Sidewalk Surfing

The days would start getting a little longer. It would get a little warmer outside. The streets would dry off. Summer time was upon us, and it was just a matter of time before the sidewalk surfing would resume.

My adventures in skateboarding started with a bright neon orange piece of plywood. My father had attached some clay wheels which were, unbeknownst to me at first, scavenged from my old-style roller skates. Add a few strips of white bathroom shower grip tape, and this old-school skateboard was ready for its maiden voyage along Water Street.

Welcome to the 1970s. I remember that first skating experience like it was yesterday. The sound of those wheels on the concrete was grating at best. But it offered a new-found freedom. And man, was it cool.

The idea stemmed from a magazine article and became a reality in the basement of our house. A lot of great projects came to fruition in my father’s woodworking shop. Actually, it was more of a “build whatever you can imagine” shop – it just so happened that wood became the basis for many of his creations.

Nobody in the neighborhood had ever seen one of these skateboard things before. The neon orange deck was awesome, the epitome of brash coolness, but I soon outgrew it. There was no way to make a hard turn without the wheels sliding out. My sidewalk surfing skills soon exceeded the capacity of the bright orange plank. It wasn’t long before we made a trip to the mall to pick up a red polypropylene skateboard with some real urethane wheels.

I was now officially in skater heaven. I now had urethane wheels. This was “big time”!

Around the same time, I discovered Skateboarder Magazine. Suddenly, my world was transformed. I read it cover-to-cover, living vicariously through the pages of this magazine in a world that was far away from Canada. I would bury myself in the articles and images, over and over, hoping that I would become one with the vibe that would jump off the page.

Slowly, some of my friends discovered skateboarding. Even my father gave it a whirl. We would set up slalom courses on the steep incline of Park Street in front of my house. There was the occasional dose of road rash. But it was great competition and summer time fun.

The competitive spirit drove me to eventually compete in a skateboard competition at the Thousand Islands Mall in Brockville. I was pretty pleased with a third place finish. It was just like the things I’d read about in the pages of Skateboarder. My fascination with the sport continued to blossom.

But in the midst of all of this, I discovered the kick turn. It was what some would call a departure point. Once you went there, went to the world of skateboard ramps and half pipes, you would never come back.

I went there – and my world changed again.

Photo credits: Wikimedia