EVERYDAY MARVEL: A half pipe mini ramp is a pretty common sight for a lot of Southern Californians. Given our strong skateboarding culture and fine weather, half pipes show up near the shore and at playgrounds and a hundred other recreational spots. But seeing one inside a museum? That's definitely an unusual and delightful image. And when you find out that the ramp is in service of an exhibit examining skateboarding in Native America, and that the exhibit hails from no less than the Smithsonian, you start to wish that every museum would think as boldly. The museum we speak of is San Diego's own Museum of Man and Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America opens on Saturday, April 28. And to celebrate? There will indeed by live skateboarding inside the museum.
THE EXHIBIT: Ramp It Up is making its initial traveling debut at the Museum of Man; this is the first time it has shown outside the Smithsonian. It will look at the birth of surf in Hawaiian, how the skateboard arose from that, and how it has become "one of the most popular sports on Indian reservations and has inspired and influenced Native American and Native Hawaiian communities." As mentioned, if you want to see half pipe action inside the museum, get there on Saturday, April 28. But there are other skating demos to come during the four-and-a-half month run. Ramp It Up skates out of San Diego on Sunday, Sept. 9.
