Skateboarders passionate about sport

Ask them to show you what they can do and they’ll eagerly comply.
Ask them to show you their scars and the pant legs come up, sleeves get rolled, and proud stories are shared of which bones were broken when and which scars came from a fall after trying a new move.
None of them wear padding or helmets.
They carry their boards with them everywhere—just in case an opportunity arises to use them.
Ask them if they want a skate park and the answer is a resounding yes.
“That’s what we want,” remarked local skateboarder Robbie Nicholl, 14, who has plenty to say when it comes to his favourite thing in the world.
“Fort Frances has nowhere to skate. If people don’t want us skating on their property, they should build us a skate park.
“They spent all that money on the arena for people to play hockey, what about people who want to skate?” he reasoned.
Nicholl often is at the parking lot of the Memorial Sports Centre or out in front of his house, where he has a rail set up to practice on.
“He lives it,” said his mother, Rhonda, who added she is not concerned at all about her son’s activities. “It keeps him entertained. I know where he is and he’s not getting into trouble.”
She’s not even very worried about the lack of protective equipment, though she realizes when the proposed skate park opens here that may change. Rules for use may include helmets, knee pads, and wrist guards.
Nicholl and his friends skateboard in the Memorial Sports Centre parking lot, on the street in front of their houses, on the way to school, and any other time they can get it in.
“Every day it’s not raining,” said Cale Hayes. “That’s all I do every summer.”
Skateboarding, as a hobby, goes back as far as the 1930s when the so-called sidewalk surfers rode a two-by-four on rollerskate wheels. The first skateboarding competition was in California in 1963.
The sport has been resurrected several times after lows. It first died off in 1965, but came back in 1973 when boards came out with rubber wheels for the first time.
The first outdoor skate park was built in Florida in 1976, though most skaters still would practice in empty pools.
Popular until 1980, skateboarding was revived in 1984, then again in 1991, and most recently, with the invention of the X-Games, in 1995.
Ten years later, the sport is going strong.
The world’s best-known skater, Tony Hawk, won his first competition in 1982 at the Del Mar Skate Ranch. He now has a massive following, with videos, commercials, and a very popular video game to his name.
Now, instead of just skateboarding, kids can dreaming of turning pro and getting sponsored, like in any other sport.
“I got into it because there’s nothing else to do, and it’s fun,” said Hayes, who soars five feet off the ground during his jumps.
In other communities, funds have been set up to help kids get skate parks. In Cardston, Alta. in 2002, for instance, a mother of four was upset her 15-year-old son and his friends were skateboarding on the street so she helped raise $89,000 to build a park there.
In Philadelphia, a non-profit organization called the Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund is dedicated to funding construction of public skate parks.
There currently are about 25 skate parks in Ontario, including some that are free and others you have to pay to use.