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Coming exhibit highlights local skating from the ’60s onward.
There are no refs, no penalties, no set plays—and almost anyone can do it almost anywhere. Which is precisely why skating has long been a staple sport around Raleigh. Now, further highlighting the subculture is City of Raleigh Museum’s The Endless Grind, a one-night-only preview exhibit May 2 in collaboration with DTR’s nee-1986 skate shop Endless Grind—with a more extensive exhibit bowing by 2027.
The sport’s local history showcase boasts photographs from the ’60s through the ’90s, featuring Fairgrounds contests, NCSU Brickyard skating snaps, and shots of a ramp in the Endless Grind parking lot—altogether bringing the widespread but oft-overlooked lifestyle to the forefront.
While an exceptional documentation of the early days of this culture isn’t always easy to come by, local publications from the time covered all the bases. Enter the State Archives of NC.
Growing up in Raleigh, exhibit organizer Cody Charland regarded the East Jones Street locale as just another building among the puzzle of “super-serious” government properties into which he’d never need to venture. But after following Olde Raleigh on Instagram—a local account posting a few archived Raleigh photographs weekly—Charland followed the rabbit trail into the archive building, where he stumbled upon the beginnings of the Cap City skating culture.
“We looked at film negatives of thousands of pictures and picked the best—the few we wanted everybody to see,” he reminisces. “It was incredible to see not only skateboarding evolve, but also the city.”
And giving the skating community a leg up is the upcoming Wheel-A-Thon at Conlon Family Skatepark April 12. In partnership with Leadership Raleigh, the fundraiser will get as many people—and wheels—out to the park. Skateboards, Rollerblades, skates and scooters are slated to roll out for four hours straight in support of this look back at—and celebration of—this crucial Raleigh subculture. Get ready to grind! skateraleigh.com
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