Grinding it out Why a new competitive skate series is just in time

Want to be a big-time football star? Well, if you’re eight years old and watching the Patriots, all you need to do is get your parents to sign you up for the local Pop Warner league, and you’re on your way. Or you can pretend you’re Pedro Martinez, staring down hitters a mere 45 feet away in Little League. And just about every town has kids out kicking soccer balls around before they even start elementary school. Kids can dream about scoring like Clint Mathis when they’re pocketing tallies into the upper 90 of goals small enough to fit in the back of a decent-sized station wagon.

But what if you want to be Tony Hawk or Bob Burnquist — or Rodil de Araujo Jr. or Wagner Ramos for that matter. Don’t know who those last two are? Don’t even know who the first two are? Then you, like much of the mainstream sports industry, are missing the boat. All four are skateboarders, the first two the equal of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle (though they’re still competing at a high level, they’re legends regardless), and the second two are the latest up and comers in a sport that is seeing an incredible explosion in interest, particularly among the middle school and high school set (stat: more kids now skateboard than play Little League).

The problem is, unlike baseball or basketball, very few opportunities exist for young kids to get into the competitive side of skateboarding. Sure, they can hang out at the skatepark and hone their skills with other like-minded kids, but they have few ways of gauging themselves in formal atmospheres.

I quickly found out that my fastball wasn’t going to cut it the time I gave up two longballs to the same lefty in one inning. It worked pretty well against some of the crappier teams, but once we came up against stiffer competition, I had to get smarter on the mound, or find myself on the bench.

But how does a young skateboarder know if he’s got the proper rotation on his 540? Is that kick-flip clean enough? How does it compare with the kicks being flipped by kids in other towns, in other states? What might be impressive as hell down on Marginal Way might be passé down in Biddeford, and that might push a Portlander to put in an extra hour of practice each week. Without that knowledge, however, the drive to get better might fade.

That’s where Skip Winter and the S3 Seacoast Skate Series comes in. Starting small, but with big ambitions, the series boasts four preliminary events — the first two were held at Kennebunk Town Park May 31 and Dover, New Hampshire’s Town Park June 7 — with the top five qualifiers at each event becoming eligible for the finals, to be held at Rye Airfield, the new Mecca of all things vert in New England, on August 16.

So, here’s your answer, kid. If you want to prove you’re one of the best, Winter’s got the venues for you. And it’s not just about competing, it’s also about showing off for potential sponsors — just as a good high-school mainstream-sport athlete is constantly currying the interest of pro and college scouts.

" Being on the right coast, we fight a lack of exposure, " Winter says, noting that California and the west coast are hotbeds for the industry called " action sports " — skateboarding, BMX, inline skating, all that stuff you see on the X-Games. " The exposure that we get, you have to fight for it. My idea was to start a series for Seacoast kids to get some exposure. Not only regionally, but nationally. "

Winter knows what he’s talking about. He’s a sponsored skater who’s been on wheels since 1975, and has seen many of his skating friends move to the west coast for bigger and brighter lights. " I had to scrape and scratch for every bit of exposure I got, " living here on the east coast, he says.

So, with the help of sponsors like Wheels ’n’ Waves, Kookmyer Skates, and Rye Airfield, Winter has created exposure, and he’s got his eyes on more and more of it.

" I don’t like to do anything small, " he says. " The more organized we appear out here in the east, the more attention we’ll get. " So, he has designs on creating a New England Skateboarding Association, which should be in place by next year, which would act as a sanctioning body, like Pop Warner, Buddy Werner, or AAU.

" The NESA would then be the governing body for the series in general, " says Winter. " And there would be a bunch of different series. " Ideally, he’d like a series centered around Portland and the rest of upper Southern Maine, one to the West in New Hampshire, one in the Seacoast area, and one stretching to the south into Massachusetts. Then think of the scope of the championships.

For now, though, you can focus on the June 21 event happening at the Biddeford Town Park. There are divisions for beginner, intermediate, advanced, and sponsored, and competitors perform two one-minute freestyle street skates before four judges. Best average score wins the division. Top five go to Rye Airfield. Get all the info you’ll need at www.oldmanskates.com/S3/flyer.html. It’s only $5 to get in.

Watch out for Josh Perkins in the sponsored class. Winter says he’s nasty.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at spfeifle@phx.com