Skateboard Skills Take Center Stage

Dressed in baggy corduroy shorts, scuffed suede sneakers and a T-shirt emblazoned with logos, Jacob Hopcus is testimony to skateboarding’s surging popularity.

On any given day, the lanky 13-year-old Ojai resident said he can be found speeding along streets and sidewalks popping “ollies” or grinding “rail slides” on such suburban staples as park benches, handrails and concrete curbs.

“It’s the challenge that makes it fun,” Jacob said Saturday as he watched a group of young competitors skate at the World Amateur Championships at Ventura’s Skate Street, an indoor skateboarding park. “If it were really easy, I doubt a lot of people would be doing it, but it’s hard and that’s why it’s fun.”

Once considered a slightly illicit activity, skateboarding has crashed into the mainstream with all the force of a rogue elephant and is quickly gaining legitimacy as both a bona fide sport and wholesome activity for its young practitioners.

And nowhere is this more true than in Ventura County, which now has the distinction of hosting the second annual championships. They will continue from noon to 5 p.m. today with the vertical ramp competition.

“All you have to do these days is take a look out the window and you’ll see a kid on a skateboard,” said 32-year-old Todd Huber, who has been an avid skateboarder for more than 25 years. “People are starting to realize that this is a sport and it’s not a joke.”

Like many other skateboarders, Huber, who hopes to open an indoor skateboard park in Simi Valley by the end of the year, said the sport’s popularity stems from its physical and creative challenges.

“You can never get maxed out on it,” Huber said. “The sky’s the limit. For every trick that someone’s doing now, there’s another one that hasn’t even been thought of yet, and that gives kids the chance to create something new.”

While there are no statistics gauging the number of skateboarding enthusiasts in Ventura County, those close to the sport, such as Mark Richards and Steve Van Doren, said skateboarding has been riding a groundswell of popularity in recent years, and that popularity shows no signs of letting up.

“It’s huge right now,” said Van Doren, vice president of Vans clothing and sponsor of this weekend’s amateur event in Ventura. “It seems that the number of people getting involved are doubling every week.”

Richards, whose father opened the first skateboard shop in North Hollywood in 1962, has been at the forefront of the sport since it was little more than a suburban novelty in the San Fernando Valley.

As a former professional and owner of two successful skateboard shops, Richards said he has seen the sport’s ups and downs, but said this new wave of popularity is unique.

“I think the kids are a little different today, and skateboarding is something that really fits their lifestyle,” he said. “It’s individual, it’s creative and it’s challenging. That’s why I think it’s so big right now.”

In fact, skateboarding’s popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed by government officials who have tried for years to ban riders from their concrete and asphalt playgrounds but are now taking a different tack.

In September, Gov. Pete Wilson signed a bill that limits community liability for injuries sustained at public facilities. That has allowed cities such as Ventura and Thousand Oaks to begin planning skate parks.

Last month, Thousand Oaks established three temporary skate sites in several community parks. The Ventura City Council has already signed off on plans to build three permanent skate parks at an estimated $100,000.

Officials of the Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District are reviewing plans to build a skateboarding site at Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley Community Park. They expect to have a park completed by June.

Moorpark, Ojai, Santa Paula and Oxnard are also considering plans to give their hometown skaters a place to safely perform their “nose bones” and “kick flips.”

Officials hope that by providing venues that offer carefully crafted vertical walls and steep chutes, skateboarders will leave the streets and sidewalks.

“Skateboarding is a big sport and the passion of a lot of kids here, and we think there are certain places where it is, and is not, appropriate,” said Ron Calkins, Ventura’s public works director. “Part of the solution is providing facilities that they can use safely.”

But not everyone is convinced that will happen.

The Buenaventura Mall, with its acres of asphalt and wide sidewalks, has always been an attraction for local riders, but a dangerous one.

Further, mall administrators said that instead of protecting merchandise, security guards spend too much of their time chasing skaters off the property.

“It’s a hazardous nuisance, but I don’t think having a place for them is going to help,” a mall spokeswoman said. “They’ve got one now, but I have personally seen a grandmother and children almost get run down by them.”

Whether the parks help relieve the tension between skateboarders and area merchants remains to be seen, but until then it’s a fair bet that even more county youths are going to strap on a helmet, grab a board and fall in love with the sport.

“It’s no secret why kids love this so much,” said Sonja Catalano of the United Skateboard Federation. “It’s fun and they get to be pioneers.”