With a history of stigma looming in the shadows of skateboard culture, skateboarders are actively breaking the negative stereotypes that have existed for decades. Currently, college skateboard clubs are shedding a more positive light on the lifestyle, and SC Skateboarding is one of those organizations.
“Skateboarding in particular I think can seem intimidating to begin with because, at least when I began, it was very discouraged to exhibit any form of being a novice at it,” said Smith Shute, a junior majoring in human biology. “You were either good or you were a poser and there was no in between.”
Shute, a skateboard enthusiast, started a USC recreational skateboarding team in Fall 2020. The club aims to cultivate community and encourage Trojan skateboarders of all levels.
With the help of a friend, Shute started the club and hoped to meet other people on campus who skateboard or were interested in learning.
While skateboarders are stereotypically seen as gatekeepers of the sport, Shute wants to cultivate a positive experience full of encouragement and friendship for all members. According to him, skateboarding is meant for everyone.
“I think it would make the transition into learning a lot easier if you could have people around you that would help you and support you and your journey to get better,” Shute said. “I also think that everyone just should experience skateboarding — it’s a really nice pastime.”
Shute plans on being more accommodating to beginner and intermediate skaters this year by meeting up at spots that do not require ollie-ing up or down steps or ledges or dealing with other more advanced obstacles.
One of the usual locations which members meet at is the parking lot behind the United University Church on campus, nicknamed by SC Skateboarding members “Slappy Church.” Located across the street from the USC Village, this spot consists of flat ground for street skating and curbs to practice grinds on.
This year, besides supporting beginners and connecting skaters across campus, Shute hopes to do more in terms of giving back to the community — similar to the efforts of fellow skateboarder Keegan Guizard.
Before graduating from North Carolina State University in 2012, Guizard started the first skate club on the campus with other skater friends.
After about a year of meetings with different prospective members, the North Carolina State Skateboarding Club was born, welcoming all students and inviting any rippers to participate in contests both in and out of state.
When Guizard was tasked with making a mock company for an entrepreneurship class, he created the Collegiate Skate Tour, a multi-chapter club which promoted education and travel through skateboarding, and kicked off the organization’s first competitions in Kentucky, New York and Florida. Guizard graduated in 2012, and the Collegiate Skate Tour lived on until 2019.
“I think it proved the point that there is a community of skateboarders in college, because we did bring a lot of people together from a lot of different places and had some sort of following,” Guizard said. “It went strong, we had sponsors keeping it alive and we paid our photographers and videographers and judges generously. We did the whole thing.”
As co-founder and executive director, Guizard is currently focusing his energy on the College Skateboarding Educational Foundation (CSEF). While the Collegiate Skate Tour focused on seeing new places and pumping up crowds, CSEF aims to financially support shredders interested in pursuing an education.
Founded by a group of skateboard enthusiasts, another goal of CSEF is to show that everyone deserves opportunities for success — including skateboarders. Guizard spoke on the difference between his experiences at the two organizations he started, and how CSEF is able to see more success and stability.
“A big part of what I’ve been doing for 12 years or so is creating a space for skateboarders to realize that they can do anything that they want,” Guizard said. “They don’t just have to do what they see as cool.”
Neftalie Williams, a USC Annenberg professor who studies the intersection of racial and gender identity in skateboarding, says that skate parks offer a space that validates this outlet of self-expression for skateboarders. While young people often turn to social media, skateboarding keeps youth from staying inside in front of screens all day.
“Our studies at USC have shown that housekeeping really relieves a lot of the stress of life for young people and for adults,” Williams said. “The skatepark also becomes a spot that everyone uses.”
Similar to Williams’ understanding of the benefits of skate parks for skateboarders, the SC Skateboarding club also aims to cultivate a community that is welcoming to everyone.
“We didn’t know anyone else skated really,” Shute said, “and still we wanted to start it as a sort of magnet to get people who wanted to skate or people who already did skate to come together and learn who each other were so we could all skate together and become a community for one another.”
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Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly named the North Carolina State Skateboarding Team. The article has also been corrected to reflect that Keegan Guizard graduated from North Carolina State University in 2012 and that the Collegiate Skate Tour continued until 2019. Annenberg Media apologizes for these errors.