll just skate anywhere," he said.

Mark Robinson, director of leadership development for the community group Impact Silver Spring -- which is sponsoring the premiere at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission regional office building, at 8787 Georgia Ave. -- said his group hopes the documentary will help more people understand the issues facing skaters.

"These are the voices of our youth,'' he said. "Skaters looking for a place to skate -- and we want the community to be able to know what's going on."

Jaeggi is confident that the filmgoers will come away with a better sense of the passion that skaters bring to their sport -- not to mention a better appreciation for both grommets (young beginners) and rippers (more advanced skaters).

Said Jaeggi: "I hope I can do my part to help both sides."
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