Photo Credit: FluffStudios (Pkthundah) – flickr.com

In Los Angeles, skateboarders can still 50-50 rails and ollie flights of stairs, but thanks to a new law, they will no longer be able to bomb hills.

Last Tuesday, the L.A. City Council voted to ban the dangerous practice of downhill skateboarding, which involves skaters crouching on their boards, often longboards or cruisers, and careening down sloped streets at speeds reaching 50 mph. The new city ordinance comes after two teen skaters were killed bombing in L.A. during the past year.

“I don’t want to go to any more funerals of someone who died because of this,” councilman Joe Buscaino, who introduced the measure, told the Daily Breeze last week.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to sign the law into effect in the coming weeks, at which point officers can begin handing out $250 citations to hill bombers as well as skaters towed by vehicles and skaters who do not obey traffic signs. The law also requires that skaters do not exceed 10 mph while crossing intersections.

While $250 is a lot of money — enough for one or two complete new boards — this might be a law whose time has come. Ollies are more epic, anyway.

Cover Photo Credit: FluffStudios (Pkthundah) – flickr.com