Roger Powley, Mike Smith and Neil Fordham started going to the castle car park to skate. They originally went skateboarding at Shanklin Old Village car park Other sites Roger remembers are the entrance to Blackgang Chine by the pirate figure, St. Marys roundabout subway and the old rocket site at the Needles.
During the mid seventies skateboarding had really started to take off for some Isle of Wight Surf Club members. Issue 1 of The IOW Surf Club’s new magazine Wight Water says that Blackgang Chine and Shanklin Old Village car Park were unusable due to the onslaught of grockles and the local law used to chase them off. .
This had become an issue nationally with skateboarders finding it difficult to find suitable spots to skate. In Newquay skateboarding had been reportedly banned and many other towns followed suit. At the time Bournemouth was still ok but in Brighton it was a no go. in London some parks still allowed skateboarding but it was now illegal to skate on the subway.
At the time a British Competition was planned, probably at Crystal palace with National Press and the Club were hoping to arrange a trip up to the event. Did anyone go to the event and can tell us more?
Skateboarding logo from Issue 1 of Wight Water
The Club started regular meetings at Carisbrooke Castle on Mondays from 7pm till dusk and most weeks 8 – 12 people turned up.
Wight Water magazine also reported that a Skateboarding competition was planned for August 1976 with events to include Slalom, Freestyle and timed speed runs.
Chris Salter
Winner Chris Salter
Chris Salter
Chris Salter was the overall winner of the event and he thinks that he still has the cup for winning the one and only skateboard comp that the surf club held at the castle car park.
Simon Cooper
Roger Powley, Mike Smith and Neil Fordham started going to the castle car park to skate. They originally went to Shanklin Old Village car park but the local law used to chase them off. Other sites Roger remembers are the entrance to Blackgang Chine by the pirate figure, St. Marys roundabout subway and the old rocket site at the Needles.
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
This was the same scene as one early August evening back in 1976 at Carisbrooke Castle car park, Mike Smith presenting Chris Salter with the cup for winning the first and only skateboarding competition held on the IOW, only this was last evening, 37 year’s later at the Sun Inn
Roger Powley says he still has his G&S Fibreflex with RoadRider wheels, and Gail Sheath says she had a flexi deck bought from Dave Gray.
More images from the skateboarding competition at Carisbrook Castle below:
