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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, May 20, 1965
Concrete Oceans
Rv Jane Larson
"Sidewalk's up . . . Grab your board."
Skateboarding, one of the biggest sporting enthusiasm since the hula hoop, has not failed to catch KU in its surging sweep across the nation.
Deriving its origin from the present west coast craze of surf-boarding, this new fad has drawn scores of KU students to the sloping inclines of Mount Oread's side-walks.
Often called sidewalk surfing, the boards send students whirring down slopes in spite of the possibility of oncoming cars.
Skateboarding is usually done on a flat, hard sloping surface. Seventeenth Street and Memorial and Campanile Drives have proven to be the most popular areas for KU skateboarders.
Johnson cited cars as being one of the major problems of skateboarders. Usually a spotter stands at the end of a curve or at an intersection to make sure the traffic is clear for the "sidewalk surfers," he said.
"A GOOD SLOPE, pretty downhill, is best," Dick Johnson, Shawnee Mission freshman, commented, "or else you go exactly nowhere."
The skateboard is a simple contraption. Basically it is a board about two feet long, mounted on ball-bearing roller skate wheels about 18 inches apart. The board is usually fashioned like a surfboard, complete with tapered ends and stripes.
Many enthusiasts make their own skateboards, Joe Town, Wichita senior, said, which are usually sturder. Longer than usual, the homemade board ranges from 30 to 35 inches in length and is mounted on wheels obtained from old roller skates.
**AS KU EXPERTS** have attested, there is a definite form to be followed if one is to ride a skateboard properly. The left foot is placed in front facing straight ahead. The
right foot is placed behind the left, almost perpendicular to it.
"If you're at all coordinated it doesn't take any time at all to learn. Getting on is the hardest part," Johnson said. "The slightest shift of weight can change the direction of the board and this is what you have to learn."
The rider steers the board by shifting his balance. Keeping the ankle stiff, the skateboarder leans in the direction he wishes to go.
"It's hard to learn by yourself," Allen Shanks, Raytown, Mo., freshman, said. "At first I messed around on a flat surface to get the hang of it. You must know what the board will do and what it won't do."
JUST AS THE skateboard has borrowed its popularity from surfing, so it has stolen the surfer's vocabulary.
Tempt Sidewalk Surfers
Without nearing an ocean, the skateboarder soon knows the meaning of words such as wipe-out, a specialized term for a fall; ding, meaning a scratch or scrape; wheele, indicating the shift of balance to the back of the board; and sidewalk's up, meaning it's time to go surfing. Numerous other surfing terms have been added to the skateboarder's list.
Skateboarding has apparently completely taken over the KU campus despite warnings of the sport's possible danger.
"I think it's really fun," Johnson said. "I like to surf and skateboarding is a part of the whole surfing atmosphere. That's where the whole idea of skateboarding came from.
"THE FIRST time I skateboarded I was mostly concerned with trying to keep my balance," Johnson said. "Although there's not much of a sensation of speed, your feet do feel the vibrations from the board.
it scares you sometimes," he said, "when you start weaving and bobbling. You have to either bale out or wipe out."
Shanks compares skateboarding to the feeling of freedom. Although
it is similar to surfing, he feels there really is no comparison. "The first week though I thought I was going to lose several toes," he said.
"The main reason I tried skateboarding was just to say I did it." Town said. "I think that's the reason a lot of people try it. It's not really hard unless you try to do something ridiculous like going down backwards."
SURPRISINGLY enough, there have been very few injuries received at Watkins Hospital, according to Dr. Ralph Canuteson, director of the student health center. At the present none have been hospitalized and only two cases have been treated in the last 10 days.
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