Well, it seems skateboarding started long before I had thought it did. Yesterday, while browsing through a bunch of old newspapers at the Toronto Reference Library, I stumbled across a series of articles from The Ottawa Citizen in 1965 voicing concern over the "new sport" of skurfing -- better known as skateboarding.
The term skurfing as a synonym for skateboarding is a new one for me. Nevertheless, a Google
search reveals that the term hasn't all together disappeared. The only thing is it doesn't seem to be in reference to skateboarding anymore. Indeed, the most popular modern-day definition for skurfing appears to be as a synonym for wake-boarding or at least something done in the water while being towed by a rope. It's "a combination of surfing, boogie boarding and water skiing," says obvious nut case John Green on his website. It appears that John and his buddies balance themselves on a boogie board while being towed through shallow water by a water-ski tow rope tied to the trailer hitch of a Jeep driving on the beach! Nuts. Another definition off the web proclaims skurfing to be "procrastination through internet surfing when time could be better otherwise employed." Much like you're doing right now.
One of the coolest results of my search was an archive page of a June 15, 1965 CBC News story about skurfing -- the "new terror loose in the streets of the city." The story boasts a great interview by a youthful Lloyd Robertson with the beehive hairdooed president of the Ontario Branch of the National Sidewalk Surfers Association. The biggest surprise for me wasn't the fact that there was a national skateboarding association back in 1965. Instead, it was the fact that the president, Gai Cochrane, was a girl! After riding the almost exclusively male skateboarding wave of the '80s myself, I was under the impression that the rise of skater-chicks was a phenomenon of the late '90s. Another noteworthy element of the story is its comparison with hula-hooping fad. The story concludes by calming parent's concerns about the skurfing menace by reporting that sales in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto indicate that the "fad may be dieing out." …if they only knew. Check out the clip here.
Concern over this new sport appears to have been the order of the day in the spring/summer of 1965. On April 30, 1965 the Ottawa Citizen reported that the National Safety League of Canada condemns skurfing. "At first glance skateboards may seem like a harmless recreation. But this is not the case," says General Manager of the League P.G. McClaren. "Scooters, bikes and roller skates can be just as much fun and a lot less dangerous."
It's truly amazing that skateboarding took root so early here in Canada. I remember seeing clips and photos from California in the '70s of guys doing some wild stuff on their skinny boards, but the '60s?
This all leaves questions about the term skurfing itself. Is it a Canadianism? Should skurfing join the ranks of "toque" as part of the Canadian lexicon? Perhaps a revival is in order.
The term skurfing as a synonym for skateboarding is a new one for me. Nevertheless, a Google
search reveals that the term hasn't all together disappeared. The only thing is it doesn't seem to be in reference to skateboarding anymore. Indeed, the most popular modern-day definition for skurfing appears to be as a synonym for wake-boarding or at least something done in the water while being towed by a rope. It's "a combination of surfing, boogie boarding and water skiing," says obvious nut case John Green on his website. It appears that John and his buddies balance themselves on a boogie board while being towed through shallow water by a water-ski tow rope tied to the trailer hitch of a Jeep driving on the beach! Nuts. Another definition off the web proclaims skurfing to be "procrastination through internet surfing when time could be better otherwise employed." Much like you're doing right now.One of the coolest results of my search was an archive page of a June 15, 1965 CBC News story about skurfing -- the "new terror loose in the streets of the city." The story boasts a great interview by a youthful Lloyd Robertson with the beehive hairdooed president of the Ontario Branch of the National Sidewalk Surfers Association. The biggest surprise for me wasn't the fact that there was a national skateboarding association back in 1965. Instead, it was the fact that the president, Gai Cochrane, was a girl! After riding the almost exclusively male skateboarding wave of the '80s myself, I was under the impression that the rise of skater-chicks was a phenomenon of the late '90s. Another noteworthy element of the story is its comparison with hula-hooping fad. The story concludes by calming parent's concerns about the skurfing menace by reporting that sales in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto indicate that the "fad may be dieing out." …if they only knew. Check out the clip here.
Concern over this new sport appears to have been the order of the day in the spring/summer of 1965. On April 30, 1965 the Ottawa Citizen reported that the National Safety League of Canada condemns skurfing. "At first glance skateboards may seem like a harmless recreation. But this is not the case," says General Manager of the League P.G. McClaren. "Scooters, bikes and roller skates can be just as much fun and a lot less dangerous."
It's truly amazing that skateboarding took root so early here in Canada. I remember seeing clips and photos from California in the '70s of guys doing some wild stuff on their skinny boards, but the '60s?
This all leaves questions about the term skurfing itself. Is it a Canadianism? Should skurfing join the ranks of "toque" as part of the Canadian lexicon? Perhaps a revival is in order.
A.
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