Skateboard Association supports Senate Bill 1179.

Orange County, CA (AP)--The International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) is backing new legislation that aims to increase the number of skateparks in California and end discrimination against skateboarders. "The skaters have been speaking and I've been listening," said Senator Bill Morrow (R, Carlsbad), when announcing his new legislation designed to provide more complete liability protection for local governments that build and operate public skateboard parks. "This bill is for the skateboarders. Senate Bill 1179 will protect local governments, encourage building of more public skateboard parks, and expand usage of existing parks. The bill will toss out the arbitrary age restrictions in current law, a restriction that excluded a huge percentage of young skateboarders from using public parks."

"We provide full HRA protection to activities such as skydiving, hang gliding, motor vehicle racing, off-road motorcycling, and body contact sports," said Morrow. "It's ridiculous and discriminatory to treat skateboarding as if it is more dangerous than jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet." The senator concluded, "It's time we stopped discriminating against skateboarders, marginalizing participants in what has become a dominant cultural activity."

Without SB 1179, skateboarding faces a potential repeat of the 1980's collapse of the skateboard industry, including loss of jobs and destruction of skateparks.