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CONTACT: 
Kent Holcomb
CORE Action
817-421-4655
kent@coreaction.com
www.COREaction.com

CORE Action Takes on the Action Sports Community

Grapevine, Texas (November 21, 2008)--CORE Action has entered full-steam into the action sports social culture. Having completed its beta-stage the CORE Action website has launched revealing its edgy, gritty look and first-rate content. At the heart of COREaction.com is the Nation, an action sports community that provides a forum for enthusiasts of all ages to communicate, share and express themselves through the sports they love.

CORE Action also provides its viewers with day-to-day coverage of what's happening in the action sports world--skateboarding, snow sports, surfing, motocross, BMX and water sports are all covered highlighting the best news, events, photos and videos from each discipline. CORE also informs and entertains users with in-house video coverage, featuring one-on-one interviews with top-pros, hot on the scene action from local and national events and short entertaining vignettes to get the adrenaline pumping.

While CORE reports on what's going on in the pro scene, our real ambition is to provide a forum for the young and up-and-coming athletes to get their story out and let themselves be known. Gone are the days of sending in "sponsor-me" tapes to companies in desperate and often futile attempts to get noticed. With CORE, the athlete can log-on to the Nation and post a bio, videos and photos in an effort to promote themselves within the community. CORE's main objective is to support the sport's underdogs and amateurs and to forge lasting partnerships within our member network as we grow into the future.

"Not only do we provide up-to-date original content, but we do it in a safe environment where kids are protected and can be among their peers." Kent Holcomb, President of CORE Action explains, "We closely follow the COPPA laws which protect underage kids from predators and mature content."

Nick Moscia CORE Action Marketing Director agrees, "We're all about reaching out to the action sports community. For us, it's about the kids. This is a place where they can hang out, chat with friends and check out the latest videos, news and events."

The CORE staff comes from within the action sports culture--skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, BMX and motocross. From the slopes of the Rocky Mountains to waves of Cocoa Beach, Florida, the CORE crew are embedded in their prospective scenes. Preserving the culture and empowering riders to enjoy their sports and to reach full potential is our objective at CORE Action.

CORE Philosophy--Within every discipline of action sports lay a CORE group of people. They are the ones pushing the boundaries and limits on a daily basis. CORE riders raise the bar and create new standards for the rest to follow. They are the epicenter of the Industry and help keep our Culture alive and thriving. These devoted folks eat, drink and sleep the sport which they are true to and willingly make sacrifices to keep the ride going. Living a CORE lifestyle defines these individuals and establishes a place for them in this world...

CORE Action was founded in 2007 and is an internet-based action sports community which specializes in social networking and providing premium action sports related content. For more information go to www.COREaction.com.

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....FOR FREEDOM!!!

 “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. –George Orwell

The year is 1913, Woodrow Wilson is president, and powerful banking interests, who have been trying for year, finally achieved their long term goal, of silently taking control of the American government.

     The first thing the did to accomplish their take over was convince secretary of state, Flan Denox, to lie to the American people, and tell them that the 16^th amendment [Income Tax Amendment] had been legally ratified by the states when it was not. The bankers knew that this tax would ultimately end up in their pockets.

     Because of this fraud the American people were led to believe there was a tax on their labor. Congress and the President ARE completely aware of this fraud and it was cited in a recent court case:

“If you… examined [the 16^th amendment] carefully, you would find that a sufficient number of states ratified that amendment.” -U.S. District Court Judge, James C. Fox, 2003

That very same year [1913] the bankers committed their second, and by far most diabolical fraud ever perpetrated on the American people, by bribing senators to pass the Federal Reserve Act, without the required Constitutional amendment. They did this during Christmas vacation, when many senators where home celebrating Christmas with their families.

     And that is how the unconstitutional Federal Reserve Act came into being. They were very clever, and understood that who ever issued the money for America controlled the government.

“Give me control of a nations money supply, and I care not who makes its laws.” -Mayer Rothschild, Private Banker

President Wilson, who signed the Federal Reserve Act later said in regret:

“I’m a most unhappy man; I have unwittingly ruined my country a great industrial nation is now controlled by a system of credit. We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinions and duress of a small group of dominant men.” -Woodrow Wilson, 1919

How did America transform from being a truly free country with a servant government where our individual rights are protected by our Constitution, to being a country that talked about being free but really wasn’t?

     The change started when the Federal Reserve came into existence, and America adopted one of the major planks of the Communist Manifesto by creating for America this central bank.

     The very same people that back the Federal Reserve System also back the graduated income tax, a second plank from the Communist Manifesto.

     And now our Congress so dominated by the banks, is helping them entrap people even further by passing new Bankruptcy Laws making it more difficult for the people to declare bankruptcy and get a fresh start.

“Who controls money controls the world.” -Henry Kissinger, Council of Foreign Relations

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*President Bush has signed executive orders give him sole authority to impose martial law and suspending Habeas Corpus. This gives him dictatorial power over the people without any checks or balances.

*The government can jail you for life without charges, without trial, and without a lawyer.

*Because of globalization the U.S. must accept other nations’ laws. Under the CAFTA treaty the sale of vitamins and supplements will be illegal.

*Executive Order# 10999: Allows the government to take over all modes of transportation.

*Executive Order# 11000: Allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.

* Executive Order# 11921: Provides that the president can declare a state of emergency that is not defined and Congress cannot review the action for six months.

*Senate Bill# 1873: Allows the government to vaccinate you with untested vaccines against your will.

*The FDA says: Americans do not have a right to know which foods are genetically modified.

*Congressman Sensenbrenner’s Bill (HR1528): Requires you to spy on you neighbors including wearing a wire. Refusal would be punishable by a mandatory prison sentence of at least two years.

*The government claims the power to seize all financial interments: gold, silver, and everything else if they deem an emergence exists. –treasury department letter, Aug. 12, 2005

*There are 190 countries in the world; American has bases in 130 them.

The Patriot Act permits:

*Secret FBI and police searches of your home and office.

*Secret government wiretaps on you phone, computer and/or internet activity.

*Secret investigations of your bank record, credit cards and other financial records.

*Secret investigations of your library and book activities.

*Secret examinations of your metical, travel and business records.

*The freezing of funds and assets without prior notice or appeal.

*The creation of secret watch lists that ban those named from air and other travel.

“The Constitution is just a goddamn piece of paper.” -George W. Bush, Nov. 2005, Capitol Hill Blue

During the 1990’s President Clinton monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens. He did this under a secret program code named: Echelon. The wide spread use of wire tapping Americans during the Clinton administration proves that this practice was not started because of 9/11 but is standard procedure.

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The new legislation for the national ID card is in and takes three to for pages to describe. It will be connected to our driver’s licenses and Social security numbers. A physical ID such as finger prints or retinal print will be on it.

This law known as the Real ID Act takes effect in May 2008. Anyone with out a card will not be permitted to board an air plain, Amtrak train, open a bank account, or enter a federal building.

The bill mandates that all drivers’ licenses contain “common readable technology. A radio frequency identification (RFID) chip will be used.

“It is time to wake up America. Those ID cards are NOT about defeating terrorism, they are all about controlling the American people.” -Aaron Russo

The latest technology for identifying people when they make purchases is the implantable chip that can be directly imbedded into human flesh. Its tiny glass capsule is about the size if a grain if rice. It contains an RFID computer chip with a coiled antenna.

Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and others have expressed great interest in being able to more closely monitor the American people. And one way to do that would be to determine who buys what and where they take these things.

     Radio frequency can travel through walls, wood, the things we normally rely on to protect our privacy. For example your backpack, your pocket, anything you’re wearing or carrying.

     They were talking about having reader devices in every airport, on every bus, every train, on every port and every dock.

     One of the most worrisome applications of RFID is proposals to put in cash. Meaning that you’d be able to track every bank note, where it has been, who it has been issued to, and create an essence an audit trail that would essentially take away the anonymity of cash, that we enjoy today.

     The ATM machine itself, as the money came through the roller device, would be reading each number. And it would know who you are; of course you identify yourself at banks or ATMs. And the ATM would tag the number, and transfer the possession name from, say Bank of America to Joe Jones.

     Once every thing you do is tied down to a single number, and there is no longer the option to pay with cash, then all it takes to render you a non citizen is to simply turn you chip off. Then you won’t be able to participate in ant function in society, including buy food.  

     Through the implementation of the Federal Reserve System, the American citizen has gone from being a private individual who had real money, and gold in possession that was private, to a citizen who has no privacy because all money is now being digitized. They can deduct however amount of money they want out of your digits when ever they want, and they can trace you when ever they want. You’ll be at there mercy. God forbid we allow this to happen in America. 

“This is outrageous! I mean your talking about the government looking over your shoulder at absolutely everything you do, every purchase you make, every place you go, every company you interact with, would be recorded back to potentially the government.” -Katherine Albrecht, author of “Spy Chips”

Have we become so controlled and ignorant about our rights, that big institution and big governments can do whatever they want with us even with out our approval?

I know for certain that our founding fathers would resist to the death what is happening in America today. And I for one will not accept a national ID card. And if nobody accepts a national ID card, and nobody can board a plain without one, then let the airlines go bankrupt. And if you can’t open an account in a big national bank, then open one in a small local bank. And if we can’t walk into a federal building, I’d personally consider that a blessing.

Don’t allow these institutions to dictate to us how we conduct our lives. This is America, and we have free choice! We the people have the power not the government. The government gets its power from us, not the other way around.

Think of all the men and women that died in all our wars fighting for freedom, not Federal Reserve bankers. Do you think they sacrificed their lives so America could get chipped like a dog, so we can all have homing devices inside us? NO! This ID card is the last step before they implant us, and that is precisely the reason no one should accept one.

And you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to call in the propaganda machine, the media, and try to sell this RFID chip as if it was in everybody’s best interest.

“We shall have a world government whether or not we like it. The only question is whether the world government will be achieved by conquest or consent.” -Paul Warburg, architect of the Federal Reserve System, 1950

The central bankers of the world are working together to create a one world government. A global police sinister was the only thing George Orwell ever wrote about. Where every person on the planet Earth will have an RFID chip implant, where the bankers and the governments have access to every transaction you make.

A chip in every in everybody would be the universal monitory system, because there would be no escape from it.

Most people don’t have a clue that these unelected private bankers, actually control the governments of the world. They have actually financed and profited from ever war since World War I, without concern for humanity. The war in Iraq is an attempt by the Federal Reserve and their partner the Bank of England to control the middle east, and make it part of the new world order.

“Military men are just dumb stupid animals, to be used as pawn in foreign policies.” -Henry Kissinger

     The war on terrorism is the war on your freedom.

“The bankers own take it away from them but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough money to buy it back again. However, take away the power to create money, and all great fortunes like mine will disappear and ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in.

But if you wish to remain slaves of the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money.” - Sir Josiah Stamp, former director of the Bank of England

“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine, and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years.

     It would have been impossible for us to develop our plans for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But now the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march toward a world government. The supra national sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto determination, practiced in past centuries.” 

-David Rockefeller, private banker, council on foreign relations, June 1991

“The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes.” -Felix Frankfuter, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” -Henry Ford

     Now that you do understand what happened in 1913, and how it is leading to world government, the future depends on you. Will you choose freedom or slavery? Stop living in fear of your government. Government is the servant. We are the masters.

So what are you going to do about it? Join together in civil disobedience. Be willing to take part in nationwide strikes, boycotts, and marches on Washington. Force Congress to use their power to shut down the Federal Reserve. Government has authority to issue money, without paying interest to the bankers. This will take away the power to control our government from the bankers. Only vote for candidates who have signed an affidavit to shut down the Federal Reserve System and stop world government.

If you are in the military or law enforcement, remember you swore an oath to defend the American Constitution. You didn’t swear an oath to promote world government. Honor your Oath.

DONOT accept the national ID card, even if it’s your drivers’ license. We must demand that the American peoples gold be audited, and make certain that it has not been stolen. This asset must be returned to the American people.

Abolish computer voting in the state where you live. Stop being a good Democrat, stop being a good Republican, start being good Americans.

And when the media starts telling you that the country will fall apart if this is done, don’t be fooled. This is just the Federal Reserve trying to save itself. Squash it!

“I like the old idea, where you could do what you thought you could do and what you wanted to do as long as you didn’t hurt anyone.”

 -Ron Paul

If you believe in civil disobedience and wish to organize with millions of Americans in this battle for liberty, please sign up at freedomtofascism.com, and if you choose not to help, report to Central Services immediately and we will have you fitted for an RFID chip… for you own safety, of course.

”We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
-Benjamin Franklin, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

 Uninted we stand, Divided we fall.

www.ronpaul2008.com

www.wethepeoplefoundation.org

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What does Christianity, 9/11, & the Federal Reserve have in common? 

 

 

 

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
-Jimi Hendrix

 "The Christian religion is a parody on the warship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun."

 - Thomas Paine

 

"They must find it difficult....those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than the truth as authority."
-G. Massey, Egyptologist

 

"Religion can never reform mankind, because religion is slavery."
-Robert G. Ingersoll, 1833-1899

 

"There is something behind the throne greater than the king himself."
-Sir William Pit, House of Lords, 1770

 

"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes."
-Benjaman Dislaeli, English Statesman, 1844

 

"The real truth of the matter is that a finacial element in the large centers has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S President, 1933

 

"If you want to remain slaves of the bankers and pay for the costs of your own slavery, let them continue to create and control the nation's credit." -Josiah Stamp, 1880-1941  

 

"Power Corrupts; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely." -Lord Acton, English Historian, 1834-1902

 

I belive that the banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies.... If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency.... The banks and corporations that will grow up arownd them will dprive the people of their property until their children wakeup homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
-Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826 

 

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ZEITGEIST, The Movie - Official Release - Full Film

1 hr 56 min 23 sec - Jun 26, 2007
Average rating:   (14201 ratings)
Description: ZEITGEIST, The Movie - Official Release - Full Production (including the 'Overture') What does Christianity, 911 and The Federal Reserve have in common? Overture: 0:00-9:34 Part 1: 9:35-35:53 Part 2: 35:54-1:09:16 Part 3: 1:09:17-1:56:23 Please visit www.zeitgeistmovie.com for information and the full source list for this work.

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Dear Mayor,

I’m one of those people that say they’ve been “saved”. There are a lot of us now, 32 million worldwide and the numbers are climbing rapidly. Although still relatively small in comparison with other clans, our institution has been the driving force behind popular fashions, cutting-edge music, film, and most modern art since the day our culture spawned 60 years ago. Whether alone, or in large groups, our place of worship is never limited to a church, temple or mosque, as we’re free to practice anywhere we like. Though seen in some ways as a cult, what binds us as a whole is not Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha or even Hello Kitty. In fact our “fundamentalists” are no more than professional athletes, and our scholars produce what become our “bibles” in the form of magazines and DVD’s.

Never sure of whether to call itself a sport, an art, or even a new religion; skateboarding has always been in a league of its own. Together we skateboarders are a secure and unified nation. We share the same joy, the same pain, the same culture, all without needing a single leader to lead us, or boarders to fence us in. We are multinational, and within each of the countless counties we occupy we have no trouble being multicultural. All ages included, our way of life is physically and mentally healthy. A vast majority of us are staying out of trouble and away from a life of videogames while our games are often seen as a vast improvement over others. In the past decade, according to the American NSGA (National Sporting Goods Association) our relatively young sport has been replacing older sports such as Badminton, Billiards, Golf, Soccer, Baseball and Softball, Tennis and Table Tennis, Mountain Biking, and even Basketball, both on the Play Station and in the real world.

It was 17 years ago I started skateboarding. Since then it’s been without a doubt the most positive element in my life, and like so many guilt-ridden Catholics I feel indebt to its existence. Though great for everyone, skateboarding is a perfect outlet for “at risk” kids especially. Personally, any time my life started to go downhill, or if I got into trouble, it was always skateboarding that brought me back to life. Skateboarding’s secret societal healing power is in how it naturally fosters a need to be different and allows those who do it to progress and develop a healthy sense of independence, giving them improved confidence in all walks of life. It provides kids one more opportunity to get outside and actually do something instead of get bored and into trouble. Skateboarding continues to support life long after childhood as well. Being closely connected with the skateboard industry grants an array of highly satisfying job opportunities. I myself make a harmonious living instructing skateboarding, shooting photography and video of professionals, writing stories for skateboard magazines and even designing parks and plazas to skate in.

As one of many grateful skateboarders in existence, I sense a strong need to introduce skateboarding to others, protect what has made it great and keep alive the things that attracted me to it in the first place. It’s my desire to “keep it real", to keep the roots or fundamental characteristics functioning and in intact. Like a farmer I make sure it has plenty of regular waterings, enough fertile soil to root in, and as much light as it can get. Being from the west I’ve witnessed skateboarding in its mature form and feasted on its much larger fruit. Taiwan planted the seed just 10 years ago and it, like many of Taiwan’s borrowed culture or sports, is still a slow growing, vulnerable seedling, in need of special care and nurturing, and must first be grown tall and strong before any type of fruit can be had.    

CURRENT ISSUES

In a land lacking translated magazines and subtitled DVDs from the western world, and no strong local history, the skateboard scene here is like an empty shell. Without a clear idea of specific origins, skateboarding and its surrounding economy suffers from the same thing the “Hip Hop”, “Punk” or other borrowed western “youth cultures” suffer from in Taiwan. It quickly becomes a short lived fashion show if not enough new fans know what makes those western scenes shine so bright to begin with, what spawned them, or how they grew so big as to notice them halfway around the world.     

In what looks like proof of this theory, over the few years I’ve been in the Taiwanese skateboarding scene, the Taiwanese participation in skateboarding seems as though it has stalled at a modest midway point, odd for a sport that’s #2 next to Snowboarding in a list of the fastest growing sports on the planet. “Faddism” has indeed set in as too many have treated it as meaningless fashion, doing little or nothing to sustain a push forward or to help Taiwan’s skateboarding evolve and grow into the kind of scene one would and should have seen by now.

Not helping the situation also, is the fact that in Taiwan, and in much of the surrounding countries in Asia, skateboarding and its appeal to young people have been used by official “outside” organizations and their corporate associates mainly as a way to help promote the next cell phone, or products that have very little, if anything, to do with actual skateboarding. At the same time, skateboarding and its high potential for boosting tourism and its many profound social health benefits are being ignored and thus not cared for or utilized to the full extent they could be. Official decisions and planning that are said to aid in the promotion of the sport of skateboarding in Taiwan are currently being made by those who would not dare step on a skateboard themselves, and since they don’t skate they naturally know very little about skateboarding. Unfortunately for the Taiwanese tax payers, these “outsider associations” and there confused ideas on skateboarding have been approved by the Taiwan government to promote skateboarding since it first appeared in Taiwan barley 10 years ago. The Chinese Extreme Sports Association (CXA), to name a major example, is officially approved by the federal government to build “skateparks” and put on promotional events in name of something called the “X-Games”. It is quite apparent to whom the facilitation is supposedly for, that these planners and organizers lack the essential skills, experience, and cultural knowledge needed to help produce a strong, long-lasting skateboard scene in Taiwan. In fact, most of the local skaters I’ve talked to believe very strongly that in the C.X.A.’s “misdeeds”, they and their fantasies about us, our scene and industry, may actually be doing more harm than good. It is becoming ever more obvious that what they lack is the involvement of proper expert talent, and in this case they need not search any further than the skaters themselves.

Taiwanese skaters have had next to zero say and with the experts shut out, the parks they steam ahead to build for us, using strange partnerships and at costs that are strangely much too high, lack the necessary user-input and are inappropriately designed. To this day there are over 20 caged-in “X-Games” parks in Taiwan (about one in every major town), all cookie-cutter in nature, and not a single one made with expert skateboarder input. Instead they merely copy what they’ve seen on ESPN (another “outsider institution” wanting in). Up until recently, Taiwanese skateboarders (most of them merely high school aged) were not able, and in some cases too lazy or even unwilling to organize to attain official status and proper government support. But now with worse and worse parks going up, and more and more corporations taking us for granted in these contests, and with less and less respect to our culture, we’ve had no choice but to take matters into our own hands. Even skaters as young as 13 are slowly starting to realize a few things, things that have led to something called the Taichung Skateboarders Association. To become a recognizable and respected group in our community, autonomous in our direction, less vulnerable to exploitation and in charge of what we need to sustain natural growth; we needed to form the TSA. With careful long-term planning, we believe Taiwan’s skateboard scene and its surrounding industry can attain the kind of greatness and exposure it normally attains in every other country it exists in once skaters themselves are in the driver’s seat.

WHY THE OUTSIDERS WANT IN…

The Big Money in Skateboarding

l          There are an estimated 32 million skateboarders in the world, 12 million of whom are in the U.S.

l           Skateboards and skateboard-related products, from about 300 manufacturers of professional-level equipment, generate approximately $5.2 billion in annual retail sales around the world.

l          “Tony Hawk Pro Skater” video game captured the #1 ranking in both sales and revenue for video game sales in 2000, and has continued to achieve top spot each year since.

l           The 2001 Nickelodeon TV Kid’s Choice Awards placed Tony Hawk as “Favorite Male Athlete” in front of Tiger Woods, KobeBryant, and Shaqille O’Neal.

l           Tony Hawk is the 9^th most searched for Athlete on yahoo.

l           Skateboarding is growing faster than mountain biking, golfing and 50 other sports tracked by the National Sporting Goods Association.

l          “More Americans rode skateboards last year than played Baseball, according to the Sporting Goods Association.” –USA Today, Aug. 17, 2001

l           Since 1987 the growth rate for skateboarding has been 7.2 percent per year, while baseball declined 27.9 percent and basketball grew only 5.1 percent in that same period. (From the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association’s January 2001 "Sports Participation Topline Report")

PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING

Visions for the future:

        Taiwan’s first real skater-designed skate parks and multi-use plazas

Skateparks should be much more than just a place to skate; they should be powerful generators. They should generate more skateboarders and keep them skateboarding forever after they start.

Involving the youth and those with greater experience has been proven to work in Canada, the United States, Australia, and all over Europe. In Canada I was one of the founding members of the Vancouver Skate Park Coalition (VSPC), a coalition of skateboarders and BMX riders fighting for a place of our own, something our government had refused to grant us for well over 20 years.

We first sought a single indoor facility for the long Canadian winters 9 years ago., When we finally got approval to build a, “for skateboarders - by skateboarders” park, it was a huge success. Since then we’ve managed to help construct over 50 (cost-effective) other ones, each better than the last. They’ve been labeled the best in the world by professionals and skateboard magazines for being the most “modern”, “creative” and “technically advanced” concrete skate parks in North America for years and years. They have been hailed by parents, teachers, the police and the government for providing a sustained positive outlet to practice challenging skills and spend one’s time in a safe, social environment.

Because of an organized and highly passionate, self-motivated group like the VSPC, Vancouver is now discovering the benefits of some of the first “multi-use parks and plazas” in the world. The parks are a place where the skaters and the public co-exist comfortably in the same area, livening up parts of the city in the process.

 

“X”tremely Misunderstood

Last but not least, we as a skateboarding society want to inform the rest of society (especially the one that watches far too much TV), that skateboarding is not all about rings of fire or daredevil freak shows. What we do is about personal growth and our own individual successes. To 99% of us, skateboarding is not “X-treme”. In fact most of us are offended by mere use of it. Some even detest the word extreme or any cute use of the letter “X” in relation to us, since it has literally come to symbolize the corporate exploits of our talent, image and positive energy. At the very least, the word “X”-treme“ reminds us of the overly used marketing propaganda that all too often bears a dorky picture of a phony skateboarder, serving only to further confuse the public.

Style or technique, it doesn’t matter, skateboarding is completely free and self-paced. To the average skater a televised corporate contest seems a lot like a cheap corny circus act, devoid of meaning or soul. The corporate sponsored contests in Taiwan are rarely judged by skaters and the courses that we are enticed to perform on are made even worse than the “X” parks. Attendance by skaters in the televised “X-Games” have gone down over the years as they begin to see the events are mere jokes. Skaters in Taiwan’s young emerging skateboard scene are now finally old enough, or awake enough to suspect a certain form of meddling and many are becoming increasingly disappointed or annoyed with them generally.

A park of our very own making (events included)… can change all that and do a much better job of promoting skateboarding and the positive roll it naturally plays in any modern society.

Our plan is to eventually build (and take care of) a skater-designed, multi-use plaza and park, as well as an indoor facility for skateboarding, art and music. I like to think of the idea as a “Stock 20” for skateboarders.

Your campaigns have always caught my attention as they often emphasize support for the youth and nurturing the diverse cultures that come to Taichung, as well as the quintessential importance of tourism. It seems you have a clear vision of what it will take to make Taichung a truly modern and international city, especially as it relates to your young people, the ones bringing new life and culture to the city.

The TSA would like to pull you away from your busy schedule and invite you to one of our monthly meetings to show you what we’re currently working on and discuss these issues in more detail.

As everyone knows, your young people truly are the future of Taiwan! ….Let’s help make it both a healthy and thriving one.

In sincere respect to you, your island, and all your people,

Vaughan Neville

TSA Interim Coordinator /

VSPC Foreign Affairs

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