By Adam Donnelly

Skateboarding in Kamloops on display at museum

Apr 29, 2016 | 5:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — “The Kamloops Museum and Archives has a new exhibition on display.” That’s a phrase which would usually put young folks to sleep; this show is different, though. Ground Control is about skateboard culture, and the skateboarding community in Kamloops.

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It’s not a typical museum exhibition. Ground Control is a look at skateboard subculture, and it has a distinctive Kamloops flavour.

“We wanted to… capture at least a portion of the Kamloops scene,” Museum Curator Matt Macintosh told CFJC Today. “[Kamloops has] an extremely long-standing, varied, and really rich skateboard scene, and this [exhibition] is an attempt to speak to it, a little bit.”

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The sport’s origins can be traced all the way back to the 1920’s, but skateboarding really took off in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

“People have been kind of standing precariously on things on wheels for a long time,” Macintosh said. “We actually have an example of a board produced by one our volunteers… who in 1963, put a two-by-four on his sisters skateboard wheels, put a leash to it, and went down the street… In the 70’s it really started to develop, with locals like Kenny Dale winning national Championships.”

The exhibition includes a number of interactive displays, including local skaters recounting the glory days of the sport, as well as local skate videos. The biggest draw might be the custom built ramp, situated right inside the museum.

“We put the ramp in because we could,” Macintosh replied, when asked about the piece. “We wanted to have people come in and… experience a chance to try out this amazing activity in the context of understanding it as a cultural pursuit.”

If you want to skate the ramp, you can come into the Museum Thursday to nSaturday, between 3:00 and 4:00pm, or email mmacintosh@kamloops.ca.

Ground Control runs from now, until August 20th. It’s definitely worth dropping into the museum for a look.