Every time Dan Hughes gets on a skateboard, he’s 17 again. Although he’s now 62, the Riverton resident is still shredding, visiting skate parks all over North America. 

He discovered his first board on Christmas morning, when he was 11. His uncle had made it in wood shop, complete with wooden wheels. Hughes was obsessed; the rest of his gifts were forgotten. 

He built a skateboard ramp in the backyard of his Oregon home, using a piece of plywood nailed to a sawhorse. It kept him skating for hours. 

“I learned I needed to reinforce things a little bit better. Skateboarding taught me carpentry because I wanted to build ramps, but I didn’t want to build flat ramps. I wanted to build curved ones,” Hughes said. “I started skating almost every day, and it grew from there because skateboarding is the thing. You don’t need a team to get together, you just grab your board and go.”

When his family took a trip to Disneyland in the late ’70s, Hughes skipped the rides. He’d heard about new skate park areas being built in California and wanted to try as many as he could. It was his first time skating a bowl. He was intimidated but tried anyway and crashed hard. Other skaters gave him advice and soon he was getting the hang of it.

Hughes had skated on more than 1,400 parks in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, visiting nearly 300 in the last year alone. His website at NorthwestSkater.com lists all the skate parks he’s visited, complete with photos and commentary. That includes the West Valley City Skate Park in February. 

He said three fundamental aspects of a park determine its quality: smoothness, spacing and details in construction. Hughes now serves on a committee to design the new skate park in Riverton. 

“Typically, if it’s not built by someone who’s a skateboarder, then you end up with design elements that don’t really make sense,” Hughes said. “I am a part of the skateboarding community, so it really does matter to me if skate parks are built correctly.”

Hughes met his wife, June, online and moved to Utah in 2009 to be near her. She showed an interest in learning how to skateboard and Hughes was more than happy to teach her. They spent a lot of time in flat parking lots, helping her understand the fundamentals of how to turn, balance and maneuver.

On their honeymoon to the Cayman Islands, they visited the Black Pearl Skate Park, one of the largest outdoor, concrete parks in the world. For Hughes, it was a dream come true.

“We actually went back a few years later,” June said. “So we’ve been there twice. That was quite an experience. All the unique features make it one of his special favorites. But he has other favorites, too. There’s a company called Evergreen and they have been building a lot of skate parks that are a lot of fun.”

Riverton resident Dan Hughes performs a one-footed carve grind at the Black Pearl Skate Park in the Cayman Islands. The park is one of hundreds he’s visited during his lifetime. (Photo courtesy of June Hughes)

Hughes is still dropping into a bowl in his 60s, learning new tricks, connecting with younger skaters and inspiring a new generation to get out of the house and onto a board.

“A skate park in the community serves a group of kids that are underserved by anything else, and that, to me, is valuable in the sense that you give a kid an activity outside, away from the computer,” he said. “They’ll find a community within that skate park that encourages them as they learn. Skateboarding is a huge learning tool. It teaches you patience and determination.”

After several injuries, he layers on the padding, including a full-face mask, but he intends to ride as long as he can, sharing the joy he first felt as a young boy in Oregon.