Interviews

In order to gain insight into the lives of the young people at the skate park I needed to talk to them.  This might seem very obvious but it is quite daunting when you are invading their space.  I'm not going to post their answers to specific questions because I feel this would betray their confidence and some of the comments were very personal.
What was interesting with most of the young people I spoke to, was how they didn't like being formally interviewed but were quite happy to give opinion to why they used the park.  This in turn led to much more detail about their lives outside of the skating.  This meant I needed to change my technique and deformalise it.  This was something I was not prepared for.  However, needing to gain information, I decided to let them talk freely and I just gave pointers when things dried up.  This was much easier than I expected.  Also after talking to the first couple of lads, they told their friends I was interested in their views and some people actually came and found me!  This seemed bizarre but a great insight!  Some of the questions I started with are posted below.

Why do you come here?
How often?
How long have you been coming?
Do you know everyone here?
Do you use other skate parks?
What is the most worrying thing about attending this place?  If anything?
What else do you do?
How old are you?