Recently, skateboarding has taken a hit with the recent Covid-19 virus, closing many skateparks in the country and around the world. This has meant a significant uptick in the amount of “street skating,” or skating in places not specifically designated for skating. For many years now, city officials have been installing what are known as “SkateStoppers” (also known as SkateStops and Skate Buffers.) Which are basically little slabs of metal intended to be drilled into concrete edges to sit slightly above the surface and slightly ajar to discourage grinding on the edges of sidewalks, concrete bricks, and railings. The main motive for this is to decrease “property damage” caused by skateboarders, bikes, and scooters.

The fact is, little to no property damage is done yearly by skateboarders who know what surfaces they can and can’t ride/grind on. In fact, on average, more property damage is done in a day by vandalism and vehicles then is done in a year by skateboarders. It is important to note that a skateboard is more often than not made of wood. If you scratch wood on metal, the wood gets damaged, and the metal gets off free. Of course, the truck of a board are made of metal, specifically aluminum. The rails in cities are more often than not made of iron. Iron is much harder than aluminum, thus will actually damage the trucks and leave the railing untouched. For that reason, there is no point of SkateStoppers because there isn’t any damage being done.

With the presence of SkateStoppers, people will see them and do one of three things. Least often, they will walk away and give up. From my findings, about 8 in 100 skaters will just leave it when they find a good spot with SkateStoppers.

The second thing they may do is go away and skate another spot which may in fact get damaged, being a softer material. Be it wood, or decorative stone, or marble. They don’t want to skate here, but they sure will try because they don’t have any other choice. About 18 in 100 skaters will do this according to my observations.

The final, and most common solution, is they will try to remove them. A hammer and a screwdriver will get them out very quick, but will usually leave some damage behind. This is where the city officials come in. If these are professionally removed, they leave no damage whatsoever and theres no cost to the city for the property replacement.

The other big problem with SkateStoppers is injury. Many skaters will be street skating and will not notice the stoppers, resulting in them falling onto the sidewalk or down stairs and potentially breaking bones, or at worst, falling in the wrong direction, into the street, and getting hit by a car. At this point, the city is liable (assuming they installed them) and can be sued for damages. This will take more money from the economy of that city or town more than any normal skateboarding ever will.

For all these reasons listed above, make the use of SkateStoppers illegal and make the proper removal of Stoppers legal.