Taking a skate

ALL it takes to rebuild the image of a pastime is an academic study and Olympic selection. Couldn’t be simpler.

It has been a big couple of years for skateboarding — for some, a form of artistic expression or costefficient (financial and environmental) mode of transport or merely enjoyable physical activity; for others, the seemingly dated pursuit that tends to involve teenagers with (gasp) long hair and lowslung pants and too much time on their hands.

First, the sport was added to the Olympic programme. It was due to make its debut in Tokyo this year but will have to wait at least another year thanks to the Covid19 pandemic.

Now, this week, comes news of some interesting findings from a University of Otago study that examined the transport habits of 775 Southland teenagers.

It found 7% of them were using skateboarding as a form of transport. That is not, to be fair, a jawdroppingly high number. But what was really interesting was the next level of information from the study.

Those teenagers who skateboarded to get from A to B reported ‘‘higher levels of wellbeing, community connectedness, and physical activity than those using any other mode of transportation,’’ lead author Dr Aimee Ward said.

Further, the skateboarding squad reported much higher screen time, indicating scrolling through social media on phones is not necessarily a replacement for physical activity.

Electric scooters were briefly the flavour of the month but their lustre seems to have dimmed. Could the humble skateboard be primed for a major return?

At a time when many younger folk are apparently showing some reluctance to rush to sit a driver’s licence test the second they come of age, does a carbonfree, (virtually) costfree mode of transport deserve to be promoted and celebrated better?

Dr Ward argues urban planners need to (pardon the pun) get on board with longterm changes to infrastructure to provide safer spaces for skateboarders (and scooters, and cyclists, and so on).

“People who skateboard are classified as vulnerable road users but are often made to feel unwelcome no matter where they ride. New Zealand law states that skateboarders can legally travel on the road, but they are often forced to the footpath where they can threaten the safety of other sidewalk users, and bylaws vary by city.’’

Skateboarding emerged in California in the 1950s as an alternative to surfing, and quickly took off as a symbol of the freedom of the streets and a form of expression for youth.

Its popularity ebbed and flowed in the subsequent decades, soaring when the legendary Tony Hawk was performing his dazzling feats, and dipping again when other pursuits emerged.

What once seemed unthinkable to sporting purists will become a reality next year (Covid permitting) when skateboarding makes its first appearance at the Olympic Games, and some of the world’s elite board exponents show off their tricks.

That will, surely, lead to a spike in popularity in what Skateboarding New Zealand president Ramon Thackwell calls ‘‘poetry, it’s art, it’s freedom, it’s movement, it’s expression, it’s openness’’.

It could also, one thinks, be the next big thing in transport for a generation seemingly turning away from motors and big wheels.