My story post 56

50 years ago I had a skate board I made myself.  My brother David made one too.

These boards were nothing like what you see today… not even close.  Why?  Because what you see today didn’t exist.  My skate board was made with a 2 X 4 and a single metal skate the would normally strap onto your shoe. David made his board from the other skate in the pair.

We took off the part on the front of the skate that was a clamp that would grab the front of your shoe and we flattened the back part of the back section of the skate so it would mount flat to the 2 X 4.  With a few nails those old skates were fastened to the 18 inch piece of wood and off we rolled.

What a treat… side walk surfing.  Only when you fell you hit concrete or asphalt not water, and that hurt. But we could not be stopped, on the prowl for streets with a slope. Long gentle slopes were nice but after awhile the challenge would grow and we wanted more thrills.  Like the guys riding big waves in Hawaii, we started looking for those steep hill streets.

I don’t remember how long we’d been using our skateboards, working on what to do when you’d get the wobbles or how to control your turns so the metal wheels wouldn’t slide sideways on you and land you on your butt.  The day did come when we decided to ride our bikes with our skateboards up to this street that was really steep and tackle the big stuff.

We talked about doing this for maybe months and finally got the nerve. After biking to the hill and parking at the bottom of the street we stood looking up the hill and discussed how we should take the drop. “ maybe we should go about half way up and call that good, what do you think” I asked.  “How ‘bout we just walk up a short distance and do a test run”? David said.  “Good idea, lets go”.

So we worked up to going about half way up the hill a do the serious run. Walking a ways up and stopping, giving a look down, then a little farther, a little farther, …OK here. We set our boards down and stepped on to them. Take a little angle to the left then the right and before we knew it we were racing down that hill, and going to fast to make any more sideways moves to slow down. Then we both got the wobbles and that was it.   

This was a long time ago and I still remember the look of the asphalt as I hit it. Hands first to break the fall, then the elbows and finally the shoulder we both went head over heels as our skate boards rolled past us.  “Are you ok”? “I think so”  OUCH! Oh man, as we worked our way back to our feet and hobbled to reach our skate boards and get to our bikes for the painful trek home.

Skateboarding really was birthed from surfing. 50 years ago it was way different than it is now.

D.R.