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How Mental Illness Derailed the Career of a Promising Young Skateboarder

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Paul Alexander was a young British skateboarder full of charisma and drive. He discovered the opportunities of sponsorship, travelling and recognition during a move from Leicester to Bristol in his late teens. Living with professional skateboarder Danny Wainwright he became engulfed in the fun, responsibility free lifestyle that came with his chosen pursuit of becoming a pro skateboarder. Paul seemed destined for success then something came to get him, something he’d never experienced before that would take his personal goals and freedom far away from his grasp in a seemingly never ending battle. This is his story, directed by friend and skateboarding companion Tim Crawley.

England Plans to Build a 5-Story Skatepark

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A PARKING GARAGE is nearly the ideal location for skateboarding. The inclines, the rails, the concrete parking bumpers—they’re all there just waiting to be repurposed as a playground for grinding. And then there are the cars and pedestrians and security guards, who want nothing more than to be, like, a total bummer and kick you out.
Good news: British firm Guy Hollaway Architects has designed a bonkers-looking building proposal that takes the best parts of skating in a parking garage and combines them with the the convenience (and legality) of a more traditional skatepark. When completed—Guy Hollaway hopes in early 2017— the multilevel building in Folkestone, England, will be a massive sporting complex where people can skateboard, rock climb and ride BMX bikes indoors.The skatepark’s unorthodox design was born out of a common urban constraint: lack of space. Folkestone’s only skatepark is closing later this year to make room for residential housing, and the developer, Roger De Haan, wanted to find a place to relocate the park. Having just bought a plot of land, De Haan entertained the idea of moving the park there, only the plot of land was too small to house everything a decent skatepark needs. So they decided to look up. “When you start thinking about it in terms of multi stories, the opportunity changes,” Hollaway says.Read whole Story here.

http://www.wired.com/2015/05/inside-bonkers-plan-build-5-story-skatepark/