Safety First - Original Painting

Created for the Exhibition: The Boy With A Leg Named Brian: Memoirs by Pete McKee

The skateboard craze hit Batemoor in the summer of ’77. Jason’s dad had
made him a board out of oak and Rog had a yellow plastic board, with
proper wheels, which his mum got him out of the club book. Some of the
bigger kids on the estate had the real deal with 5" trucks, poly wheels and
fully gripped deck. Mine, on the other hand, was from Rotherham Market.
The “Flyer Surfboard” was the cheapest board going, with rubber roller-
skate wheels screwed to the bottom of a plywood board. Our Stuart insisted
that I wear all the safety gear, so he went and got me a full set of Cooper ice
hockey pads and a helmet. I topped off the look with a pair of goalkeeping
gloves. I looked like I was about to enter a dystopian combat arena, to do
battle with a mutant gladiator. In reality I was gently trundling down a
slight incline at the side of The Batemoor pub, hanging on to my board for
dear life. Like most crazes, it lasted a few months before most of us moved
on to the relative safety of the Rubik’s Cube.

Product Details
Created in 2024.
Emulsion on board.
Framed in non-reflective museum glass.
Measurements including frame: 496mm x 675mm