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MacDonald had an entirely different soundtrack until he could make it to California, and none of it involved playful kids. His light breeze was a gale force wind.

"I would wear these awful galoshes and carry my skate shoes. I'd ride my bike and we'd spend most of the time shoveling snow off the ramp," said MacDonald.

Before the video game with his name in it, the six-year string of X-Games Vert Doubles titles with Tony Hawk, he was Andy MacDonald of Somerville and Melrose and Newton. Even if that wasn't ideal.

"I think being from New England makes skateboarders appreciate skateboarding even a little bit more. [There are] tons of stuff to skate arguably half the year in Boston," he said. "The other half is spent braving the elements, trying to find places to skate, skating in parking structures if we have to."

No offense to the Northeast, he said. He loves it. He thinks Boston is "the Mecca for skateboarding in the Northeast." He can't wait to come home to compete here like he did on Hawk's Boom Boom HuckJam Tour in 2005.

It was the only time he was able to skateboard competitively in Boston in his 15-year pro career. It wasn't even all that competitive either - that tour also had a fashion show.

"When I was a teenager, I had this vision of California, what it would be like. I saw these pictures of California in skate magazines, and saw these shots of pro skateboarders. I thought, 'I want that,' " said MacDonald. "So I had to go out there. I wanted to get paid to skateboard."

Battling stereotypes

Greg Lutzka grew up in Milwaukee. He literally and figuratively shoveled his way to Los Angeles, just like MacDonald. Nine years ago, when he was 15, skateboarding was a secondary hobby to snowboarding. He had no place to skate.

"Honestly, I'd skate anywhere I could. There were no skate parks around me," Lutzka said of his youth in Wisconsin. "I don't think it's unfair, it just happens to be where you grow up. You can't pick and choose."

The cold issues are compounded with the age-old stereotypes that the skateboarding community is full of kids with bad attitudes. Those beliefs have been dispelled for years in most parts of the country but are still readily applicable in Massachusetts.

MacDonald said it's all about catching up.

"You just don't see as much footage and coverage. If there's not as many skateboarders and coverage, there's less time to know who they actually are," he said. "It's part of the culture in California. People wearing suits and ties skateboard to work. You would not see that in New England."

Basically, once people see that pro skateboarders are talented athletes who sometimes lounge on hammocks, there will be more coverage. And with more coverage comes more events. Simple momentum.

There was a groundswell even back in 1995 to gain some kind of skateboarding presence in the city. Newton resident Nancy Schon wanted to put a skate park under the Zakim Bridge. Boston's mayor, Thomas Menino, approved the project in 2001 and approved $50,000 for it in the 2006 state budget.

Lost under the mortar, it remains unbuilt.

But skateboarding remains a highly popular fringe sport in the region. It has burgeoned in the YouTube generation because there are new tricks being created every day.

"The reality is, skateboarding is endless. You can only do so much with your body, but you can do anything with a skateboard," said Burnquist. "Now people are getting a chance to see it."

More and more people are making the trek to Dew Tour stops to see the tricks in person. The Tour is to skateboarding as the Sprint Cup is to NASCAR. It's the most competitive skateboarding that exists in a season format. There will be a 40-foot vertical ramp in the Garden Friday and Saturday and a street course next to it. Usually the events include a dirt track in the parking lot outside the event's arena for dirt bike racing and trick events, but not this weekend.

But that's been the other issue with the Northeast. In California, there are replica canyons. In Boston, there are replica offramps.

"As you know, there is no outdoor parking lot at the Garden," said MacDonald. "We'd have to do it in the train station or on the highway."

The Dew Tour is willing to sacrifice it to draw in the exposure. It's worked so well in other parts of the country that it's not just attracting inside-the-industry sponsors like skateboard deck companies. Its primary sponsor this year is Toyota. One of Lutzka's five sponsors is Oakley, and he can't even wear sunglasses when he skateboards.

Burning brightly

Burnquist didn't always have this backyard option. He grew up in Brazil and moved to California in his teens. If he didn't have his skateboard complex, someone else would, because what else are you going to do with all of this sunlight, all of this space?

But he thinks, soon, skateboarders won't have to move to southern California in droves. Technology will make it that way. The skateboarding on YouTube every day will be the skateboarding on "SportsCenter" every day - or the news even, but for positive reasons - and you will be able to see it in your town, wherever that may be.

"For a place like Boston, you definitely need an indoor skate park. But there are a lot of different answers. The spirit doesn't get stopped by weather," Burnquist says. "It can just slow it down."

But does the skate park come with the breeze? Does it come with the hammock?

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