理
SIDEWALK
SURFIN'
by Brian Brannon
It's another Pleasant Valley Sunday.
The grass has grown tall and green bet-
ween the serene white houses.
Lawnmowers drone and whine as
weekend carpenters find time to fix that
broken fence.
Above the mowers' monotone melody
and the hammers' baritone beat, a
steady click-click, click-click faintly rises.
It gradually grows in volume but the
rhythm remains unchanged.
From around the corner the Jones' kid
appears riding one of them skateboards.
It looks like the boy is pretending he's
surfing, swerving back and forth all cool-
like. He glides gracefully past and the
click-click reaches a crescendo which
then begins to diminish. As he disap-
pears from sight, he ollies over little
John-John's Big Wheel, left outside
where someone bad could have stolen it.
Such is sidewalk surfing today in
landlocked ANYTOWN, U.S.A.
Twenty years ago, the Jones' kid
would have caught and shot the con-
crete on a short, thin twig with inch-wide
trucks, and rolling stones. His tune of
click-click would transpose to a harsher
clack-clack from crack to crack.
With no kicktail and hardly any grind
line between the wheels, the junior
Jones still wouldn't have felt limited or
inhibited. Instead of curb grinders and
ollies, he would have hung his toes over
the nose while arching his back with his
arms dangling loosely at his sides. He
might hot dog by walking the dog,
shooting a duck, throwing a Christie, or
sitting a V. Of course, if he hit even the
tiniest pebble, the coffin he did would be
his own.
Fluid movements were borrowed from
wild riders of waves. The sidewalk
became a frozen ocean the skater put in
motion with finesse, stylization and
imagination. Overhanging branches
became a tube the rider shot while he
casually dragged the tips of his fingers
along a picket fence he imagined was
full of water.
Nowadays trucks are wider and
wheels are kinder, but sidewalk surfing
still flows like an endless river toward
the sea.
Unlike the 1960s clay wheel era, sidewalk
obstacles are being utilized by current street
surfers throughout the world as an outlet for
creativity. Left: Powell-Peralta team/sales rep.
Todd Hastings projects himself over a waist high
obstruction. Right: The flow never stops in the
concrete surf. On a big Wednesday, Oscar
Polchowski powers his sidewalk stick upon a
household wall.