Here are the 5 most asked questions and the best answers we can provide:
(Please read this before sending email regarding these topics).

1. How can I get sponsored?
2. Where do they offer lessons and/or skate camp?
3. Our town won't build a park. What should we do?
4. We want to open a park. What should we do?
5. Can I send you photos or video footage by email?

Quick and dirty answers:

1. SPONSORSHIP

Only the truly gifted get sponsored. If you think you worthy, you're likely already sponsored. If you're not, go talk to the local shop. That's where you start. Then make a video and start talking to companies/distributors in your region/province/state. If you don't get a direct hook-up, often the distributor will give you free product - this is called "flow." Enter as many contests as possible. Skate hard. Get yourself noticed. Don't be a loudmouth piece of trash either. Companies want respectful, positive people on their teams.

2. LESSONS and/or SKATE CAMPS

We have heard some major cities like Ottawa and Calgary offer lessons. We can't tell you if your town does. This is where we get snooty and bitchy. Go get yourself the phone book and look up the parks and rec department. They'll know if you can get lessons. If that fails, take little Joe to the skatepark and have him watch / follow
the guy with the scabbiest knees for one hour. When little Joe's knees are sufficiently bloody, you'll know how most skaters learn this sport.
As for camps, here we loosen the snootiness a little. This is indeed a little more difficult. Camps are few and far between. We have seen ads for a camp in Muskoka. The site is www.b3.muskokawoods.com. If your town doesn't offer them, you may have to ship the kid off to the amazing Woodward camp in Pennsylvania, or to one of the glacier snowboard camps that offers skateboarding on the side. We would also recommend you look it up using Google.com, a very dependable search engine.

3. GETTING A PARK BUILT BY YOUR TOWN

Lobby and petition. Call a press conference. Collect signatures. Bake cookies and wash cars. Get bands to play a fundraiser. Work hard and even if the town is reluctant, they will feel guilty and eventually come around.
If they claim the "liability" is too much, do the basic research and present them (publicly) with the facts that prove otherwise. Skateboarding is less dangerous than little-league sports like baseball and football, and if there were truly issues with insurance and liability, then WHY ARE THERE NOW MANY HUNDREDS OF PARKS IN THE UNITED STATES, AND AT LEAST A HUNDRED IN CANADA? (Including more than 50 in Ontario alone). Apparently, the single hottest fad in parks and recreation is (drum roll please)... skateboarding! It shouldn't be too difficult to get something done. Check out our industry page for relevant links. If there's a will there's a way...
Check these comments from an organizer in little Prescott Ontario (60 miles east of Kingston):
"Skateboarders and the families have organized and raised the money for this facility. The town gave us a piece of land to build it on and we were successful in getting a $25,000.00 grant from the Trillium foundation. Because of fanastic donations and wholesale prices we will be coming in around $80,000.00. We still have about $10,000.00 more to raise." - Nancy Lane (way to go!)

4. STARTING YOUR OWN PARK

Wow. Are you nuts? Just kidding...
But honestly, the odds frankly seem to be stacked against you. In the Toronto area parks like Empire, Rampage and Blue Tile, have come and gone. Sure, in their place we have Shred Central and new places like The Edge, but parks are a harder thing to make a go of than restaurants, a notoriously rough market to get into.
If you want to try, do your homework. Know exactly what you're getting into. Save a wack of cash. Make friends in the business. Be prepared to supplement your income with extra jobs on the side, or throwing parties in your space after-hours. Call or email some park owners and ask them how they do it. Most of all be highly committed and be prepared to sacrifice. We wish you luck, and would like to hear stories from those who try. We'll help you the best we can...
You might want to start your research at our industry page, and then see if our links page offers any worthy contacts.

5. SENDING PHOTOS and VIDEO FOOTAGE

We want to see your video and photos. Video is a problem though. If it's a tape, email and we'll get you the mailing address. If you have computer files, the best thing to do is to get yourself a free web space through Geocities or Tripod and post the files there. DO NOT ever email us video files! We do however welcome video that has been converted to a GIF animation and is not much more than 500k in size.
We also want your photographs. Make sure they are web ready (jpegs at 72 dpi, and less than 200k each) and send them on down. Limit the size of all attachments to about 1 megabyte per email. If we like them we'll post them in the gallery.


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