Skateboarders Looking To Grow Sport

Dante Gales, 10, of Harrison leaps to ride along a metal rail while skating Friday, Jan. 10, 2014, at The Skate Station in Fayetteville.
Dante Gales, 10, of Harrison leaps to ride along a metal rail while skating Friday, Jan. 10, 2014, at The Skate Station in Fayetteville.

The skateboarder looked over the layout, then dropped in.

He carved through some corners, hit a nose grind in the pocket and caught air on the hip. After a flipkick, he finished with a front-side smith grind on the top of the pipe.

The skateboarder, Brandon Herbert, wasn’t going for gold on the X Games — he was having fun by making a run through The Skate Station skate park.

At A Glance

Anatomy Of A Skateboard

• Deck: The flat standing surface of a skateboard, usually laminated maple.

• Grip tape: Sandpaper affixed to the top of the deck with adhesive, used to increase the friction between the deck and the skater’s feet.

• Nose: The front of the skateboard, from the front truck bolts to the end.

• Rail: The edge of the skateboard, also, plastic strips attached to the board’s underside.

• Tail: The rear of the skateboard, from the back truck bolts to the end.

• Trucks: The front and rear axle assemblies that connect the wheels to the deck and provide the turning capabilities for the board.

• Wheels: Usually made of polyurethane and sized between 39 and 66 millimeters in diameter.

• Wheelbase: The distance between the front and back wheels, measured between the two sets of innermost truck holes.

Source: Skateboard Science from Exploratorium.edu


The Lingo

Skateboarding Tricks

• Air: Riding with all four wheels off the ground; short for aerial.

• Backside: When a trick or turn is executed with the skater’s back facing the ramp or obstacle.

• Caballerial: A 360-degree turn performed on a ramp while riding fakie.

• Carve: To skate in a long, curving arc.

• Fakie: Skating backwards — the skater is standing in his or her normal stance, but the board is moving backward.

• Frontside: When a trick or turn is executed with the front of the skater’s body facing the ramp or obstacle.

• Goofyfoot: Riding with the right foot forward, the opposite of regular foot.

• Grind: Scraping one or both axles on a curb, railing, or other surface.

• Kickflip: A variation on the ollie in which the skater kicks the board into a spin before landing back on it.

• McTwist: A 540-degree turn performed on a ramp.

• Mongo-foot: A style of pushing where the back foot is kept on the board and pushing is done with the front foot.

• Nollie: An ollie performed by tapping the nose of the board instead of the tail.

• Noseslide: Sliding the underside of the nose end of a board on a ledge or lip.

• Ollie: A jump performed by tapping the tail of the board on the ground; the basis of most skating tricks.

• Railslide: A trick in which the skater slides the underside of the deck along an object, such as a curb or handrail.

• Regular foot: Riding with the left foot forward, the opposite of goofyfoot.

• Shove-it: A trick performed by spinning the board 180 degrees beneath the feet while traveling forward.

• Switch stance: Riding the board with the opposite footing than usual.

• Tailslide: Sliding the underside of the tail end of a board on a ledge or lip.

Source: Skateboard Science from Exploratorium.edu

The number of skateboarders in Northwest Arkansas is growing, according to Herbert, who runs a website on skateboarding, Gnarkansas.com. The sport has grown from a minor activity to large enough that many cities have built skateparks.

Herbert’s website lists city skateparks in Fayetteville, Springdale, Prairie Grove, Bentonville, Rogers, Siloam Springs, Gentry and Gravette. Herbert also helps operate the Skate Station, a privately owned indoor skate park at 2291 S. School Ave. in Fayetteville.

The owners of two skate shops recognized a growing interest in the sport. Bill Harris, an owner of The Path Outfitters in Fayetteville, said he returned to the area after spending nine years on the West Coast. He brought an interest in skateboarding back with him and found others with similar interests. That’s why he and his partner, Matt Miller, opened the shop at 21 W. Mountain St., Suite 226, he said.

Alex Vestal, 27, moved to Rogers from Joplin, Mo., with his wife and 1-year-old son to open Knucklehead Skate Shop at 204 W. Walnut St. Vestal was in the skateboard business before he moved, working for American Ramp Co. in Joplin, a skate park design company. He also rode for Untitled Skateboards in Joplin. Untitled is a professional skateboard company which also operates a nonprofit Christian ministry Skateboard Compan, according to their website.

Vestal said he left Joplin when the city didn’t build a skatepark, despite years of promises. With the number of skateparks in Northwest Arkansas, Vestal decided to move to Rogers and open his business, he said.

The freedom of expression inherent in the sport attracted the business owners.

“There is no right way or wrong way in skateboarding,” Vestal said. “It’s the way you do it yourself. That’s very liberating.”

“It’s a way to physically express yourself,” Harris said. “It’s also artistic, to show your own style and grow in it.”

People in Arkansas still see skateboarding as part of the counterculture, Harris said.

“I would like to help bring it into the main culture, like it is on the West Coast,” Harris said.

It was the devotion of the sport’s participants that led to The Skate Station to re-open, Herbert said. Due to lack of business, the businesses closed, but was able to open when volunteers refurbished old ramps and built new ones, he said.

The business began as an outdoor skateboarding park in the late 1980s on Prairie Street in Fayetteville, said Jody Barbaree, an employee. In the early 2000s, it moved to the current location, he said.

On a rain-soaked Wednesday evening, about a dozen skaters were using the facility, including an 8-foot-tall half-pipe. Most were in the 18 to 22-years-old range, but a couple working on a smaller ramp were between the ages of 10 and 12.

“We might have 40 on some of our busier days,” Herbert said. “We see more people on the weekends.”

The indoor park is the only place to skate on many winter days, Barbaree said. It is also a bit more challenging than some of the city skate parks, he said.

Most of the city facilities in the area are substandard cookie-cutter skateparks, Vestal said.

“It’s much better to have a park than no parks at all,” Vestal said, “but they are not very challenging. They weren’t designed by professionals and it shows.”

One of the reasons he moved to the area, Vestal said, was the possibility of a new skatepark in Rogers connected to the development around Lake Atalanta.

A new skatepark has been proposed as one of the main amenities at the bike park, south of the original Lake Atalanta park, said Barney Hayes, Rogers parks director.

“It’s been on the radar for several years, but it hasn’t been approved by the City Council yet,” Hayes said.

More skating opportunities is a goal for Herbert, who said he would like to form a nonprofit organization to help build more skateparks in the state.

“That’s why I started Gnarkansas,” Herbert said. “The only thing I want from it is to see the skating community grow.”

Upcoming Events