[ back ]
Sports of All Sorts III: He's on a roll...
(by Kristy Zurbrick, Madison Editor - February 17, 2010)
|
 Colby Gulick practices skateboarding on the half-pipe his dad built in the basement.
|
In January, the Madison Messenger covered the story of Colby Gulick, a London Elementary student who wrote to the mayor, asking for a skatepark. Colby’s story inspired “Sports of All Sorts,” a four-part series on Madison County kids who are pursuing sports off the beaten path. This is the third story in the series.
Colby Gulick eats, sleeps and breathes skateboarding.
On summer weekends, when he’s spending eight to 12 hours a day at the Grove City Skatepark, he’ll eat his lunch off of his skateboard.
At night, “I dream about how much new stuff I can do now than I ever could before,” he said.
As for breathing the sport, well, one could say Colby inhales anything that has to do with it. He owns 17 boards, five of which he displays on a rack in his bedroom.
“If he’s not skateboarding, he’s watching it on TV or playing skateboarding games,” said Colby’s dad, Tim Gulick.
Colby, 8, picked up the sport two years ago when his dad was looking for an activity for his son that would fit into a weekend schedule. Tim, who lives in Grove City with his fiancée Jacqui Widner, shares parenting custody with Colby’s mom, Tonya Gulick, who lives in London.
“I started taking him to the skatepark in Grove City and he fell in love with it. He took to it like a duck to water,” Tim said.
Colby got the feel of wheels under his feet first by rolling down driveways and then hills at the skatepark. Soon enough, he was zooming around ramps, bowls and half-pipes, including a half-pipe his dad built in his Grove City basement. Through practice, weekly lessons and competitions, Colby adds to his bag of tricks, which includes everything from “ollies” to “pop shove-its.”
One of Colby’s newly acquired moves is a “blunt to a fakie,” which, in layman’s terms, means he rolls up a half-pipe, gets his front wheels in the air and his back wheels on the railing, grabs the front of the board, then heads back down the half-pipe backwards.
Last year, the London Elementary School student participated in 11 competitions around Ohio, from Wooster to Athens, as a member of the jpskate and Board Shop’s beginner team out of Delaware, Ohio.
“Greg Patton, who owns jpskate, is trying to give attention to kids who are really into skateboarding and give them a team to be on,” Tim said. “The only way you’re allowed to be on the team is if you’re a good role model.”
Early this year, Colby represented his team well at a national qualifier in Georgia, where he finished just two spots out of the running to advance to the finals in Minnesota.
“I had fun and did my best,” Colby said.
And that’s what counts, said his dad.
“We don’t want to push him. We told him, ‘Whenever you’re not having fun anymore, you tell us,’ ” Tim said.
Colby is saying nothing, smiling big, and rolling on.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SKATEBOARDER
Colby Gulick
(“Cheese” or “Little Dude”)
Age: 8
Home: London/Grove City
Years in the sport: 2
Coach: Chris Higgins, a pro skateboarder
Team: Greg Patton’s jpskate and Board Shop Skate Team based in Delaware, Ohio
Top accomplishments: Colby competed in the street, mini-ramp and bowl contests in the beginner division of the King of the Groms national qualifier Jan. 1-3 in Canton, Ga. He missed advancing to finals in Minnesota by just two spots.
He placed third in the 13-and-under category at the Evolution Skatepark Bowl Bash in Canton, Ohio, in January.
Upcoming competitions: Cow Town Showdown at The Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, March 6-7. (This is the first year the event has included skateboarding.)
Skateboard Idol: Rob Dyrdek, a professional skateboarder originally from Kettering, Ohio, who has been competing in and promoting the sport for nearly 20 years
Hobbies: Skateboarding, skateboarding, skateboarding
[ back ]
