Pretty sure this has been talked about before, but it’d be cool to hear other people’s opinions on it too. For a long time I’ve litter picked at spots, be it DIY spots, skateparks or street spots before a session. Aside from litter really bumming me out, it’s a good way to make somewhere look tidier. I’ve started packing a little kit (disposable/washable gloves binbags etc) and usually carry a brush in the car anyway. Yes, it’s cleaning up other people’s shit and yes, it’s a never ending task, but I’d feel worse if I didn’t.
Aside from the benefits of a spot not cluttered with crap, it’s a nice way of engaging with the genus loci of a spot. Call me a lamer, but spots - as long as they last - are special. We’ve all got those places we wish we could go back to and session and I’d like to think that treating every session in a specific location as potentially the last would be a better way than pining for them once they’re gone. In some way it’s become a ritualised task now too. I try and veer away from superstition, but I often think I have better skates if the place looks better after it’s been tided up.
I know I’m not the only one who does this, keen to hear the techniques and stories of others!
When I was a kid my mum came to pick me up from the skatepark in Letchworth and saw how messy it was. We’d all been sat there complaining about how all the chavs all go there at night and leave their shit everywhere and generally fuck the place up.
She left me at the park, drove to Sainsbury’s and came back with 5 rolls of heavy duty binliners and rubber gloves. About 10 of us, including all the cool older teenagers had the place looking perfect in about 20 mins. Obviously 13 year old me was mortified but everyone was stoked.
Litter pisses me off but I can’t complain, Switzerland is probably one of the cleanest countries in the world. France is only 20 minutes away but I feel in another galaxy seconds after crossing the border whenever I go there.
I usually have a broom in my car boot but only use it to make spots skatable, I never have to pick up litter here.
One thing that pisses me off is seeing people dropping their cig butt on the ground. Sometimes when I see that, I pick it up and bring it back to said fools, telling them they’ve lost something first.
I have done a litter pickup at local DIYs a few times recently. Lots of disposable vapes and Monster cans at the minute. But it does feel like pissing into the wind.
Mega paranoid that the council are going to renege on their agreement over that new skate space in Nottingham. It is right next to a college and lots of the greb kids hang out there, and they seem to have little sense of looking after the spot. Again, litter is a big problem but some of the kids get bored and light fires etc. Not a great look for a main pedestrian thoroughfare from the train station into the city!
Done similar, Pier Head. Yoots leaving their shit around - broken cigs, cans, wrappers etc. Said to my mate leaving crap everywhere will get the spot shut again so we binned it. Then they returned wondering where their half finished drinks were and my mate rightly bollocked them for leaving crap everywhere
I’m a right old grump at the local skatepark when it comes to the emo/scooter lot leaving their shit everywhere , call them out and make them go back and pick up their shit even when they say it was their mates rubbish . I couldn’t give a fuck your mate your mess.
Gave a couple of kid a right bollocking on Saturday for breaking branches of the sapling trees ( that are constantly being broken in half ) called them out in front of the whole skatepark and when all eyes were on them they got a fucking good dose of shame treatment.
I’m at an age now where I don’t give a fuck calling people out for that shit .
Also had to stop a fight 2 weeks ago when a bunch of teenage girls descended on the skatepark clearly looking for trouble and with in 10 mins they started picking on one of the girl skaters and a fight started , luckily the skater girl slapped the shit out of the attacker before me and a couple of the older guys ran in and stopped it.
I lost my rag and saw red, fucking shouted the bunch of Michael Fabricants out of the skatepark with phone in hand ready to call the police . I was so raging , told them all to fuck off now and get their shit out of the skatepark, told them how pathetic they were and that they ain’t making no friends here - all whilst the whole skatepark were looking - absolute shamed them and some of them were actually trembling after my bollocking . Don’t think any of them had had an actual shame bollocking ever .
I kept shouting at them to get the fuck out the skatepark and they left looking very embarrassed especially as there’s were loads of family’s there in the play area watching the whole thing
I can’t stand that shit and won’t have it and will happily call it out now I’m an old fuck . Ha ! We all should
Have bear witnessed to the most stupid acts of mankind at the newest Mumbles skatepark (or just plain, dumb ignorance): bin literally a few feet from where kids are sitting, but yet rubbish is left on the floor. Thankfully all the guys who skate there and the younger skaters are on the ball, it just seems to be certain groups here and there.
Often enough I try to extend some effort at whatever spot we go to, to try and take other rubbish left there. Although it pisses me off that some people seem to think it’s other people’s problem or that, from what I have heard before “someone gets paid to do it, init?!”
Don’t even get me started the level of absolute buffoonery me and Tommy endured skating our local park in PT a few years back. Kids would be this stupid to leave chips everywhere and wonder why seagulls are coming down and shitting everywhere (park is right next to the beach, so loads of the flying shit artists are there). It got to the point you can’t even really educate a lot of these people and they only say, scootered and hung out at the park, because it’s just another one of those fads or it was something to do and didn’t see why you’d want to look after a place you’d go to hang out. A lot of these lot weren’t strictly weans either, they were old enough to know better but you know for a fact in a year or so time, they tire of it and they’ll be partying all the time or driving around in annoying cars all night.
In my usual ADHD riddled ‘trying to make a point but probably got distracted and got somewhat back on track’ way, the point is it’s almost an uphill battle but as long as you’re doing it to make it better for yourself and the ones appreciate it, it can work tidy to be tidy, like. But sometimes it can be an absolute ball ache where it’s not even worth it.
Turned up at an outdoor park with the kids earlier. At least the rubbish not in the bin was concentrated around the (overflowing) bin. Council bloke turned up not long after us and sorted it out. Wonder if they do it after the weekends.
Great location but the skatepark itself is….I’m not into it. And concrete scares the shit out of me haha
