Mark Ruggiano, the owner of Method Skate Shop, remembers when skate shops were social hubs for skaters. Skate shops didn’t just sell gear; they played an important role for skaters as they gained confidence on their boards. Shops would often sponsor talented up-and-coming skaters, which meant free swag, exposure and the opportunity to compete in sanctioned events. New skaters could meet older riders, whose bodies wear scars from the hard impact of concrete.
Today, Method is the closest thing Cape May County has to a proper skate shop. Walk in any day and you’ll see Mark behind the counter, ready to get anybody into skateboarding.
Mark has been involved with the skateboarding scene in Sea Isle City for decades; he lobbied the city to open their skate park, with the help of Tony Hawk, who toured the East Coast to promote skateboarding as a positive social activity. Many skateboarding and surfing-focused shops have lost focus since those days. Walk into most skate shops and you won’t even find a set of bushings.
But Mark is determined to keep that old-school attitude alive at Method. He has been around long enough to remember a small up-and-coming skate brand, “Vans,” and their fancy waffle-grip shoes. Method Skate opened in 1994 and has seen all kinds of trends come and go. Right now, folks love soft-wheeled complete boards that come with everything a new skater needs to ride on rough roads.
Method’s Instagram page is focused largely on new skaters. We’re talking kids as young as 6- or 7-years old. That’s the future generation; without them, Mark said, shops like his won’t be able to do business.
Mark is intensely focused on de-stigmatizing skateboarding. He has watched the intensity and difficulty of tricks escalate over his lifetime. When he started skating the streets of Philadelphia as a younger man, it was impressive enough to land an ollie. Now, with the vast world of skate videos, skate video games, and decades of professional content, getting into the whole thing seems harder than climbing a mountain.
“It started to scare kids away,” he said. “Kids now, they get a board their first day, and ten kids are going to walk up to them and say ‘can you kickflip, can you tre flip?’ Nobody does that! Nobody asks when you first pick up a basketball: Can you dunk?”
Skating isn’t all about tricks, either. Grab a board with soft wheels and skating is a great way to putz around town, freer than a bird. Shore towns in the off-season are a playground for skating. The Wildwood boardwalk—two smooth, empty miles in winter—is an ideal spot for new riders to find their balance.
The difference between Method and other surf and skate shops is clear when walking through the front door. Skate decks line the walls; Mark can tell you about every single board, and which pro skaters helped bring the designs to life. He loves to sell skate lines from East Coast skaters. He stocks brands that are still in the trenches of the scene—like Metal Skateboards and decks tied to East Coast icons such as Fred Gall and Bam Margera—alongside gear that reps hometown heroes like Philly’s own Ishod Wair.
Time, and a declining interest in the hobby, has dulled the edges of other local shops. Mark himself no longer skates due to a heart condition, but he is still fully invested in getting new folks into the hobby.
“I’m trapped in this body, I have all these big ideas about what I can do but my family’s genes had another idea,” he said.
But his passion exists even if the body protests. Mark is scheming to one day host what he calls “Boy Scouts for skaters,” where old-heads can teach new skaters the lay of the land.
“We need to be sitting around, swapping skateboarding stories. Some of these kids are messed up on the shore islands. They feel like there’s nothing to do in the off-season, they get into all kinds of trouble. We can use skating to keep ’em straight.”
Visit Method Skate Shop in the Townsend Inlet portion of Sea Isle City. Tell them Do the Shore sent you!
Contact the author, Collin Hall, at chall@cmcherald.com or by phone at 609-886-8600, ext. 156
