My formal introduction to the esoteric ritual of skateboarding came last weekend when my teenage grandson, Dillon, and three buddies arrived from the Big Island with their skateboards for a meet at the Keolu Hills Skateboard Park at Enchanted Lake.

The trip was Dillon's early birthday present. The kids slept all over my living room floor. We had breakfast at Zippy's, ate Chinese food, toured the Falls of Clyde and hit four skateboard parks in two days.

I'm exhausted.

No, I didn't get on a skateboard. One fall the way some of the kids hit the cement and I'd be in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. But I acquired a respect for the sport.

The best thing about skateboarding is that it gets kids out from in front of a TV set and gives them strenuous, healthy outdoor exercise. In a nation where one-third of kids are overweight, this is a valuable secret weapon.

Actually, driving Dillon and his friends — the Rat Pack — to skateboard parks isn't much different from driving my sons to surfing spots a generation ago. Some of the terms are similar. Skateboarders "drop in" the bowl the way surfers "drop in" on a wave. They both "carve it up."

Like surfers, teenage skateboarders look like hoodlums. But almost all of them are delightful, warm-hearted kids. They are very observant. When a mother drives up on the street, her son at the Hawai'i Kai Skateboard Park skates right out to ask if he can stay longer.

The Rat Pack skateboard team — Blaze Bento, Geoff Roark and Cory McOuat — is the result of this motherly relationship to skateboarding.

My hanai daughter, Jen, has practically adopted the skaters at the Volcano Skateboard Park, especially those who come from underprivileged families. The kids are always underfoot at my Volcano house.

Since there was no skateboard shop on the Big Island, Jen opened one in Hilo, the Rat Pack Skateboard Shop. High school kids do their homework there after school because their parents are working. Jen's skateboard shop sponsored a meet at the Volcano Skateboard Park and raised $800 for the Volcano Community Center.

There's a bond between skateboard supporters similar to the bond between outrigger canoe racing coaches like Mike Tongg and Moku Froiseth. The promoter of the skateboard meet at Keolu Hills, Honolulu Street Wear, sponsored Jen's Rat Pack Skateboard Team from Hilo to participate in the meet.

That's how I got roped in.

It was my first skateboard meet and it reminded me a lot of early surfing meets. It started an hour late because the PA system didn't get there on time. Skaters repeated the same maneuvers endlessly under a hot sun. The meet lasted all afternoon. I went and took a nap in the car.

The Rat Pack had a great time — two fourth-place finishes.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.