Last Saturday’s RedSkate, a youth-only skateboarding competition at Edge Skate Park, began with a fall, but featured plenty of fun.

The competition was scheduled to start at 11 a.m., but a young skater, who was wearing a helment, fell and the event had to be postponed for about 20 minutes while aid workers made sure the boy was all right.

Injuries have been few – knock on wood – in RedSkate competitions. In the seven years that The Old Fire House Teen Center in Redmond has hosted RedSkate, no other teens have been hurt according to Ken Wong, Redmond’s teen programs director. But Wong added that teens must bring signed liability waivers to all events to protect the city against lawsuits.

The day-long competition attracted about 60 teens and was divided into three rounds — beginner, intermediate and advanced — based on the skaters’ skill level.

About 10 teens competed against the others at the same time in their division while loud punk and hip hop music blared through the park.

Each teen attached a number to his shirt so that the judges could tell them apart when writing down their scores.

Program Assistant Rana Shmait, who has worked at the teen center for several years, made sure that the teens had numbers on their backs.

She noted that previously, only adults had been judges at RedSkate. But this year — for the first time in the event’s history — teens were judging their peers.

“That’s part of youth empowerment: to have them not just participating but helping make decisions,” she said.

This year, the student judges were Redmond Junior High students.

Edgars Kalsons, one of the teen judges, said that he had gone to quite a few of the Old Firehouse Teen Center’s activities besides those involving skateboarding, including “every single concert” last year.

The teen center, RedSkate’s host, is one of the longest standing all-ages concert venues in the Northwest. In 2008, more than 100 teen bands played there, according to the City of Redmond Parks and Recreation.

The teen center also hosts a variety of other free or inexpensive activities. Visit http://www.theoldfirehouse.org for more information.

RedSkate results

Saturday, July 25

Edge Skate Park, Redmond

Beginers — 1. Daniel Nam; 2. Ben Buob; 3. Sean Tan; 4. Seth Downing

Intermediate — 1. Chris Chambers, 2. Jeff Mclean, 3. Kyle Quinn

Advanced — 1. Josh Snyder; 2. Jacob Campbell; 3. Johnny Matanizzo

Kaitlin Strohschein is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.