First person: skateboarder, snowboarder Elliott Fox

Laura Clark / Nelson County Times
Published: January 15, 2008

On how he got into skateboarding:

The initial appeal is probably just that it seemed like the cool thing to do at the time. As you get better, you really start to understand it. It's a really fun sport. There's so many different types of tricks and ways to do it. You can (be creative). You can ride on all different types of terrain, as long as it's smooth. It offers a lot of freedom in that respect.

Skateboarding is a pretty slow graph of progression. I don't have a signature move. I'm probably not good enough to have one. In skateboarding, there's a trick called a manual, which is just a wheelie. I'm good at those.

On where he rides:

Usually Waynesboro or Charlottesville. Occasionally I'll go down to a skate park in Staunton. Freestyle, a store in Charlottesville, has things set up. We go there a lot. Most of the time we're around downtown Charlottesville or downtown Waynesboro.

On dealing with the public, from residents to police:

A lot of people are really nice about it, and it's understandable because it's their property. A lot of times we're not really doing any good for it. They'll ask nicely and try to make up an excuse, like "Oh, normally I'd let you, but there's somebody inside."

Sometimes people are really aggressive. It's probably because they've had other skateboards that have been asked to leave, and they don't want to leave. Even if you're at a place where you've never been before, people say, "How many times are we going to have this discussion- I see you here every day." I'm like, "I've never been here." We're just like, "Okay, we'll leave."

I've had a few brush-ins (with police). Usually they're okay about it. Sometimes they're kind of strange. Charlottesville police are the worst because they're like, "Skateboarding is illegal everywhere in Charlottesville. Go home." Some other police will follow you around to make sure you head home, like kick you out of town.

A lot of them in the Lovingston area are pretty nice about it. Sometimes they'll say, "You guys might want to get off a main road, and go someplace where there's not so much traffic because it might be dangerous for you guys to be out there."

I think there's a stereotype of skateboarders where they're all just aggressive, raggedy-type teenagers. They're really just average people.

On the spot to skate in Lovingston:

Near the courthouse there's a staircase. I'm the only one who's tried it. It's just seven stairs, but it's kind of a neat place. And then if you go down that street, the main place people skate is near where people get guitar lessons. There's a ledge that people grind on.

On the new skate park in Lynchburg:

It's really nice. There's a lot of variety, and it's really well laid out.

On wiping out:

I've never broken anything, amazingly. In snowboarding, the falls are usually the most violent, because you're going down a hill so you roll, bounce around. Some of those can be bad. I wear a helmet when I snowboard, because I'm too high up in the air to not. In skateboarding, anytime you make contact with the pavement it hurts. I've never had anything too horrible.

On snowboarding:

Snowboarding is sort of difficult to learn the first few days, but once you get the basics down the rest of it comes pretty quickly.

Snowboarding's a lot of fun. It's not so great this year with the condition of the slopes. I've only been up (to Wintergreen) once. In a good season, it's a lot of fun because all the slopes are open. I usually stay on the terrain park where they have all the jumps and the rails, and on the highlands where they have the diamond slopes. They're not a whole lot steeper than the regular slopes; they're just narrower and longer.

On his skateboarding crew:

I usually skateboard with Garth Phillips. We'll take a camera sometimes and half-heartedly film. We want to come out with a video sort of thing, divide it into parts for each person. It's pretty simple, no plot, not like a movie or anything. Caleb Dutton-Plutzer, he and some friends from Charlottesville, they're like the skateboarding scene around here. Caleb's probably the best at the school.

On his funniest moment on a board:

Snowboarding one time, there was this rail, probably a couple of feet high. It had some sort of Wintergreen wood logo hanging down, so you couldn't go underneath it. I wanted to try to come in sideways and jump over it. I decided halfway through it was too big to jump over, but I forgot to veer out of the way so I just ran headlong into it. I hit it, went up in the air and did a back flip, landing directly on my head. That was pretty funny, or that's what everybody told me.

Skateboarding is always funny because people are always clutzing around. You'll hit a piece of gravel and fall off. Lots of face plants, stuff like that. It's usually me.

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