A community of skateboarders, spanning all ages, find a gathering place on the asphalt at Seaside’s DMV.

The Department of Motor Vehicles in Seaside is well known among local skateboarders because it provides a lot of surface, especially in the back where, during the week, cars wait for a test drive. As opposed to, say, El Estero Skate Park – a local space designed for skateboarding in Monterey – it provides opportunities to train with obstacles skateboarders meet while riding in public spaces.

Street skating is all about curbs, benches, handrails and other elements of the urban landscape. The DMV has a lot of that. And since the pandemic, “by the DMV” has become something more than a random call for the fluctuating group of about 10 local skaters.

“DMV is closed and there’s nothing to damage,” says Alex Ramirez of Monterey, who first picked up a skateboard in eighth grade. He is 32 now and is still steeped in the culture through which he discovered a lot of music and photography – and even at some point decided that his job would be to “pick up a camera” and document the phenomenon of skateboarding when he grew older.

“It’s a labor of love,” he says about the hours and hours of waiting with his phone ready for one of his friends – there are maybe seven of them practicing on a Saturday afternoon in October – for a perfectly executed trick. “What’s unique about this community is that they never stopped skateboarding,” Ramirez says. “I guess we maintained our youthfulness.”

By that, Ramirez means that these days, more and more skateboarders continue with their passion well into middle age, instead of dropping it in their late 20s. It’s a national trend.

“They are all older skateboarders,” Ramirez says, pointing out a few who are practicing their ollies and flips. But the space is open to everybody, and Christopher Crawley, 30, is here with his son Clinton, 7. “He is not serious about it,” Crawley comments on his son’s effort, even though Clinton seems to be very determined and doing pretty well to an amateur eye.

He doesn’t mind his dad. “We practice here because it’s right next to the police station,” Crawley says, laughing.

Just as Ramirez said, Crawley gave up skateboarding many years ago, but it somehow found a path back to his heart. “I guess I wasn’t able to give it up entirely. It’s a muscle memory.”

Mike Ziadeh has a similar observation. He had been skateboarding for years before he moved to Monterey County in 2009 from Seattle. Like the friends he left behind in Washington state, he never stopped; it seems to be a generational thing.

“Your style keeps changing,” he says of his 20 years of experience, but the rest is the same – and it’s just as fun as it used to be. “It’s shaded here,” he offers in praise of the DMV spot. “There are no pedestrians. Nobody bothers us.”

The space is open to anybody, Ramirez says, at any level of skill. In the summer, they stay for many hours, but days are shorter and sunsets come quicker in the winter. Despite that, the DMV in Seaside has remained their favorite Saturday spot. They gather around 2pm.

Clayton Payton, 46, is the oldest among the group. “I picked it up when I was 13 and quit it for 20 years,” he says. But like so many of his colleagues, Payton returned to his old passion in 2020, during the pandemic. He agrees that skateboarding is in the midst of a sort of renaissance, attracting different people, often those coming back for another round.

“It’s something to relax,” says Taylor Poole, who has been skateboarding, off and on, since junior high.

Sometimes they choose a different practice spot, but usually they find that “by the DMV” serves them best. There is enough space for everybody to take turns and practice their unique tricks.

Ramirez made a short documentary, showing the best tricks, that is now available online. Titled Ketch, it shows Payton, Wilson, Ziadeh and Crawley in action. Other skateboarders featured in the movie are Dominick Tuccer, Matt Barron, Quinton McKee, Michael Nevares, Andrew Ibarra, Taylor Wilson, Tony Lee Espinoza and Ted Barrow.

Watch KETCH on YouTube at bit.ly/KetchMovie