About Me
I'm 21 and live in Winter Haven, Florida. My interest in skateboarding began when I was 12 and my brother brought his first skateboard home. I was very impressed- so impressed he used to beat me up to make me go skateboarding with him. But after I landed my first trick I was hooked and wouldn't have traded it for the world. As I grew older it became harder to skate because the crack down on skaters in Winter Haven. I was saved when Eagle Lake built their skate park, so after a few years of skating their park I realized that I should start a crusade to build a publicly funded park in Winter Haven...

Skate Safety
Right now Skateboarding is one of the fastest growing sports With more than some 10,000,000 skateboarders alone in the United States, it ranks as the 6th largest participant sport in the U.S. and 3rd largest for participants between 6 and 18.Eventhough skateboarding has been regared as a HAZARDOUS RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY, skateboarding is a very safe sport in comparison to many common sports. Furthermore, since the Evolution of skateparks aross America and the the world over, skateboarding is becoming safer and safer each year.

Safety by Sport

SPORT......PARTICIPANTS.........INJURIES
baseball.......36,600,000...........437,207
basketball.....29,600,000...........761,358
football.......14,700,000...........409,296
icehockey.......1,700,000............61,264
soccer.........10,300,000...........146,409
volleyball.....20,500,000...........112,120
skateboard......6,200,000............27,718

Source: National Injury Surveillance System; based on emergency room visit reports for 1996.

E-mail Questions/Comments to:
MParr53536@aol.com