Mentor-on-the-Lake skater sessions held at Tiefenbach Memorial Park

Caught popping ollies, sliding through 5-0 grinds and landing tall pop-shove-its in the 80-degree heat Mentor’s Headlands neighborhood saw June 12, Mentor-on-the-Lake resident Dan McCurdy said it was all about the board.

“It’s a passion,” he said around noon, when the sun was at its apex and temperatures at their highest, with a healthy dose of humidity, to boot.

McCurdy, a Mentor High School graduate, said he’s been skating for about 12 years and it’s become a way of life for him.

“I grew up skating the Mentor Civic Center skatepark with my friends,” he said as he took a break between runs at the funbox at Mentor’s Tiefenback Memorial Park.

McCurdy said skateboarding means a great deal to him, that it’s more than just a hobby and that it’s a great way to stay in shape.

“It’s a fun-to-do sport,” he said. “I mean, I don’t get told what to do with it. It’s all about creativity and the learning is never-ending.”

He said one of his favorite things about skateboarding is getting together with friends to partake in it.

“It’s a lot of fun to do with your friends because everybody just pushes you to go harder and learn new things,” he said. “It really brings you close to a lot of good people, too. And, for some people, it pushes them away from harsh things; bad decisions - like it’s a good distraction. And it’s a good workout, too.”

McCurdy said skateboarding kept him away from “the bad crowd” throughout high school and has also helped him keep close with dozens of friends with whom he first started skating some 12 years ago. He said they call themselves the DDOM, or Daily Dose of Mentor, skate crew.

“They’re guys I’ve been skating with for, wow, at least 10 years, since the beginning,” he said.