FARMINGTON — You hear the wheels of the skateboard rolling on the pavement before you see amateur skateboarder Eli Davis jump over the stairs at a downtown park.
It is not the 17-year-old Wilton boy’s usual arena to display his talents but he was successful all the same. He and his Grizzly Grip board landed as one and rolled on.
Davis tours the country to compete against skateboarders from the United States and other nations.
He grew up near Kineowatha Park in Wilton, which had a skateboard park. He tried all of the usual youth sports, including baseball, but they didn’t catch his interest like skateboarding.
“I started skateboarding when I was 6 or 7,” Davis said Wednesday afternoon. Seeing the local kids skateboarding at the park captured his attention.
“I thought it was really cool,” he said. “Naturally I was drawn to it.”
His first board was a Birdhouse.
“Once I picked it up, I could not put it down,” Davis said.
When he was about age 11, he said, he landed his first sponsorship with Sick Skateboards. From there he went on to film and produce two videos as a sponsored rider.
He likes the freedom skateboarding gives him and that everyone has their own style, he said.
“To me skateboarding is a game that never can be beaten,” Davis said. “There is always something you can learn and progress with.”
He trains for competitions at the indoor Carrabassett Valley Antigravity Center.
He still loves to skate in his hometown as he listens to music as he travels the roads.
“It is a good way to clear my head,” he said. “It’s also nice to be able to come and skate with my friends and relax instead of being on tours.”
Tours are pretty stressful, he added.
The first trick he learned on the skateboard was an ollie, where a skateboarder jumps in the air with the skateboard stuck to his feet. Next was a kickflip where the boarder and board are in the air and the board turns 360 degrees with the board landing on it.
His skateboarding shoes show the wear and tear from the challenges.
He took a break from skateboarding in 2009. He was a freshman at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington and decided to try out running in track and cross country. He took first place at the freshman level at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.
“I did that for a year and then decided it wasn’t my thing. So then I came back to skateboarding,” Davis said.
He went back to a Pennsylvania camp to retrain and was on his way again.
“I realized skateboarding is my passion and that’s when I started doing tours and went to nationals,” he said. He estimates he has entered about 50 contests.
“I’m always up in the top three,” he said.
Davis already has a fan base.
“It’s pretty cool to sign stuff for kids,” he said. “My goal is to be successful and become a professional skateboarder.”
NOTE: Headline was changed to reflect the correct town Eli Davis lives in.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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- Eli Davis, 17, of Wilton enjoys the freedom and creativity of skateboarding at home and in competitions across the country.
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