Paul Knowles was Kents First Skateboarder, "Oh yeah who are you kidding" You might say. Well its true! I feel quite confident that I can lay claim to that title. It was about 1964 when I first became interested in the then "new" surfing scene, this was centered around music by the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. In January 1965 I went to the boat show in London and bought a Hobbie wooden top skateboard from the European Surfing Co, now Bilbo. They were up from Newquay with a display of surfboards, surf clothes and they were demonstrating skateboards, just think until this point only a handful of people in this country had ever scene a skateboard and these people were all surfers. I was completely stoked out of my mind and bought everything I could carry back home, a skateboard, a blue T shirt with white and yellow stripes by Catalina of California several "Surfer" magazines and a "Murphy" the surfer sticker, this was actually a water slide transfer as plastic stickers as you know them today were not yet available.

I used to skateboard down the sidewalk on Tankerton slopes, finding the longest hill you could in those days and the fastest you could go! gave you the most kicks . I met some lads one Sunday who were still at Sturry Secondary School they were about 15 I think, they wanted to join in. We formed a little group that skateboarded every Sunday on the car parks and down the slopes in the Dane John gardens in Canterbury. No body else showed up with a board. I bought 4 boards from California by California Associates, they had clay wheels with ball bearings and a solid wooden top like a mini surfboard about 28 inches long by 7 inches wide. We got some good speeds up, down the Kent University Road, it was dead smooth with no speed bumps and less traffic back then.

From there on I started surfing and brought a real surfboard back from a holiday in Newquay in 1966. I had some friends who formed a group singing surf songs, they called themselves "The Ways and Means" they did a lot of live shows in Canterbury and Thanet. We formed the East Kent Surfing Club back in 1968 and spent a few magic surfing years on the west coast Spain and Portugal and our own surf break at Joss Bay.

Remember in those days you could not get the stuff you can now even to have an original T shirt from the USA was quite something. Best of luck with your skateboarding. I can remember getting stopped by the Police back in 1965 for skateboarding down Canterbury high street, so things have not changed much. Have fun and may be some of you will take up surfing, give it a go this summer. There will be no turning back then you will be hooked for life.