Bellevue Elementary students learn how to skateboard after school with the Richmond Area Skateboard Alliance's SK8 Club. (Photo by Charlotte Laurance)
Two years ago, the Richmond Area Skateboard Alliance's (RASA) after-school skate club brought two quarter pipes and a small kicker ramp to Bellevue Elementary School. I was there for the first session as elementary school kids experimented with skateboards for the first time. The day was filled with awkward attempts to push on boards that were too big for the youngest ones, a lot of butt sliding down ramps and thunderous cheers for the students who “dropped in” for the first time. Since then, RVA SK8 Club has visited almost every one of Richmond Public Schools’ elementary schools with the same set of ramps and a group of more than 10 volunteers.
SK8 Club had been approved to expand to NextUp, RPS’ after-school program for middle schools, this fall, but just like every other aspect of our lives, the expansion was postponed by the pandemic.
But the skate club and its parent nonprofit, RASA, have not slacked off. In response to summer protests against racism and police brutality, the group held a “Go Skateboarding Day” event/march, Skate in Solidarity. RASA President Adah Kanter, who is a teacher in Chesterfield public schools, sponsored a fundraiser to provide more inclusive books for her students. A social media giveaway contest was held for admission to the Skate Like a Girl Skate Camp as well as for a new helmet and skateboard.
RVA SK8 Club and RASA also made up for SK8 After School’s absence by holding a kids’ skate session and board giveaway in late October, as well as an adult Halloween session later that day at Texas Beach Skate Park. Food and other donations were collected for Feed More and the homeless in Richmond.
As skateboarding’s popularity has exploded, the image of street skating is changing among the general public, and even law enforcement is becoming more lenient. Skaters are less likely to be harassed by police when frequenting dilapidated and abandoned structures, though this still depends more on the property owner than the aesthetic of the obstacle.
Though most skateboarders avoid using the term “sport,” as it has too many “jock” connotations for their taste, I believe the biggest step forward for skateboarding’s image is its inclusion in the 2020 (now 2021) Summer Olympics.
A lot of professional skateboarders say skating gave them a sense of community and helped them create a gang of misfits.
For me, what makes skateboarding so captivating is its unparalleled level of independence and creativity — there is more than one way to learn a skill and more than one way to skate.
I started skateboarding because my older brother and the other neighborhood kids were either doing that or riding BMX bikes. This was at a time when “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” video game and the “Rocket Power” animated series, featuring kids who enjoyed extreme sports, were at their peak.
It wasn’t until I was constantly being dragged to film my elder sibling performing tricks at Lucille Brown Middle School that I took to skateboarding. No other sport caught my attention like skating did, and I have never turned back.
Even within the SK8 Club ranks, what it means to be a skateboarder differs depending on whom you ask. I’m not sure my opinion is too popular within the community — these days, I’m sure I’d be classified as a guy who skates instead of an actual “skateboarder.” The lifestyle of constantly searching for street skate spots and the need to gather at these spots, filming tricks and occasionally running from cops, is what makes a someone a skateboarder.
I apologize to any bystander who has been cut off in traffic by a skateboarder, or who has had people skating in front of their business, but most of us don’t mean any harm and are just trying to have fun. RVA SK8 Club has offered me and other volunteers a chance to give back to students who are in the same public school system we attended and to teach them to skate in an appropriate manner.
I’ve seen some of the kids' eyes light up the minute something clicks on a skateboard. There was one student who learned to drop in — skating down a ramp starting with pressure on only one end of the board — and his father waited until after the session to tell us how much his son enjoyed skateboarding. We gave him a board of his own to take home.
With RVA SK8 Club, I get to relive my own beginnings as a skater and provide kids with things I did not have when I was first starting out. A lot of professional skateboarders say skating gave them a sense of community and helped them create a gang of misfits. I know that no matter where I go, I will have a community among skateboarders.
Malik Hall, 29, is always looking to explore more of the world and for new ways to be inspired. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, works in the mental health field, occasionally dabbles in freelance writing and teaches private skateboard lessons. A former resident of Richmond, he recently moved to Orange County, California. He blogs at thekwazimodo.com.
