Skate back the streets

>> Masses reclaim Montreal on
Go Skateboarding Day

SEEKING HOT SPOTS: Eric Mercier (right) and others at GSD 2006

by LUCAS WISENTHAL

Although skateboarders may seem ubiquitous in Montreal, places to skate are anything but. Round-the-clock security at buildings downtown and unsightly skateboard blockers on benches, handrails and ledges have resulted in a dwindling number of skate spots in a city once renowned for its urban terrain.

And while Montreal has its share of skate parks, most skaters still prefer the streets. On June 21, the fourth annual Go Skateboarding Day, Montreal’s skateboarders will congregate downtown for Wild in the Streets, an event with the mandate of reclaiming the expensive real estate from which skaters have been banished.

Eric Mercier, who’s been skating since 1984 and is still active in all aspects of Montreal’s skateboard community, is dismayed that the spots that helped the city’s scene coalesce in the late ’80s are now busts. “City hall was the best spot,” says Mercier. “Everybody would just go there, skate, chill, drink beers, whatever.” With its ledges, stairs and abundance of flat ground, the square allowed skaters to perform successions of tricks instead of taking turns skating one obstacle. “When we lost [city hall], that’s when we all moved out to Peace Park [at St-Laurent and René-Lévesque].”

Though its layout offered fewer approaches, Peace Park’s centrality on the lower Main made it a natural replacement for its predecessor. But when police visits became too frequent, local skaters migrated to Berri Square, a spot where skating is legal as long as its marble ledges are not defaced by sliding boards and grinding trucks.

To compensate for the loss of ledge spots, the city last year unveiled plans for a skate plaza underneath the Jacques-Cartier bridge. Unlike conventional skate parks, which feature an array of transitions and embankments, skate plazas are designed to mimic the architectural sensibilities of urban areas.

Mercier believed that Montreal’s skaters would finally have a hassle-free spot reminiscent of City Hall. “I was at every meeting with the city for the skate plaza,” says Mercier, “until the firm that designed it started to go buckwild and didn’t want to listen to us and I quit.” The result was a park replete with useless rails and ledges. “I drive by there every single day when I come back from work, and I think the most people that I’ve seen there is, like, four at a time,” he says.

These days, when Mercier skates the city, he usually heads to Old Montreal. The Banque Nationale branch on Place d’Armes boasts a knee-high ledge and a chest-high step-up ledge, accessible from a narrow runway, for more daunting manoeuvres. He also recommends the stairs at Pointe-à-Callière. “Everybody who comes to Montreal skates that spot,” he says.

Mercier supports Go Skateboarding Day not just to reclaim spots, but because he hopes it will sensitize the public to skateboarders’ needs. “But if we only do that once a year, we’re gonna get nowhere,” he says.

Mathieu Boutin, Go Skateboarding Day’s Montreal coordinator, says regular events are not necessary. It’s the message that matters. “If there’s 2,000 kids skating at the same time… and we’re being heard by more people, it will be a big step for us,” says Boutin.

For Mercier, skating in solidarity is not enough. “At the end of the day,” he says, “there should be something happening at city hall—something to show the fucking mayor or someone in charge that we are there.”