Claremont boys invent the skateboard, or boys will be boys.  by Dan Schafer

Claremont boys invent the skateboard!  Well, it’s not quite true, but I think we certainly were among the first users of it.  It was in the 9^th grade at El Roble Junior High (that would make it 1959-60), that Robbie Burwell brought a Popular Mechanics magazine to school with an article about how to make a ‘Sidewalk Surfer!’  We had all grown up with roller skates that you clamped to your shoes with the use of a skate key and a strap across the ankle, but we had ‘out-grown’ that activity and our skates were rusting away somewhere in the garage.  Now, as the article suggested, we could find those skates, pull them apart, nail or screw them to the front and rear ends of a 6x18” (ideally) plank board and have a ‘Sidewalk Surfer’ or what was soon to be called a ‘Skateboard’.

Well, I’d say by the end of the week, certainly within a couple of weeks, every boy in Claremont (who was of a mind to) had built a skateboard.  They were not things of beauty as they were made of various sizes and shapes from the scraps of wood we managed to scrounge up.  Some skate halves were thoughtfully screwed into place but most were nailed.  If the nail was too long (as most were for the thin boards) it was simply pounded over flat on the top and/or bottom.  The first problem that came up was there was no ‘give’ to the skate-board connection.  This made steering slow and also put us on two outside or inside wheels when we took a corner.  Since the skates were low, our board riding surface was low too.  If the board was too wide, when you made a turn it would drag on the ground and either stop you or toss you.  That was easily fixed by sawing off the edges making it narrower, but steering was always a problem.

Another problem was the narrow metal wheels.  They were anything but ‘free-wheeling’ and any little rough area like coarse street asphalt or loose sand would stop them cold and you would go flying through the air. This actually was nothing new as we had experienced that with our old ‘clamp-on’ roller skates.  This is well evidenced from my old elementary school class photos that show most of the boys with their pants patched at the knees and I can only wince at the memory of horribly scabbed knees under those patches.  Of course, the girls in the photos are an immaculate contrast to us boys…as the old saying goes “sugar and spice and everything nice.”

Speaking of girls, they, as usual, looked on in bewilderment as we raced down steep inclines in semi-control often ending up with bloody elbows and knees.  I’ve always liked girls, but they just don’t ‘get it.’  Basically, guys and girls confuse each other, always have and always will.  For one thing, girls don’t think guys have any common sense, but they are wrong.  We do have common sense, but we also have something they don’t…I call it the ‘male imperative’, the ‘thrill’ factor or more scientifically ‘testosterone’.  When common sense tells a girl that something is dangerous, it tells the boy the same thing, except the ‘thrill’ of the challenge more often than not over-rides caution.  Yes, males find they must challenge and explore the unknown, too bad it often results in an exploration of how much pain and damage we can inflict on ourselves! 

 Does anyone doubt that it was a teenage boy somewhere in pre-history that jumped on the back of that wild four-legged beast called a horse and rode it for the first time?  It certainly wasn’t a girl, and if you ladies out there have any doubt, just watch an episode or two of “America’s Funniest Videos”.  It’s about 80% males doing stupid and usually dangerous things, 10% animals doing stupid things, 5% males and animals doing stupid things together and 5% females doing stupid things!

I remember watching it one time with my wife who doesn’t really get why I think that a teenage boy jumping from his roof onto a trampoline resulting in him flying over the fence into the neighbor’s yard is hilarious.  It’s really simple, if I had a trampoline when I was a teen I would have been forced by my male ‘imperative’ to try the same thing!  We can’t help it…really!  Anyway, we were watching a young guy standing on a cabin’s front porch trying to induce a wild moose to approach him with carrots in an out-stretched hand.  I had my suspicions but when he turned to the camera and smiled ‘that smile’, I knew right away what he was going to do!

“Honey!  Honey!  Watch this, he’s gonna jump on that moose and ride him!” 

“Nooo,” she responded, “…why would he do that?”  

“Why? There’s no why?  He is a male and the moose is a large animal…it’s got to be done!”

It’s very simple really, a human male’s imperative around a large animal is to either ride him or eat him!  I’m sure back in pre-history many horses were eaten before they finally (and wisely) consented to be ridden. Well, as soon as the unsuspecting moose got within nibbling range, the guy dropped the carrots, grabbed a handful of short mane and swung himself up on the moose’s back!  The wild ride lasted maybe 3 seconds before he was bucked off and landed in a heap on the ground.  His friends behind the camera (and me in front of the TV) all ‘whooped’ our approval of his ‘gallant’ effort while my wife could only shake her head in disbelief.  We never saw him get up, but it doesn’t matter…because for a few moments, he was ‘The Man!’…something all us guys understand and aspire to.  I am sorry for you girls, for you’ll never know the sheer excitement experienced by us guys during those incredibly intrepid (and sometimes truly stupid) actions of ours.

Anyway, back to skateboards.  By the early 1960s there were several companies, including the famous surf board maker Hobie, who were producing ‘1^st generation’ skateboards with metal wheels.  For some odd reason by 1965 skateboarding’s popularity suddenly crashed and it seemed like the ‘fad’ had died out.  Skateboard companies folded and those interested returned to making their own boards.  By the early 1970s some genius came up with wide urethane wheels (which would take you anywhere and over anything) and sparked a new interest in skateboarding…by 1975 skateboarding had become a ‘sport’ with teams.

But I’ve gotten a little ahead of myself.  When we Claremont boys got our diver’s licenses at 16 (1961) it didn’t decrease our interest in skateboarding, but actually added another dimension to it.  Of course we had to try  hanging on to the car’s door handle or the rear bumper (yes, cars had separate bumpers in those days) for a ride as we had in the past with our bikes.  But those little metal wheels, rough spots of asphalt and increased speed didn’t mix well as we quickly found out.  We could though, use the car for scouting missions to drive around looking for that ‘ultimate’ curve or grade.  A group of us (including me, John Firman, Phil Lacy, Benny Heyer, Steve Mettler ) actually did find the ‘ultimate’ curve and grade in the foothill housing development of Claraboya (which they were just building) at the end of Mountain Road above Baseline.  I think that as we stood at the top of that hill looking down the steep and curved asphalt road we felt like the ‘big wave riders’ of Hawaii looking from the top of a monstrous wave.  It was certainly too steep and not a smart thing to do…but what the heck, we pushed off.  Within a few seconds as we approached the first curve it was obvious the road was too steep and we’d never make it to the bottom.  We started jumping from our boards and running as fast as we could to stay on our feet.  Most of us stayed on our feet (barely) but a few didn’t, taking some spectacular wipe-outs resulting in torn clothing and bloody ‘road burns’…helmets, gloves, knee and elbow pads belonging to boarders of the future.  As we sat there comparing our wounds the question arose as to whether taking a ‘header’ on a giant wave or giant asphalt road is the worst kind of wipe-out…in other words having your skin ground off or being buried under tons of water for minutes at a time?  A true consensus couldn’t be reached due to our lack of experience on monster waves, but the possibility of drowning vs. scabs did seem pretty final!

It was one of those serendipitous moments after a successful (meaning we lived through it) down-hill car race from Mt. Baldy.  John Firman, Phil Lacy and I had pulled into the dirt parking area along side Mt. San Antonio dam and were sitting on the car hood surveying the grand vista of Pomona Valley on a smogless day.  We were discussing maybe bringing our skateboards to this point and riding them down the lower leg of Mt. Baldy Road.  With skateboards on our minds, it was like a giant light bulb appeared over our heads, accompanied by heavenly music.  Our eyes widened, our jaws dropped…for right there in front of us was the concrete flood channel that ran from the spillway off into the distance of the valley!  We looked at each other and said in unison, “skateboard the channel!”  I’m sure this is how ‘other’ great men thought of great adventures…like Christopher Columbus thinking “Hey, maybe I’ll just sail West!”  A simple idea, but a new one.

This concrete channel was in the form of a flat-bottom ‘U’ with a chain-link fence running along the top on both sides.  The bottom was about 12 feet wide with the walls about 8 feet high and it ran from the dam at the base of Mt. Baldy to the ocean maybe??  The gradual incline drop to keep water running was perfect for skateboarding, making it a decent ‘coast’ without much effort. Getting into it at the dam was no problem, but we had to find an ‘access’ point where we could get out.  After much searching we finally found one in Pomona about 8 miles from the dam!  Now, what’s the average ride for a wave surfer?  Maybe 100 feet if he is lucky.  But how about 8 miles with no traffic, no stop signs or pedestrian obstacles!  We were jazzed! 

It took 2 cars, one was left at the Pomona egress and then we piled into the other for the ride up to the dam.  Once there, it was a running, shoving, shouting race to see who would be the first one to the fence, over it and into the flood control.  During our high school years our riding group ranged up to about 8 guys (plus groups of other CHS guys as word spread), but this original skate was ours:  John Firman, Phil Lacy and me (Dan Schafer).  We were the first ones to think of it and the first ones to ever ‘ride the channel’.  This was obvious due to the newness of skateboards, the lack of skate tracks and the amount of debris in the channel.  It’s not like we had to worry about flooding as the most water I’d ever seen behind the dam was a large puddle!  But as we found out on that first trip, there were large sections of sand (probably blown in), rocks and tumbleweeds that made a non-stop 8 mile run impossible.  On our next trips we brought a flat nosed shovel and broom slung over our backs with rope (rifle style) and after a time there was a clean course the whole way.  It wasn’t straight mind you, we had artfully sculpted curves through the sandy areas to test our skill and have some fun.  And it was fun, although an hour of straight riding made our legs ache.  Unfortunately it wasn’t a non-stop ride as the floor of the channel had several wide 5 foot “cuts” to catch debris/sand/rocks…but it was still cool!

Two of our ‘channel’ rides stand out in my mind almost 50 years later.  On one of them, I was number two man about halfway to Pomona when the guy in front of me swung to the left to avoid a small patch of sand and a tumbleweed.  As he passed the tumbleweed he ‘spooked’ a medium sized rattlesnake which slithered out to see what was going on!  I had about 2 seconds to make a decision:  bailout, which would take me half-a-dozen steps to stop (placing me on top of the snake), or continue riding and hope for the best.  I chose the latter and as I passed, the snake (not coiled) threw a small strike at me but missed because of my speed.  Then I bailed out, flagged down the following guys, picked up a rock and killed the snake with a well place ‘bean-ball’.  Of course I cut off the ‘rattles’ with my pocket knife as a souvenir to take to school and show off…and was “The Man” for maybe a week until some other exploit surpassed mine!

The other ride I remember was at the end of our senior year, it might have very well been our last ride as we scattered to the wind after high school.  We had a big group involving several cars at both ends when Steve Mettler pulls up at the dam with a ‘date’!   A date!  No one ever brought a date! I’m sure it would have been written into the “By Laws”, had we bothered to write them.  The problem was, girls didn’t skateboard…they rarely even rode their bikes anymore since entering high school.  Although I like girls, they weren’t a lot of fun in an outdoor or athletic sort of activity.   You’d take them to the beach, would they go into the water with you?  Oh, no.  They’d just gotten their hair ‘done’, or they were wearing a brand new swimming suit and couldn’t get it wet (isn’t that what a ‘bathing suit’ is for??), or the water was cold and full of seaweed!   You’d take them for a hike up towards Mt. Baldy and it was too hot, or too cold, or they were starting to sweat, or they were tired.  You’d take them for a drive and they were scared because you drove too fast.  See what I mean, just not much fun.

Anyway, there was a lot of grumbling in the ranks, “Mettler brought a girl!”  “What was he thinking?”  “Oh, man!”  The girl he brought was our classmate Jan Swett, which was a plus and minus.  The plus was that Jan was a ‘sweetheart’ of a girl (we’d been lab partners) , the minus was that none of us could imagine her balancing on a skateboard. 

I walked over to them and ignoring Mettler said, “Hi, Jan.” 

“Hi, Danny.” 

“Jan, you know what we’re doing here?  We’re taking a long 8 mile ride down the channel to Pomona…have you ever been on a skateboard before?”

“Oh, she’ll do fine,” butted in Mettler at which point I told him to shut up as I was talking to Jan.  That’s something you don’t normally say to a guy in front of his date and Steve wasn’t happy about it, but I liked Jan and was concerned for her.  I’d seen a great many novice riders (including myself) get injured and thought her going was a bad idea.

“Well, no,” she replied, “…but it can’t be too hard.”

“It’s going to be harder than you think, and it’s a long ride,” I said, “…you might get hurt, are you sure you want to try it?”

She wasn’t quite so sure now, but casting a look at an angry Steve and then back to me, she said, “Yes, I want to try it.”

“Okay, if you want to,” I said, thinking it was a bad idea but giving her points for nerve, “Steve, you are responsible for her…you have to say with her…”

“Sure, sure,” said Mettler, “…no problem.”

Looking at Jan, I wished her “good luck” and walked over to join the guys, some of whom had already started.  At about the halfway point (mile 4) there was a wide road overpass and we would sometimes stop under it to get some shade (on a hot day it was hotter in the channel), stretch our legs and take a drink of water if someone had thought to bring some along.  I stopped there to see if Jan and Steve were coming, or as I hoped, they had quit early and gone back to their car.  I waited for quite a while and was just about ready to leave when I saw them.  Benny Heyer had stayed with them (for moral support) and came in first, then Jan and Steve followed her.  Jan would ride for a few feet, lose her balance and jump off…not an encouraging sight.  Soon they joined me in the shade of the overpass and sat down beside me.  They were both obviously frustrated, but I have to hand it to Mettler he was keeping up the encouragement.  I told Jan they were at the point of no return, it was just as far to the end as back to the dam.  She was tired and frustrated but like Steve, was trying to make the best of it.  Since I was driving one of the cars, I said I would be waiting for them, wished them luck and was off.

When I joined the guys waiting at the end I told them Benny, Steve and Jan were still coming, to which there was renewed grumbling directed at Steve.  Shortly most of the guys crammed into the other cars and took off, leaving a couple of us to wait.  Finally the three of them came ‘walking’ in carrying their skateboards, Jan (as I feared) with bloody hands, forearm and knee.  Blood on a guy is just a natural course of things, after all we’d been bleeding from one misadventure or another since kindergarten…blood on us was as common as peanut butter and jelly on our shirts.  But blood on a girl has always bothered me, it doesn’t seem natural or right for some reason (I’m sure there is a woman out there who would probably call me ‘sexist’ for making such a statement…I can hear her now, “Hey buddy, I have as much right to bleed as you do!”). 

Benny told me that he had stopped at one of the rubble filled “cuts” in the floor, crossed it and turned around only to see Jan on her board making some speed.  He tried to flag her down to no avail.  He saw Jan hit the cut, “fly” through the air and land hard…he thought she was dead for a scary moment!  We tried to patch her up from my car’s skimpy first aid kit (a couple of Band-Aids didn’t do the job) and then I drove them up to Mettler’s car parked at the dam and dropped them off.  Obviously Jan wasn’t her usual smiling, cheerful self and Steve was down too.  At least Jan (to my knowledge) holds the distinction of being the first girl to ‘skateboard’ the flood control channel and she probably still has the scars to prove it!

I’m not sure how many of the guys continued with skateboarding, but I don’t think many did mainly because of the timing and the evolution of skateboarding.  By the time the ‘modern’ skateboard evolved 10 years later, most of us had been in the military, graduated from college, gotten married and were working.  Irregardless, the fact still remains that we Claremont boys of the “Class of 1963” were among the first skateboarders in the world (I think)!