*OUR NEIGHBORS: The Palisades

Resident takes skating to a new extreme - travel

By MATT SWENSON Current Staff Writer

Skateboarding, for the most part, is best known to the general public as an exhibition of riders who try to outdo each other by performing dazzling tricks. Only in the past decade did skateboarding gain the stature of an extreme sport, with the advent of ESPN2 and the X Games.

But- skateboarding as form of transportation similar to a bike or car? Skateboard to work?

The answer: There's at least one person who proudly maneuvers his board through the Palisades to get to work every day. His name is Doug Dupin.

A 34-year-old geographic information specialist who deals with maps for a living and is a skateboard manufacturer, Dupin has not been riding skateboards his entire life, but he's quickly becoming the most noted skateboarder in the Palisades. He's also one of the areas's only manufacturers of long boards; a claim that only adds to his growing legacy.

As with many who start skateboarding, Dupin picked it up as a hobby while in the second grade. However, the California native grew out of it before departing elementary school. And didn't pick up another board until he was 30 and on the opposite coastline of the United States. Now, he takes his board wherever he goes.

After working in London for a few years, Dupin moved to the District in 1993. Here, he would ride his bike down the Capital Crescent Trail and move through the woods in the area to get to the Potomac River so he could satisy another passion of his - fishing. "I used to have trouble getting through the woods on my bike, so I decided to go by skateboard instead," Dupin said in a recent interview.

There was one slight problem with Dupin's desire to go back to skateboading for the first time since he was a kid: He couldn't find a board that he liked. Rather than leave it at that and give up on the idea, Dupin built his own board.

At the time, he said, Dupin was renovating his house (something he learned to do on his own, by the way), so there was "lots of lumber lying around." He found the rest of the materials he needed on the Internet. So began his foray into the world of designing skateboards.

One time when he was surfing the World Wide Web, Dupin said he saw a pair of off-road wheels, and "inspiration struck." He decided to go down the C&O Canal on a skateboard. He figured that the trip- from Cumberland, Md., to Georgetown - would be a five-day adventure. Instead, it turned out to be a grueling, eight-day trip.

"I barely finished; it's freaking hard," he said of the journey that took place in October 1998.

Much of Dupin's difficulty on the C&O trip occurred early on in Cumberland, which he reached by train to begin the journey. He found the ground was not very hospitable to skateboards, and he was able to complete "only 22.5 miles" the first day.

After that, the going got easier, and Dupin's spirits rose. Meeting his wife Rebecca twice along the way probably didn't hurt either. The pair camped out one night and spent the other in a motel along the trail. Overall, Dupin spent about four nights in a motel [two in fact] and camped out in a tent the others. "Consecutive nights of camping is not great," he quipped.

After eight days and a massive increase of the muscle size in his legs, Dupin accomplished his goal and met his wife in Georgetown.

The feat brought about a fair amount of national exposure. A company approached Dupin about sponsoring him on a cross-country skateboarding trip, but he decided against it for now. Additionally, the New York Times Magazine carried a short article about the C&O trip, written by Mike Dolan, a Palisades resident who lives about half a block away from the skateboarder.

Dolan, the founder of the annual Palisades Intertiad as well as a writer, said he took to Dupin almost immediately when they met at a yard sale. "He's got a real pioneering spirit," Dolan said. "He is going to do something interesting and important some day."

This past New Year's Day, Dupin became the first participant ever in the Inertiad not to use a bicycle. The five-year-old race relies on the forces of intertia and gravity to carry contestants as far as possible. Riding his skateboard, Dupin traveled 1.53 miles to finish in 10th place, even though he did not know the rules permitted him to wiggle his board to build up speed.

Dupin has also taken to racing competitively in downhill skateboarding events in the past year, including a race held last September in Washington. He finished sixth, one spot behind Adams Morgan resident Anthony Smallwoood and just under two seconds behind the winner.

In early March, Dupin will go to South Africa to participate in the Red Bull classic, another downhill race.

In the United States, there is a two-year-old circuit for professinal skateboard races run by Extreme Downhill International (EDI), Dupin said. That event culminates in the Gravity Games, the skateboarding equivalent of the Super Bowl, that has been held in Providence, R.I., every year so far. The Gravity Games will be held once again in Providence this year, but afterward bidding will open up to other cities. Washington is expected to make a run at the Gravity Games, Dupin said.

Depending on how he fares in South Africa, Dupin said he will consider participating the circuit, which is comprised of three qualifying races leading up to the Gravity Games.

"I think skateboarding will eventually be a big sport," Dupin said, adding that it "has not hit its crescendo yet."

When not riding his board, Dupin has been designing, building and selling skateboards for two years. Unlike the more common trick boards that average 32 inches in length, his are long boards that come in at 46 inches.

Dupin has sold around 200 boards through his web-based business, Migration Boards. For his creations, he charges anywhere from $150-$200.

The hard part, Dupin said, has been getting the word out. "Marketing a product is really important and not that easy," Dupin said. "If you can't reach the masses, it doesn't matter how good your product is."

Word about his business has begun to spread in large part to a recent segment on Channel 5. According to Dupin, his Web site, www.migrationboardds.com , which includes his firsthand account of the Canal trip as well as pictures of the boards he is selling, received more than 1,000 hits the day after the segment aired. Usually, the site gets about 100 or 200 hits a day, he said.

Dupin sees the recent popularity of scooters as a sign that skateboards will continue to grow in the country. "You can go a lot faster and turn more efficiently on a skateboard," he said. Of course, Dupin would know, as he rides his board whenever he gets a chance. "It's a great way to travel," he said.