By Kelly Morgan,Staff Writer

NORWAY – A new skateboarding shop that opened on Main Street over the weekend already has a crew of devoted followers, many of whom were parked on two couches inside watching skate videos Monday afternoon.

Business partners Bently Hamilton, 19, and Adam Beaulieu, 23, were manning the cash register and hanging out with the crowd. Destoy Skateshop and Screenprinting is intended as a place where kids are welcome to stick around, make an adjustment or two on their boards and talk.

There aren’t many places for young people to go in Oxford Hills, Hamilton said, let alone places to skateboard. “It’s hard for kids to hang out anywhere around town without getting hassled.”

So, he said, Destoy is a safe, drug-free space for them.

And, of course, the shop offers a full range of skate products, including everything from decks by companies like Listen Skateboards and Consolidated Skateboards, to trucks by Krux, Independent and Venture. There are wheels and soon will be “completes,” or skateboards that already have been assembled.

There are skate videos that can be previewed, and a shipment of Vans and Fallen shoes is expected by next week. The skate clothing includes hats, T-shirts and sweatshirts with the Destoy label.

And Destoy can design and produce unique logos for individual customers or use existing logos for screen-printing, Hamilton said. He’s been in the screen-printing business for about three years. Now he and Beaulieu have purchased new equipment to speed up production.

If that doesn’t seem like enough to juggle, Hamilton and Beaulieu also plan to continue organizing snowboarding and skateboarding competitions throughout the region – something Hamilton began as a way to promote his clothing. He said he hopes all his efforts will help make more people familiar with skateboarding, which he noted isn’t yet a widely accepted sport in the region.

“It’s hard for people to understand something they’ve never experienced,” he said.

For more information on Destoy, a Web site is in the works at www.destoylife.com. The business hours are 1 to 6 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.