By GILLIAN BEST
Sunday, September 07, 2003
Forget the Film Festival. The really cool place to be this past Saturday was a ‘board’ meeting on Yonge Street. With white shirttails and ties flying in the breeze, about 50 exuberant skateboarders careened down the centre of the street on longboards, opening their first official board meeting. Longboards being, for those not yet in the know, sort of like the Cadillacs of skateboards: they’re super long (anywhere from three to four feet) and offer a super smooth ride.
It had all the elements of a cloak and dagger spy novel. The head sleuth being Benjamin Jordan. They gathered at a parking lot just east of Yonge off St. Clair in an effort to keep their event from garnering too much unwanted attention from the police. A concerned citizen saw one of their posters with the details of today’s ride, and notified police, who in turn contacted the event’s organizer Benjamin Jordan.
This required a last minute change of meeting place, and a route that none of the riders knew of beforehand. Jordan, a commercial photographer, says he attempted to persuade police that his event would not pose a problem, however they were unmoved. It is illegal to ride on Toronto’s city streets on anything other than a car or bicycle. Jordan says he called police and informed them that he “delegated the project to someone else” and assured them that he wouldn’t “host such an event in their jurisdiction.”
Jordan is not a man easily dissuaded, but the potential trouble from the cops was near the forefront of people’s minds. One of the photographers was overheard saying to the group, “You guys didn’t bring ID did you?” When the boarders began to arrive, the group became more and more conspicuous, prompting Jordan to ask everyone to hide their longboards behind a bench. One photographer, on his way back from scouting out a few locations noted that there was a cop at the LCBO just down the street. The general feeling of the group was, however, that should they decide to give chase, the cops wouldn’t be able to catch everyone.
At Yonge Street and Alexander, the group encountered two policemen and promptly dismounted, and carried their boards across the intersection, trying very hard not to laugh.
This event has only been two weeks in the making but Jordan hopes that the community being formed today will take off on its own and events such as this will “happen without me even being in town.”
The idea stemmed from a desire that Jordan has to build a community of longboarders. “I wanted to create a longboarding community from nothing.” He goes on to add that: “It’s not about skateboarding or eluding the police. It’s about creating something.”
The participants begin to arrive around 5:30 p.m., and the anticipation starts to build. Soon there are 20 guys and 1 girl, all dressed in white dress shirts and ties, as specified on the posters, waiting for things to start. Mike McGown is wearing in a tie he made himself made out of ‘Police Line Do Not Cross’ tape. He’s here today to “Bring everybody together. We can get everybody together with longboarding.”
Corey Wall, who took time off from his job at the CBC is here because “It’s a chance to meet other people who are longboarding in Toronto.”
One of the few women to arrive for the ride today, Sarah Roe says she saw the posters around and since she “doesn’t know anyone else who longboards” came out to meet some new people and hopefully someone to ride with.
Along with the riders there are several photographers, culled from Humber College’s photography program. Sarah Lichter is one such person. “I got involved just for the sake of a photo op you don’t generally get. It’s a chance to shoot, community involvement and just publishing what’s happening right now in Toronto.” Her photographs, as well as those from the other seven photographers, some professional some amateur, will be sent to New York City to be included in a show called the Style Sessions; a style competition for photographers and longboarders.
Just before they’re about to head out, Ben addresses the group, who now number close to fifty, and reminds them to be safe at all times and to obey all traffic laws, and above all have fun. Then they’re off, a block-long parade of longboarders all coming together for the ride of the year.
They tear down Yonge Street, and as they passed one woman remarked that she’d always wanted to ride a skateboard. The reactions of people on the street were precisely what Jordan was hoping for: “I want people just to scratch their heads” when they see us coming. Children pointed and whooped, cars heading north honked and gave the thumbs up, people screamed: “Skateboarding is not a crime!” A group of teenage girls screamed out: “We love skaters!” Overall the reaction was one of pleasant surprise and elation: a group like that can only inspire excitement.
mrsjones@sprint.ca
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