Wheel Crazy

Southern California, the launching pad of fads, is in the grip of a revival as frenetic as any ever whipped up by an evangelist. The skateboard has returned as the favorite platform of the well-balanced athlete. After ten years in the recreational limbo reserved for Hula-Hoops and yo-yos, the surfboard on wheels is already the preferred mode of propulsion--and sleight of foot--for an estimated 2 million Southern Californians, and their numbers are increasing by as many as 5,000 a day. The skateboarding craze may already claim around 30 million enthusiasts nationwide. Los Angeles manufacturers have received orders from as far away as Japan and Germany.

Funnybone-First. Whether roaring down a canyon road or hurtling around the concave walls of an empty, round swimming pool, the new skateboards are as different from their 1960s predecessors as a ten-speed bike is from a velocipede. The original skateboards were made of wood and had nailed-on wheels of metal, rubber or clay. The new models, up to 30 in. long, are made of fiber glass, with clear amber polyurethane wheels, adapted from roller skates, that give the rider more stability and versatility. "Compared with the new skateboards, the old ones were like cars with wooden wheels," says Frank Naswor-thy, 24, a Virginia Polytechnic Institute dropout now on his way to becoming a millionaire (he was the first in the business to put boards on plastic wheels). Sophisticated models cost upwards of $40, v. $5 or so for the skateboards of a decade ago. The new boards, bearing names like Freestyle, Banzai and Road Rider, come in psychedelic colors and have fueled a satellite industry manufacturing accessories such as T shirts (often with top pros' names on them), bikinis, special crepe-soled sandals and souped-up axles. Four skateboarding movies have been made, and SkateBoarder, a magazine that went out of business in 1965 but was recently revived, sold out its first two issues of 75,000 and 100,000 copies at $1 per copy.

While skateboarding appealed mostly to preadolescents in its first incarnation, the majority of its adherents now range in age from nine to 25; a 72-year-old Angeleno recently bought a new model in order, he explained, to spend more time with his board-bound grandchildren. Many of the most proficient asphalt athletes are surfers who have come ashore, and they claim that the two sports demand many of the same skills. Says SkateBoarder Editor Warren Bolster: "You can go out and do the same things you do on a surfboard, but it's something you can do any time. Surfing takes waves."

Some skateboarding tricks can only be done on land: jumping from a fast-moving skateboard over a 4-ft. bar and landing back on the board, for example. A World Skateboard Pro-Am Championship at the Los Angeles Sports Arena last month attracted 37 teams of pros, including Top Star Denis Schufeldt, 24, a San Diego yoga teacher who claims to use "yoga and body control" to retain his title as the fastest downhill racer.

Skateboarders have been clocked on Sunset Boulevard at more than 42 m.p.h., and claim to reach speeds of 60 m.p.h. Southern California hospitals reported a 100% increase last summer in admissions of teen-agers with broken or fractured limbs, particularly "skateboard elbow," caused by landing funny-bone-first. To cut down the carnage rate, Long Beach, San Diego and other communities have banned skateboarding in the streets and parks; Hollywood Hills' celebrated "Toilet Bowl," a vast, saucer-like storm drain that attracts thousands of skateboard stunters each week, has been modified with antispeed bumps to slow the action; some San Diego high schools are planning special skateboard safety classes. But even star boarders wind up in splints. SkateBoarder Editor Bolster broke both his wrists this year.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.