HUNTINGTON BEACH : He’s Tops on Skateboard-- : No Mean Trick
Listening to the calm, distinctly British speech of Don Brown, you might not believe that this mild-mannered 23-year-old is the same guy whose spectacular skateboard tricks won him the title of 1989 World Freestyle Champion.
But seeing him perform a few of his flips, handstands and other tricks will quickly clear up any doubts.
“I really just enjoy skateboarding,” said Brown, a lanky, spiky-haired Huntington Beach resident who has been competing all over the world for nearly five years and who likes to do just about any kind of maneuver. “Variety helps,” he said, “but I really don’t mind what type it is. You just skate whatever comes in front of you.”
His tale is something of an American success story. Five years ago, the Brighton, England, native and a few friends crossed the Atlantic to get a vacationer’s glimpse of America. Brown, who had sidewalk surfed since age 15, soon discovered the Huntington Beach skateboarding scene. And Vision Street Wear, his sponsor, found him soon after.
“That’s the good thing about America,” said Brown: “You can do anything.”
That, for Brown, according to Vision spokeswoman Danna Black, means receiving royalties for the skateboard named after him, entering competitions under the company’s sponsorship, and showing off his prowess at promotional public appearances such the one this month at Cal State Dominguez Hills for a new video game system.
The world championship title, Brown’s first, was earned at an international meet this summer in Munster, Germany, sponsored by American and European skateboarding associations. He competed against 30 others for the title in an event that participants say is the only one of its kind.
Brown attributes some of his success to being in the right place at the right time--that is, at a time when skateboarding had lost some of its trendiness and sponsors were looking for new talent.
Skateboarding is not taken as seriously as some other sports, Brown said, because it does not require much formal training or organization.
However, that’s one of the things about it that Brown finds appealing. “It’s not like a team sport. You can go do what you want, whenever you want,” he said. Still, “that’s the part where people don’t take it like a real sport. . . . I think that if there was a lot of money in it, people would take it more seriously.”
Brown himself clearly takes it seriously enough. “He’s a professional; this is his job,” said Brad Fanshaw, promotions director at Vision Street Wear.
And a job it is. He practices on his board every day, for up to seven hours. He will skate virtually any time and anywhere, with the focuses usually on developing new styles. New moves are easy to make, he says, requiring only a new board or body angle. “You pretty much just play around with your board or body motions, and it just works out.”
His contract with Vision Street Wear, which allows him to stay in the United States with a work visa, is renewed on an annual basis, so there is some pressure on him to stay on the cutting edge.
Says Brown, whose career provides him with “just about enough” to pay his bills, “being your job, it sometimes takes the fun out of skateboarding. But I can’t complain too much. It’s a good life I’m having.”
In a sport whose dangers are all too apparent, Brown has been remarkably fortunate, having had only one serious accident, which required knee surgery.
But neither the prospect of injury nor his future in a sport usually associated with teen-agers worries him.
“There’re so many things one can do, it seems pointless to put everything into one goal,” he said about his post-skating plans. “I’ll just take it as it comes.”
