The Age of Skateboarding

By Bill Botham
Photography by Rob Forbes

"I'm convinced that if you really want to find the fountain of youth, pick up a skateboard." Those are the first words out of the mouth of Chip Creamer when we sat down to talk about skateboarding in the CSRA. And Creamer, who by day is the Director of Internet Sales at WRDW-TV, should know. He's 48 years old and has been actively skateboarding for more than a third of a century. Creamer fell in love with the sport in middle school when a teacher suggested it as a substitute for the motorcycle that Creamer's father wouldn't let him have. Even now, he still gets the same thrills from it that he did back in those earliest days. "It's the closest thing to having superpowers. You can climb walls, fly and so on. It keeps me young!" he enthuses.

For Brian McBride, it was a go-kart that his parents denied him. He quickly found replacement transportation, however, and it has stayed with him ever since. McBride, 34, began his love affair with skateboarding in 1985 after seeing it featured in the movie, "Back to the Future." (Remember Marty McFly tripping Biff in the soda shop and then escaping him and his gang of bullies by fashioning a makeshift skateboard from a kid's soapbox car?) For McBride, one of the great reasons for skateboarding then and now is the expense. Or, more accurately, the lack thereof. "The only real cost is for equipment; a board and some safety gear," he explains. "Once you have the equipment, you're set. And you can get a starter board for fifty bucks or less."

McBride and Creamer are just two of the many "older" skateboarders in the CSRA. Along with many other over-30 aficionados, they are also members of the Augusta Skateboarding Association. They refer to themselves as "lifers," as they fully expect to continue skating as long as they physically can. Creamer wants to be "the crazy old man" skateboarding with the kids decades from now. He explains, "I can do it, you can do it, kids can do it - all at the same time and at the same place, but we're all doing different things with different skill levels. It's the perfect multi-generational sport." However, the two "old guys" and their colleagues have one advantage that many of the kids don't have. They have a place, other than the streets and sidewalks, to practice their passion. McBride has a swimming pool in his back yard that has been drained and converted into a small skateboarding facility. "It's not much, but at least it gives us a place to try new runs and moves." McBride should know a good facility when he sees one. A decade or so ago, he moved to Tucson to skate the pools there. Then it was on to Portland, Oregon because of a great public skateboarding park there. He's also skated in San Francisco, Seattle and Austin (Texas) along with experiencing the full pipes of the Arizona desert and the underground pipes of Colorado. "We need a public facility here in the CSRA. There are too many skateboarders around here to not have a facility. And they're going to skate, so it kind of forces them into some places that might not be as safe."

"The (now closed) park on Damascus Road wasn't great, but it was better than nothing," Creamer laments. "A lot of inner city kids used it, we used it, in that regard it was great. Skaters from all over town were there together and the younger ones could learn from the more experienced guys. Unfortunately, it wasn't initially built with the right equipment or knowledge and then it wasn't maintained. That's a terrible combination; it had no chance to survive." Creamer and McBride say that getting a quality, local skateboarding park built just makes good sense. "There are more than a thousand active skateboarders in Augusta. Imagine playing golf in a cow pasture without any fairways or greens. That's what we have to do. Either that or load up the cars and go to the park in Athens." According to their research (much of it personal experience), besides Athens, Atlanta has nine skateboarding parks; Columbia is building a $750,000 park; Charlotte has a $400,000 facility and Asheville has a million dollar park built with grant money. "We're not oblivious to the challenges of local government," Creamer says. "We're grown-ups and we understand taxes and budgets. We're not a bunch of kids trying to stir up trouble at city hall or anywhere else. We'd just like to open the discussion with city leaders, that's all." The two explain that a good, well-built facility can be constructed for as little as $250,000 or so. And with private or grant support, it can actually cost the city even less. "There are two keys however," adds Creamer. "It's got to be built with the right materials so it can withstand the wear of hundreds of skateboards. And it should have some input from the folks who will use it. We know, we've seen dozens of facilities and we can help them design a park that will be used and will last." McBride provides the final push, "In terms of city budgets, a quarter of a million dollars is really not that much. Not for something that will last and provide a safe environment for such a cross-section of our community." And it's an even better price for a fountain of youth.