A Skateboarder Zipping Through Central Park, 1965

A businessman in a suit and sunglasses was photographed skateboarding in Central Park in 1965, to the amazement of passersby. The photographs were taken by Bill Eppridge for LIFE magazine.

Skateboarding, LIFE opined in 1965, is “the most exhilarating and dangerous joyriding device this side of the hot rod. A two-foot piece of wood or plastic mounted on wheels, it yields to the skillful user the excitements of skiing or surfing. To the unskilled it gives the effect of having stepped on a banana peel while dashing down the back stairs. It is also a menace to limb and even to life.”