Longboarders attending an outdoor public meeting to introduce a City of Powell River draft bylaw regulating longboarding and skateboarding appeared supportive of the initiative.
“At this point it looks really good,” said Konane Laureta, one of the longboarders attending the event. “It’s definitely needed, just because of how fast longboarding has grown and how much of a concern that it is for the whole community.”
Laureta said that if the boarders would self-regulate, there would be no need for a bylaw, but that’s asking too much of them.
Helmet use while longboarding is his only concern.
“I know on my bicycle I never wear my helmet and no one gives me hassle,” he said. Laureta added he knows lots of longboarders in Powell River that sometimes use them as transportation from house to house.
“If a cop tried to take a longboard from them just for not wearing a helmet in that instance, that would seem quite drastic,” Laureta said. “So that’s where I see friction starting to build.”
Working through getting everyone wearing helmets is reasonable but it will face difficulties, he said. When Laureta is practicing or performing some of the more intricate and athletic longboarding moves, he has his helmet cinched tight.
So far the community has been “really great” about providing latitude for longboarders, he added.
“I feel like we’ll work it out pretty fast,” he said of a prospective bylaw.
Powell River RCMP Sergeant Rod Wiebe said bylaws from a number of communities have been researched in the development of Powell River’s. They go all the way from prohibition to “not much of anything.”
“I think the bylaw is a good mix, having taken the best of everything of all over BC,” he said.
The tough parts of bylaw enforcement are the noise, the swearing and the garbage, according to the RCMP member.
Speaking to the longboarders, Wiebe said he encouraged them to talk to the residents that attended the event.
“The more you talk, the more we can get feedback about what is going to work,” he said. “Otherwise, who knows how it is going to end?”
Councillor Russell Brewer, in speaking to those assembled, said the event was planned to generate some conversation and awareness about longboarding and skateboarding, about safety, and to publicly introduce the draft bylaw.
“The whole point is to grab a copy of the bylaw, read it, and if you have some thoughts or feedback on it, make sure you get that to us.”
Brewer said about a year ago the city began receiving comments and questions from residents regarding longboarding, safety and noise.
“At that time we said we would monitor it and see how it went over the next year. In the last couple of months we’ve decided it would probably be good to have a bylaw in place.”
