Coronavirus has touched just about every aspect of our lives. From buying toilet paper, to having a beer with your friends, to the amount of times you’ve heard the word “unprecedented”, COVID-19 has changed it all – even skateboarding. Obviously there’s a very real human cost to the pandemic and every death is tragic, but the pandemic has also ushered in some subtler changes for skateboarders.
Being cooped up at home makes you miss even the annoying sides of skating: the shinners, the ripped laces, the snapped decks, and the chalkies. Even a crusty skatepark full of entitled scooter kids seems like heaven when you can’t skate at will. This plague probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so here are some of the things we might as well get used to, if you haven’t already.
Words by Harvey Ferle. Ben Weir 180 photo by Wade McLaughlin.
EVERYTHING’S NOT FINE
Spare a thought for the crew in Melbourne. They were in stage four restrictions, which means they could barely leave the house – let alone skate – without stressing that they’re committing a crime. On paper, they were allowed to be within five kilometres of their houses, exercising in groups of two for an hour per day. But in practice, not all cops consider skateboarding to be exercise, so it’s really up to their discretion whether to let it go or hit skaters with a flurry of fines. Street skating has always been a weird tango between us and the cops. Most of the time, it was a game of cat and mouse with the occasional ticket just to keep us honest. But with public health at risk, it’s a very different dance – one that simply isn’t worth the risk for many. Out without a mask? That’ll be $200. Out without a legitimate reason? Add another $1652 to the tally. Caught a second time? Get your best button-up shirt ready for a date with the Magistrate’s Court and a maximum fine of $10,000. I love skateboarding, but I also love being able to eat and pay my rent without the cost of a 2012 Honda Civic hanging over my head.
UNEVENTFUL
Free pizza, beer, and all your mates in one place getting together to celebrate a new video – what’s not to love? Yep, video prems at the local skate shop – or the Opera House if you want to live large like the Pass~Port crew – are a great part of the culture of skateboarding. But along with demos, tours and comps, premieres have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. No more international pros coming to destroy your local park; no more groms charging into the product toss for their chance at a free deck and a goodie bag. Not even the biggest competition of all could survive the pandemic’s wrath – the Olympics. If not for COVID-19, we would have seen skateboarding on the largest stage the world has to offer back in July 2020. We’d know who won the first-ever gold medals, what all the team uniforms looked like, and we’d still be debating whether it was all just a strange fever dream.
GETTING CRAFTY
Stoners and skateboarders share a few things in common. Give a group of stoners some weed and nothing to smoke with and you’ll see them become engineers right before your eyes. The same holds true for skaters. When there’s nothing to skate – or you’re not allowed to skate your favourite spots – some real interesting shit gets built. There’s no sadder sight than driving past a completely deserted skatepark and knowing you can’t touch it. No kids, no scooters, but still a no-go. On the other hand, is there anything more beautiful than knocking together something yourself and making it work? Milk crates and traffic cones. Old coffee tables. Waxing the gutter out the front of your house. Plywood kickers, boxes, and mini ramps. Proper DIY ’crete creations.
If there’s one positive to take from the pandemic, it’s that a lot of skaters turned their hands toward building their own setups or finding isolated places to turn into DIYs. There’s going to be a lot of sessions on homemade flat rails and grind boxes for months to come.
