The skateboard kid

June Casagrande

Dana Wildes might have seen it coming, but she didn’t. When a friend

gave her son Quinn, then 3, a skateboard last year, the Costa Mesa

resident was expecting him to react like any kid his age. Perhaps he

would be interested for a little while, perhaps roll the skateboard on

the floor like a toy firetruck, maybe sit on it or even stand with

someone’s help and pretend to really ride.

But this was the kid who at 1 1/2 was trying to jump into the deep end

of the pool, much to his mother’s distressed surprise. This was the kid

who at about age 2 tried to ride a tiny key chain in the shape of a

skateboard. A toddler whose unusually adventurous spirit has been evident

as long as he has been around.

So, looking back, it’s not too surprising that when Quinn got a real

skateboard as a novelty gift last year, he immediately began to ride. But

at the time, Wildes and friends were floored.

“He just took off,” Wildes said. “None of us could believe it. We were

all just watching him, bent over with amazement.”

Quinn has never been the same. Since that time, the 4-year-old has

been a regular at the RSA skateboard park, a Costa Mesa spot with indoor

ramps and bowls -- a skater’s paradise.

“It’s fun,” Quinn said. “I like to skateboard every day after school.”

It was at RSA that Quinn first caught the attention of Chronic

Industries. The fledgling action sports and music apparel company moved

into the space next door to the skate park, where it was hard not to

notice Quinn right away.

“He’s just so perfect to represent Chronic Industries,” said Skip

Snead, chief operating officer and vice president of marketing for the

company. “His outgoing spirit and determination at such a young age is a

lot like us as a company.”

The next step was obvious to Snead: sponsorship. For someone as young

as Quinn, sponsorship is hardly the type of big-bucks marketing

associated with professional and competitive sports. Quinn does not

compete -- Mom and Chronic alike agree he’s too young. Instead, Chronic

supports Quinn with free and discounted merchandise that in turn provides

exposure for the company and its skating apparel.

“It’s not like we’re paying a salary,” Snead said. “We give an awesome

deal on anything he wants in a store. We give him all the free Chronic

Industries clothing he can fit in his bag. When he does well in school,

we give him stuff. We’re like his little fan club. He’s a little

celebrity.”

Quinn has, in fact, become the company’s poster boy. His young face,

adorned by his trademark Mohawk, beams from a recent cover of the

company’s quarterly magazine, Chronic Times.

The Mohawk, Dana said, was Quinn’s idea.

“He saw a picture in a skateboarding magazine of a kid with a Mohawk,

and he just kept asking me for one and never stopped,” she said. Since

then, it has been dyed green, orange and even red, white and blue.

But style and attitude are only part of what makes Quinn special. When

it comes to skateboarding, everyone agrees he has a gift.

“He’s a prodigy. He really is,” Snead said. “Most kids his age are

playing with blocks. . . . He has excellent balance for a child his age.

He’s amazing.”

One of his strengths is that he’s good at “doing fakies” -- riding his

board in either direction, left foot first or right foot. Also, Snead

noted, Quinn’s approach to skateboarding is almost academic. Unlike other

young skateboarders who immediately want to imitate fancy tricks they see

on TV, Quinn is more inclined to practice his top turns -- 180-degree

turns at the uppermost side of a U-shaped skate ramp.

“He does everything textbook,” Snead said. “He’s learning the basics.”

For this reason, Wildes and especially Snead think Quinn has a

lucrative future in the sport if he wants one. Sponsored competitive

skaters can make good money. But, if they stick with the plan that Quinn

probably shouldn’t begin to compete before about age 10, options such as

television commercials and other opportunities nonetheless looms large.

“Friends all say they can see him being a Pepsi kid,” Wildes said.

“One of these little kids you see in the commercials.”

But for Quinn, a normal kid who loves TV and his big brother, Brendon,

it’s all about the skating -- at least for now.

“He says when he gets older and makes some money, he wants to buy a

motor home and $1,000 worth of candy,” Wildes said, laughing. “He wants

to drive around the country, skating in different places and eating

candy.”

-- June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .