By Jennifer Gibbs, Special to the Independent A handful of Laguna Beach teens traveled to Goldendale, Wash., to compete in the Maryhill Festival of Speed, a world-renowned downhill skateboarding and street luge competition, held June 29-July 3. Local skaters Nohlan Campbell and Roger Jones, took the podium for first and second respectively, dominating the [...]
Editor, On Monday, March 28, at approximately 7 p.m., a newer, small model Mercedes Benz car, black, with very dark tint pulled out of Bounty and proceeded down onto Skyline Drive. Two minors, both seventh-graders at Thurston Middle School were skateboarding on Skyline Drive. The driver of the Mercedes Benz intentionally tried to hit one [...]
Bombing Hills Becoming a Bygone Pastime After hearing nearly three hours of requests to stop a ban against skateboarding on steep streets in Laguna Beach, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to move ahead with prohibiting downhill skateboarding on eight blocks with grades of five percent or higher. The council’s action gives preliminary [...]
Bombing the hills becoming a bygone pastime After hearing nearly three hours of requests to stop a ban against skateboarding on steep streets in Laguna Beach, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to move ahead with prohibiting downhill skateboarding on eight blocks with grades of five percent or higher. The council’s action gives [...]
Editor: I’m afraid that much of the discussion on these pages about speedboarding down our city’s steepest hills fails to address what I consider the key problem, which is the speed at which speedboarders and automobiles are hurtling towards each other. Speedboarder Bryn Jones stated in a nationally-telecast interview that “we take curves as fast [...]
By Rita Robinson | LB Indy Councilman Kelly Boyd is on a mission to find the perfect hill for Laguna Beach’s high-speed skateboarders, aka speedboarders, so they won’t need to pack up their decks and get outta Dodge. “It’s a plan, if we can pull it together,” said Boyd about his attempt to assuage residents [...]
Editor: To the speed boarding side: Speed boarding is dangerous. Asking politely to have permission to do something stupid is even dumber than whatever you were going to do in the first place. Now you’re dumb twice. Just go do it. Pay the fines. Wear a ….. Never mind. To the concerned citizens: Speed boarding [...]
Editor, I am a mother of a new generation of Laguna Beach downhill skateboarders and would like to express my concerns on sharing the roads in the most safe and respectful manner for all who use them. I received an upsetting call Nov. 10 from Officer Peck of the Laguna Beach Police Department telling [...]
Editor, Like many parents of skateboarders, we ardently require our child’s use of safety equipment and his adherence to traffic rules. Additionally, we fully support the City’s lawful ticketing of reckless, unsafe skateboarding behavior. Via safety meetings held at our home, we and other adults have counseled the town’s most prominent downhill skateboarders to be [...]
Editor, I hope my fellow Lagunans share my pride in our local downhill skateboarders’ achievements at the recent IGSA National Championship held in San Dimas (“Local Teens Sweep Gravity Game,” Sports, Oct. 15). I have watched our local downhill skateboarding controversy with some interest over the last few months and was proud of my grandson [...]
Editor, I hope my fellow Lagunans share my pride in our local downhill skateboarders’ achievements at the recent IGSA National Championship held in San Dimas (“Local Teens Sweep Gravity Game,” Sports, Oct. 15). I have watched our local downhill skateboarding controversy with some interest over the last few months and was proud of my grandson [...]
Laguna Beach’s downhill skateboarding junior world champion Evren Ozan, as well as adults Chad Gibbs and Vicki High, took on the task of teaching local youth skateboarding etiquette last Friday. The informal workshop came a week after a proposed skateboarding ban in Laguna Beach was rescinded and a new ordinance proposed that would impose vehicle [...]
Police Use Taser to Subdue Assault Suspect
An assault involving three men escalated into a struggle with Laguna Beach police, who ultimately deployed a taser twice to subdue the younger combative suspect in the 300 block of Cozumel around 1:15 a.m. Friday, May 10, police said. Police ultimately arrested Laguna Beach resident Sergio Gabriel Borgognone, 51, for allegedly resisting arrest and his [...]
