It wasn't skateboarding in 1965. It was 'skurfing'

Wearing a jacket and tie, CBC reporter Lloyd Robertson wasn't exactly clad in skateboard-appropriate clothes when he tried the skill in June 1965.

Then again, neither was the experienced teenager helping him. She was wearing a summer dress.

"Here she comes, in the shadow of the CBC television tower," said Robertson, as his guest, Gai Cochrane, expertly rolled toward him in the parking lot.

The Etobicoke Collegiate student, who was president of the Ontario branch of the National Sidewalk Surfers of Canada, was a guest on CBC's Across Canada. 

'Skurfboard' advocate

"I'll bet this is the first time that you have been on a skurfboard in a dress as lovely as that," remarked Robertson after Cochrane neatly jumped off her board to talk.

The teenager agreed that a dress wasn't her usual clothing choice for the activity, then told viewers how her association came to exist.

"We were told by the Toronto police that if we were in an organization, a whole bunch of kids together ... they wouldn't tell us to leave and take our boards away," she explained.

She also agreed when Robertson suggested the police only "bothered" groups of two or three kids on boards together.

"Is this really dangerous?" asked Robertson, shifting the subject.

One weekend, 40 fractures

"No, it's about as dangerous as bicycle riding, if you can control your board," said Cochrane. "But, if you can't, you can injure yourself badly."

Robertson said he understood there had been "some 40 fractures" in Ottawa "a couple of weekends" earlier.

"You can break an arm or a leg if you take a really bad fall," said Cochrane. "If you're going fast enough, you can fall off."

An advertisement for Simpson's department store in the Toronto Star from March 1965 advertised "sidewalk surfers," with the copy noting they were "for children and adults alike." They retailed for $10.98 (about $90 in 2020) for a 28-inch-long laminated board.  

At the end of May, the newspaper was reporting that skateboards and motorbikes had come "under fire" from the city's welfare, fire and legislation committee.

Alderman Ken Dear had said skateboards were "a menace to pedestrians and traffic." He had moved for a ban on city sidewalks and streets.

'I'll be in bandages'  

Despite the risks of getting on a board, Robertson was game to try a "lesson" from Cochrane.

"Sandi, the next time you see me, I'll be in bandages," said Robertson, speaking to Across Canada host Sandi Fruman. 

He handed his microphone to an off-camera colleague before stepping on a board and taking Cochrane's arm.

Rather than following a career in sidewalk surfing, Robertson went on to a long career in broadcasting at CBC and, later, CTV.