NORFOLK, Va. - While many sports haven't been able to be played during the coronavirus pandemic, some sports have carried on these past few months, including skateboarding.
“We’re not gonna let anything stop us," local skateboarder Fisher Neighbors said. "This is what we do every day. It's our passion.”
“It’s kind of great for skateboarders right now," Cardinal Skate Shop owner Jason Hawkes said. "When the city’s closed, it’s wide open for us.”
Jason Hawkes says that once the pandemic hit, he did notice a lull in participation in skateboarding. Although, after about two weeks it was the complete opposite. Hawkes said he started to see a growing interest from entirely new groups of people.
“People we haven’t seen in a while, they just finally had the time because they weren’t working, to get back to skateboarding," Hawkes said. "And people who haven’t done it in years just trying to get back to it, and people who are new to it.”
A growing interest in the sport is something skate shop owners certainly love, but for Hawkes it's a catch-22 situation because it's become harder to get goods for those looking to skate.
“It’s been awesome but rough because hard goods, because of the pandemic, are hard to get ahold of," Hawkes said. "Shoes are hard to get ahold of, we’re down on wheels and trucks and boards. Every day I'm looking at all my resources, seeing what's available, trying to bring it in and keep the shop in business.”
