Former Blair student creates skateboarding documentary

A boy skates up to the stairs, gliding back and forth as he approaches the concrete structure. He jumps. His skateboard and body soar over the short flight of steps. Effortlessly, he lands the jump and skates off. Another boy jumps up and grinds down a curb. Skater after skater jumps, grinds and performs tricks off various pieces of urban landscape.

These scenes are from Class of 2002 Blair alumna Lisa Jaeggi's documentary, "No No Skateboarding," which debuted in March of this year. Jaeggi's movie documents urban skating and the problems surrounding it from everyone's perspective -- country officials, security, storekeepers, parents and the skaters themselves. Since Silver Spring plans to build a permanent skate park downtown that is expected to take five to seven years, Jaeggi designed her film to point out the need for a temporary solution, such as a interim skate park in a parking lot.

Creating "No No Skateboarding"

Jaeggi, a skateboarder herself, was motivated by the problems with urban skating in Silver Spring. "My two brothers, Dan and Isaac, are both skateboarders," she says in a phone interview. "Whenever I [come] back, whenever I skate with them, there's nowhere to skate. I felt like 'Oh, this [skate park] needs to happen,'" she says. She adds that she realized that skateboarders needed to do something themselves in order to remedy the problem and decided to create the documentary.

Jaeggi, who is a sophomore at Guilford College in North Carolina, waited until her winter break in order to film footage for her documentary. As soon as she came home to Silver Spring, she began to film her brother Isaac and his friends downtown using home equipment. "My dad had a camera, and I used my laptop to edit," she says. She contacted county officials and set up interviews in order to get all the perspectives on the problem. The title, "No No Skateboarding" comes from a Silver Spring sign that reads "No Skateboarding" with the "No" crossed out.

The debut

The film's first public showing took place March 13, while Jaeggi was home on spring break. According to Jaeggi, the audience at the Montgomery County Parks and Planning Center expressed their support for Jaeggi's cause. "It was really great. I was really impressed. [Their] energy -- it was inspiring," she says, adding that she was surprised at how many people were present.

After the film was shown, a panel of urban skateboarders was invited to the front of the room, where they answered questions and helped brainstorm temporary solutions to the skateboarding problem. "A lot of people were talking about getting an abandoned tennis court in Sligo Creek Park. The kids were going to build things for it and create a temporary skate park," says Jaeggi, who was excited by the amount of support.

According to Jaeggi, two women present at the showing were opposed to the skate park, but the panel of student skaters worked to try to compromise with them. "I'm glad [the two women opponents] were there," Jaeggi says. She was glad that there were multiple viewpoints expressed at the showing.

Jaeggi, the skateboarder

Jaeggi, who takes credit for both of her brothers' involvement in skating, starting skateboarding the summer after her junior year. "I was babysitting, and [the kids] had a skateboard. I was messing around with it and was like 'I want a skateboard.' I went to Toys 'R' Us and bought a really crappy one for like $25. It lasted a while though," she says, laughing at the memory.

Jaeggi has had her fair share of trouble with shopkeepers and security while skating in Silver Spring but admits that her gender helps her get off easy. "When I'm by myself, it's like 'Oh, it's a cute girl, it's okay,' but when I'm with my brother and his friends, you get kicked out, and people are telling you 'You can't skate here,'" she says. "[In Silver Spring,] you get yelled at all the time, especially when you're with a big group of boys."

Future of Silver Spring skateboarding

For anyone who wants to help speed up the construction of the planned skate park, Jaeggi recommends "just getting people to e-mail and write" county officials. She also suggests attending the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) public forum. If the skate park is accepted as part of CIP, construction will begin much sooner.

To read more about Lisa Jaeggi's film "No No Skateboarding" and to view short clips from the movie, visit the "No No Skateboarding" web site.