The secret history of local skaters

They say skateboarding is a sport, a craft, a science and an art form.

Orland skaters Devan Barley and Cody Putnam skate every day, grinding on the local sidewalks, curbs and gutters. They skate in the morning. They skate at night. They skate for fun. They skate because they love it.

“It’s about skating as much as you can and getting better,” Barley said. “I’m going to get sponsored someday,” he added.

The boys said they used to skate to and from school, but C.K. Price school officials banned skateboards from campus after students were caught attempting dangerous tricks outside their classrooms, Barley said.

Barley began skating when he was seven-years-old and, after four years, he is considered a veteran.

They said they consider themselves good kids and athletes. They both play Peewee football and always wear their protective gear.

Skating was popular in the 1980s, but then died out for a while, briefly resurfacing in the 1990s.

Jesse Niewald has been grinding his board on the streets and sidewalks of Willows for nearly 15-years.

The 29-year-old Sacramento native moved to Willows in 1995 and has watched the local skateboarding scene change dramatically over the years.

“When I first came here, (skating) was like banned or something in Willows,” he said. “We had the cops all over us, all the time, but it’s just not like that anymore.”

There were only four skaters back then, Niewald said, and the community did not tolerate their presence.

“We were just not like the popular kids in high school so people thought we must have been the bad kids,” Niewald said. “But, it’s just not like that.”

Niewald said the old ideas about hoodlum, street gang skaters was just a popular stereotype, at least locally.

Now that popular myth seems to be a thing of the past.

The new generation is more diverse, Niewald said, with younger kids getting into the sport with their parent’s support after watching the X-games and other pro skaters.

“And they have goals and stuff, some of them, where I just skate because I love it, plain and simple,” Niewald said.

Barley’s mother, Heidi, took the boys to the Willows skate park on Tuesday so they could practice and make a skate video together.

“I’m impressed by their coordination and lack of fear when they do tricks,” Mrs. Barley said.

“The video helps us see what we’re doing wrong when we’re doing tricks,” Putnam explained.

“We’re pretty much serious about this,” Barley added.

“Orland needs a skate park of its own really bad so we don’t have to get our parents to drive us all the way out here,” Barley said. “But, Orland and Willows are good places to be a skater,” he added.

The new generation began to embrace the sport around 1998 and it has grown in popularity ever since, Niewald said.

“We liked it when the younger kids started showing up because skating is like little community or culture or something where we all stick together,” Niewald said. “So, we love sharing this with other people that like it too.”

Skaters became accepted as part of the Glenn County landscape around the time the Willows skate park opened in 2003, Niewald said.

“All kinds of people skate now,” Niewald said. “I’ve seen old people, kids, real gang members, students. Once I even saw a cowboy with the hat grinding at the (skate) park.”

That’s good news for rookie skaters like Dillon Silva. The 14-year-old Willows kid began skating one week ago and said he plans to become a professional some day.

With school out for the week in both Willows and Orland, this is the perfect time to work on your technique, he said.

“I’m still trying to learn tricks and catch air,” Silva explained at the skate park Tuesday afternoon.

Skaters wear their scars like little red badges of courage and like all rookie skaters, Silva said he is looking forward to the day when his arms and legs are covered with them. He said injuries show that a skater is unafraid of pain.

“It’s like you see someone with a big scar and you know he missed a major trick, but he’s still skating and that’s awesome,” Silva said.

Niewald praised the rookie’s good attitude.

“It’s like that stupid movie when the guy says: Pain is temporary, glory is forever and chicks dig scars,” he quoted.