the trials of skateboarding in Portsmouth

Portsmouth police arrested Doug Desjardins on April 13 for allegedly grabbing onto a COAST bus while skateboarding southbound on Route 1. Desjardins denies grabbing the bus and attributes the whole episode to a misunderstanding with police, but the altercation highlights a constant struggle between skateboarders who cruise the streets and authorities that patrol them. “Portsmouth is a great place to skate. There are a lot of good hidden spots, nooks and crannies, holes and cinderblocks, dirt and construction,” Desjardins said. Unfortunately, taking advantage of those obstacles often entails violating the law.

Section B of Portsmouth city ordinance 7.344 states that “the use of roller-skates, coasters, skateboards, or similar devices shall be prohibited on sidewalks and streets in any area designated as Central Business District in the Portsmouth Zoning Ordinance, as those districts may be amended from time to time.” Section B of the same ordinance states, “Skateboards are prohibited on all sidewalks and streets in the City, and any other property of the City except in designated areas.”

There are only two places in Portsmouth where people can skateboard without violating the law, according to Sgt. Mike Ronchi of the Portsmouth Police Department, “There is a skateboard park located off of Greenleaf Avenue and one at the Rye Airfield,” he said.

If a person is caught skateboarding outside of these two areas, “what we can do is seize the skateboard and issue a summons,” Ronchi added. If a summons is issued, the case goes to Portsmouth District Court, where a judge can impose penalties and decide whether or not to return the skateboard. “Most of the violations occur downtown, in what is considered the commercial district,” Ronchi said. “The major concern is the safety of pedestrians.” Violations are more frequent during the summer, with officers approaching skateboarders “once or twice a day, at least.”

The skatepark at the Greenleaf Recreation Center is open seven days a week from dawn to dusk. As a public facility, anybody can skate on the ramps and railings that sprinkle the park. No liability waiver is required, but people are required to wear proper safety equipment, including a helmet, said Barry Foley, assistant recreation director for the city of Portsmouth. The weather dictates how often the skatepark is used, but there is almost always a small group of people there when it’s nice, with the average age between eight and 18, Foley said. Despite the mislaid reputation of skateboarders and teenagers as troublemakers, there have not been any serious problems at the skatepark. “We’ve had a little graffiti on the walls and some trash left behind, but for the most part, not too bad,” Foley said. 

Chris Rice and Matt Jagemann from Identity Footwear and Apparel on Congress Street don’t paint such a rosy picture of the Greenleaf skatepark. “It’s a disgrace. That park is 100 percent wrong. I would rather skate a four-by-four slab of concrete than skate Greenleaf,” Rice said. Both men skateboard themselves and have an intimate knowledge of the skateboarding scene in Portsmouth through their jobs. “The conditions are horrible and borderline dangerous,” Jagemann said. 

Rice regularly brings groups of kids out to Greenleaf to skate. “We’ve talked to parents that won’t leave their kids there alone,” he said. He estimates that it would cost the city between $100,000 and $200,000 to level the old park and build something more appropriate. When Greenleaf was built at the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000, it cost the city about $25,000, according to Rus Wilson, Recreation Director for the Portsmouth City Recreation Department. The work was completed by Skate Park, Inc., a division of Scituate Concrete, which builds concrete pipes and culverts. Skate Park, Inc. advertises their products as “forever lasting skate parks,” and say that the need for upkeep of the park is minimal. But Rice feels the city should redo the blacktop, reset the obstacles and add a few new features. Any amount of money would help, as long as it was spent in the proper way, with input from people who would actually use the park, Rice said.

He feels the city spends an inordinate amount of money on baseball fields and basketball courts, while ignoring the needs of skateboarders. “Why not dedicate some of those funds towards building a skatepark that kids will actually want to skate on, one that is designed by the people who are going to use it? The resources are there. The money is there,” Rice said. He thinks people are opposed to expanding facilities for skateboarders because they don’t see it as a community activity like baseball. “Skateboarding is a complete, 100 percent, individual act. It’s new and it’s not a team sport,” he said.

Another problem with the Greenleaf skatepark is that it’s far from downtown and only accessible by car. Rice understands why the city doesn’t want kids skating on Congress Street, but he thinks limiting them to Greenleaf is unrealistic. To illustrate the issue, he posed a hypothetical situation: A kid is stopped by police while skating downtown. He asks the cops where he can legally skate and they tell him Greenleaf, but that’s five miles out of town. How is the kid going to get there? No parent would want a child to walk that far, Rice said. 

Rice suggested building a “skate plaza” in the park on Parrott Avenue. He believes it would be ideal because of the park’s central location. The skatepark would be next to the baseball field, playground and basketball court instead of sequestered to the outer margins of Portsmouth. From a law enforcement standpoint, all the kids would be in one place, which would make it easier to look out for their safety.

But building a skate park in that location would require removing a basketball or tennis court, Wilson said. After looking at several options of where to put a skate park, including the Portsmouth High School parking lot, the city decided that Greenleaf was the best option because there was already a recreation center there, it was paved and it had the most space available.

The city ordinance has forced many skateboarders to adopt guerilla tactics to avoid trouble with the police. Among those in the know, there are several spots around town that have become safe houses for impromptu skate sessions. Rice asked that the exact locations of these spots not be divulged, and he advises young skateboarders to cooperate with police if approached. 

Rice would rather not have kids go underground just to pursue their passion. “When you’re a skateboarder, you're kind of a criminal, but you’re doing something illegal that shouldn’t be illegal,” he said. Rice believes that skateboarders are targeted because people can easily hear them and because most skateboarders are kids, which means they’re easily intimidated. 

The Rye Airfield skatepark is housed in a 50,000-square-foot facility that offers a year-round skate park, BMX track and outdoor dirt area. People can sign up for two-hour sessions at a cost between $10 and $14. For liability purposes, everyone must sign a waiver before entering the park. People under 18 must get a notarized signature from a parent. The facility also offers classes and a summer camp, but it requires kids to find a ride, come up with the cash and see a notary public before stepping on their boards. “It’s great during the winter,” Rice said, but during the summer going through all that trouble seems ridiculous when there is a perfectly good street right outside the door. 

A recent skateboarding accident in Durham, which resulted in the death of a fourteen-year-old boy, highlights the need for a valid skatepark in that town. Oliver Slezak was skateboarding on Coe Drive around 6:40 p.m. on May 26 when he was struck by a passing school bus. He died a few days later due to complications from the accident. An investigation of the incident continues. “We’ve been interviewing a multitude of people and formulating a report from witnesses and from people that have done the reproduction,” said Durham Police Chief David Kurz. “The highway patrol has looked at the bus, and when the investigation is complete we will present the findings to the county attorney for her review.”

Serious accidents involving skateboarders are uncommon in Durham, but the town has confronted some of the legal issues surrounding skateboarding. “Ironically, back in 2002, the Durham Police Department was seeing the problems arising where skateboarders were in areas that people didn’t want them in,” Kurz said. The chief spearheaded a series of meetings with kids and parents to try to build a skatepark. Kurz suggested locating the park between the middle school and high school and having skateboarding be part of the athletic offerings at each school. The police department invested $1,000 as seed money, but the project never gained momentum.

“I couldn’t really answer (why),” Kurz said. “There were a number of kids and parents that came to the meetings. We figured out how much money it would cost. We were talking to the town about land. We did a lot of homework. I learned a lot about skateboarding. And literally one day, I held a meeting and no one came. I thought that if it’s not an issue, I’ll move on to something else.”

There are no ordinances against skateboarding in Durham, and Kurz wanted to build the park before people started complaining. “We didn’t want to make skateboarders into criminals. We knew that business owners and others would want to pass ordinances to prohibit things. We wanted to be proactive and positive instead of reactive and negative,” he said. “The truth is they’re just kids and they’re doing kid things, sometimes it’s not smart, sometimes it’s ok, and sometimes it’s not legal,” he said.

To ensure the safety of skateboarders and pedestrians, Kurz is asking kids to be smart. “It’s that common sense approach that we ask them to use,” he said. “Right now, there are no ordinances in town regarding skateboarding, and it’s my hope we don’t get to that point.”

Portsmouth is already beyond that point, but the city could provide a more appropriate place for people to skateboard. “This town should be setting the standard,” Jagemann said. “I love this city and I want to see the city do everything they can to keep it the best place in New Hampshire,” he added.