Returning from a meeting at Pier 9, I stopped to watch the kids skateboarding at Pier 7. They shot through the air, swirled around corners and crashed to the ground with distressing regularity. But, thankfully, no lasting damage was done; such is the resiliency of youth. It seemed to me a joyous, and altogether fitting, use of the waterfront so I asked if I could take their picture. After a conference they agreed, but drew the line at giving me their names.
Published: October, 2000
Returning from a meeting at Pier 9, I stopped to watch the kids skateboarding at Pier 7. They shot through the air, swirled around corners and crashed to the ground with distressing regularity. But, thankfully, no lasting damage was done; such is the resiliency of youth. It seemed to me a joyous, and altogether fitting, use of the waterfront so I asked if I could take their picture. After a conference they agreed, but drew the line at giving me their names.
A few days later news reports appeared asserting a young man had been beaten to death by a vicious pack of crazed skateboarders at this very spot. All false as it turned out: the mentally ill victim had in fact been hit by a car some distance away and had simply stumbled to Pier 7 before collapsing.
Many see skateboarders, for reasons I cannot comprehend, as symbols of decaying civilization. Perhaps it’s because skateboarders startle pedestrians, though from what I saw skateboarders take special care to avoid doing so. Perhaps it’s because skateboarders are just as we see them in this image: sweet, exuberant kids with their whole lives yet in front of them. "The first sign of age", so said Mark Twain, "is judging the young".
