SPOTLIGHT : Board Games : Skateboarders Comb Valley Ramps in Search of the Perfect Ride

Don Szabo is perched atop a 10-foot skateboard ramp, his feet kneading the coarse, lime-green grip tape on the deck of his customized skateboard. He teeters over the edge, then barrels down the sleek, bowl-shaped ramp, gaining speed for his next aerial stunt.

Szabo rises three feet above the wooden ramp, disproving the assertion of his friend, Vince (Vertical) Kitchen, that, “there’s a lot of gravity out today.”

If gravity is working against Szabo, it’s hard to tell. The only thing keeping Szabo down to earth is Szabo.

“High air is good for pictures and posing, but there’s a lot more to skateboarding than aerials,” said the self-assured, backyard daredevil from Reseda. “All little kids want to see is lean air, high air. They don’t see that there’s a lot more to it.”

Szabo, 20, does not perform for little kids or for anybody except himself. That’s why he refuses to turn pro despite numerous offers--it would take the fun out of skateboarding.

“You have to do what people like, and I like to do what I like,” he said.

Valley Skate and Surf of Sepulveda is one of the Valley-based skateboard stores that has unsuccessfully tried to recruit Szabo.

“These guys are hard-core skaters who don’t care if they’re in the magazines or have sponsorship,” said Mark Berrol, the store’s manager. “All they want to do is skate. Szabo doesn’t care about turning pro because he can walk into any skateboard store, skate for them and they would sign him.”

“We’ve tried,” added Mona Fleschler, the store’s owner. “I’ve asked him a hundred times why he doesn’t turn pro.”

A 10-year veteran of skateboarding, Szabo has a lean and angular face with black-tipped blond hair. He receives amateur sponsorship from skateboard equipment manufacturers who are “looking for somebody who will give them a good image,” he said.

Szabo also skates on a team for Greensector, a skateboard store in Chatsworth, which competes in the California Amateur Skateboard League. Some of the other team members include store owner Don Jayne and Tuan Nguyen, both of Chatsworth, and Tim Fritch and Kitchen of Canoga Park.

Members of the team are equally adept at street and ramp skating as well as skating in drainage pipes and empty swimming pools. They congregate at backyard skateboard ramps, often a step ahead of City Hall, which has shut down numerous ramps in the Valley for safety reasons.

The closure of skating parks that blanketed Southern California in the 1970s, including the Reseda-based Skatercross, forced skaters back to the streets. There are only two remaining skating parks in Southern California, neither in the Valley.

Because of a shortage of backyard ramps, skaters often must venture outside the Valley for ramps--or skate on the streets. Street skateboarding is not a problem for members of the Greensector team, who learned on asphalt and even prefer it. When a ramp is unavailable, alleys and alley walls will suffice.

“Ramp skating is pretty small on a scale compared to street skating,” Jayne said.

Nguyen, 14, a Chatsworth High 10th-grader, is “one of the best street stylers in the Valley,” according to Szabo. Kitchen, 21, started skating in the streets 14 years ago with a club called the “Curbhoppers.”

Kitchen is a shorter version of Szabo with a droll sense of humor. He adopted the nickname Vertical because, “it’s the first seven-letter word I learned to spell.” He’s unique in his group because he’s a publisher; he writes and prints his own “underground” skateboard publication. The latest edition has a four-page pictorial devoted to Szabo.

“He’s so smooth it doesn’t even look like he’s taking any risks,” Kitchen said.

As for Szabo, he’s not as adroit at analyzing his skating style as he is executing it.

“I just skate and let other people figure it out for me.”