San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Skate Club (12/6/07)

By Travis Jensen

Thursday, December 6, 2007

It's a gloomy Saturday morning in San Francisco, and the streets are slick with drizzle as the San Francisco Skate Club, a program dedicated to providing children ages 8 to 13 with skateboarding lessons and mentoring, gears up and departs for the Novato Skate Park in Marin.

The weather on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge is pleasant, perfect for skateboarding.

At the skate park, the club is surprised to find the place virtually empty, which is unusual considering its reputation for being crowded on the weekends. The kids waste no time slapping on their helmets and pads. Nine-year-old Stratus Elmore rolls down one of the park's banks and lofts an ollie out of a mellower section of the bowl. The kids are hyped. The session is on.

According to American Sports Data, a sports research firm in Cortland Manor, N.Y., there are 12 million skateboarders in the United States. Those numbers suggest that skateboarding is more popular among kids than baseball. As skateboarding's popularity continues to increase, so do the number of public skate parks. Many cities have at least one, some even two. However, there is still a shortage of programs for kids who want to learn or perfect their technique. San Francisco Skate Club is one of the few of its kind.

The idea for the club came when longtime sponsored skateboarder Shawn Connelly, 31, and educator Thuy Nguyen, 28, recognized that there was a serious need for such a program for Bay Area youth. The two started the club last summer.

"S.F. Skate Club is all about providing a safe, positive and supportive environment for kids to learn and enjoy skateboarding," says Connelly, who has 20-plus years of skateboarding experience. "We introduce kids to positive role models and visit skate parks all over the Bay Area." Connelly moved to San Francisco from Maine in the mid-'90s because of the abundance of good skate spots in the Bay Area. At the time, most of those prime spots were on the streets. The Bay Area skate park boom didn't begin until 2000.

The club is organized into four annual sessions, with the next one starting Dec. 15. Each session includes four weekend outings to skate parks in Northern California, small-group skateboarding lessons with a sponsored skateboarder and meetings with local professional skateboarders, who have included Huf store owner Keith Hufnagel (Real Skateboards), Mike York (Turf Skateboards) and Nikhil Thayer (Western Edition Skateboards).

"Not everyone can be a professional skateboarder, though," says Connelly, "so we also show the kids that there are lots of other ways that skaters can be involved with what they love by exposing them to different creative professionals within the skateboarding industry."

In addition to meetings with local skate pros, the group has also met with skateboard graphics designer Benny Gold, videographer Mickey Cruez and photographer Andrew "Ando" Caulfield.

A typical skate club outing begins Saturday morning when the group assembles at the Thrive House in San Francisco's Western Addition district, where over a healthy breakfast, participants discuss the day's activities as well as individual and group goals. When the group has a guest, the kids spend some time preparing some good questions to ask.

Afterward, the group gets into the van and heads off to the selected skate parks of the day. The club visits two skate parks each outing.

"My favorite thing about the club is that I get to hang out with Thuy and Shawn and the rest of the crew," says Stratus, who picked up skateboarding about a year and a half ago but just recently started again after taking a break to recover from a bad spill.

After an afternoon of fun at the skate parks, the group returns to the Thrive House for other skate-related activities and to discuss the day's accomplishments. At the end of each four-week session, students take home a DVD of themselves and others in action.

"So far, I've learned how to ollie, drop-in, roll-in, and I'm currently trying to learn how to kick-flip," says an enthusiastic 10-year-old, Ray Bolsh, who picked up skateboarding about six months ago. Ray says he learned about the club while searching for skateboarding trick tips online with his mother. He adds, "My favorite trick is the drop-in, because it feels great when you lean over your board and ride into the bowl."

San Francisco Skate Club is partnered with HealThier Foundations, a program created by trainer Antony Thier that provides scholarships to underserved Bay Area youth for health and life skills activities.

"We work with Antony to select two to three kids to participate in each session that we think could really benefit from S.F. Skate Club but don't have the financial means to do so," says Nguyen, who has a master's degree in education and, for three years has worked as a professional mentor for at-risk youths.

Both Nguyen and Connelly believe that the club not only helps students make new friends and encourages them to support one another but also helps them meet individual goals and builds confidence both on and off the board.

"I'm a big fan of the S.F. Skate Club and all of the benefits it has to offer youth skateboarders," says Monica Crawford, who enrolled her 11-year-old nephew into the program. "It's a very positive resource for young skateboarders to learn skateboarding, gain physical fitness and conquer their fears in a nurturing environment. I feel my nephew will be able to utilize these skills as both a physical and mental rejuvenation throughout his life." Crawford adds, "In my nephew's words, 'S.F. Skate Club rocks!' "

Skateboarders of all skill levels are welcome. "It's actually better to have a mix of both beginners and experienced skaters together," Nguyen says. "We strive to create a very positive setting so the kids with more experience can help encourage and inspire the beginners."

Connelly says: "We don't just teach the act of skateboarding, but also the enjoyment of sharing skateboarding."

San Francisco Skate Club: Skateboarding lessons and mentoring for children ages 8-13. All skill levels are welcome. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. every other Saturday. The next session begins Dec. 15. Each four-week session costs $340, plus an insurance fee of $25. Bring your own skateboard, helmet and pads. Pre-registration required. Call (415) 867-8500 or go to www.sfskateclub.com.

To see what tricks the kids at the San Francisco Skate Club are learning, watch the video at sfgate.com/entertainment.

This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle. Click HERE to read this story online at SFGate.com.

Click HERE to watch the video that S.F. Chronicle Art Director Matt Petty made to accompany this story.