SKATE BRAIN SKATE BRAIN

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In the eyes of Max Dubler, UCLA’s campus is the ultimate skatepark. The many staircases students loathe offer flat rails to slide down, and when it comes to speed skating, nothing beats the sloping hill by Pauley Pavilion.

“Everything that is in Los Angeles was approachable on a skateboard from a different perspective,” said Dubler, an alumnus and skater.

While this playful use of campus is far from the architect’s original intent, it’s a common practice across LA – also known as the home of skateboarding. Since the 1950s when Santa Monica surfers used skateboards to practice while the ocean’s waves were flat, the activity has grown into a worldwide competitive phenomenon.

This summer, the 2023 X Games and Street League Skateboarding, two highly popular competitions, will be held in California and Tokyo, respectively. Yet despite its global success, skateboarding’s impact on its founding city remains unique, permeating all realms of skaters’ lives. Dubler first set out for LA as a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, with no concrete plans aside from skating. When he first arrived in the sunny city, Dubler lived in a hostel called The Skate House, where he met hundreds of traveling skaters from all over the world. Dubler spent much of his time longboarding the mountain roads of Malibu and eventually became a sponsored skater for skate product companies while also posting about his expeditions on The Skate House’s YouTube channel.

“It (Skateboarding) was never easy for me, but I worked really hard at it and got pretty good at it,” he said. “It was a way to learn how to do things in the world.”

While skaters come to LA for the laid-back culture and diverse urban terrain, few are able to stay because of the city’s unaffordability. As Dubler watched high rent prices push his friends out of the city, he was inspired to pursue a master’s degree in urban and regional planning at UCLA in 2020.

“It (Skateboarding) gave me a very physical understanding of the city and opened up this way to think about the built environment – the roads, the buildings, the landscape architecture,” Dubler said.

Now a resident of San Francisco, Dubler continues to work as an urban planner, advocating for housing affordability and skating the death-drop hills of the city. Dubler’s career path was partially made possible by a scholarship he received from the College Skateboarding Educational Foundation, an LA nonprofit dedicated to aiding young skaters with their academic and professional goals.

Keegan Guizard, the co-founder of CSEF, started the foundation in hopes of lifting some of the financial obstacles young skaters face when pursuing their own academic aspirations.

Guizard began skating at the age of 7 when his parents promised him a skateboard if he earned good grades. He kept his end of the bargain and is still skating 25 years later as he works with other student-skaters.

“It’s funny how it came full circle, and now I’m ‘the college skateboarding guy,’” Guizard said.

CSEF has evolved from a pet project into the nation’s only scholarship fund for student skaters. Guizard said that while the foundation’s original intent was to financially assist college students, it is now helping people understand the importance of skateboarding by sharing the success stories of young skaters.

“Skateboarders’ relationship with failure provides a really strong personality trait to get through anything and succeed in the end, no matter what,” Guizard said.

After living at The Skate House, Dubler was inspired to return to school and learn how to find more affordable, sustainable housing solutions for young adults that allowed them to pursue their skating dreams without worrying about unaffordable housing costs.

Skating can also complement academics, said Clifford Gant, a fourth-year English student. He added that skating has been an excellent way to relax in the midst of a demanding school schedule.

“It’s a few hours to forget about other stuff, so it’s a good way to relieve stress and anxiety about the future,” Gant said.

Guizard added that skating can build students’ confidence and perseverance while also providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ skaters and skaters of color. But while skate culture has become more inclusive in recent years, Guizard feels that more can be done to create a welcoming community.

At Neighbors Skate Shop in Leimert Park, co-owner Cleon Array is creating a safe space for young skaters of color.

“You’re treated like a Black person before you’re treated like a skater,” Array said about his own experiences in other skate shops.

As a Black-owned skate shop, Neighbors Skate is dedicated to serving the young skaters of Leimert Park, a predominantly Black and Latino area in LA.

Tré, who co-owns the shop with Array, said the store has evolved into a platform for all of their passion projects, from filmmaking to clothing design. But the main inspiration for the shop, both owners said, was the lack of local skating resources at the time of its

“This neighborhood doesn’t have anything like that,” Tré said. “There’s a lot of kids over here who need a

Array added that he wants kids who are interested in skating to learn about the sport in a familiar environment among

“Let’s create that space here and keep all of that energy and activity down here and base it around a world that looks like ours,

Guizard said he has seen LA become skateboarding as a pandemic hobby years, skating groups celebrating underrepresented communities

Crenshaw Skate Club and Boos Cruise, a collective of BIPOC neuroscience student

Noe Cazares Jr. said he feels it is necessary for UCLA to also embrace skateboarding as a part of LA’s vibrant

Growing up in a multigenerational Moreno Valley, Cazares learned how to skate older cousins. Without an established community community in his hometown, he became accustomed to riding alone. Upon arriving at UCLA, Cazares was pleasantly surprised to find other skaters.

“Ever since skating with friends, I can’t believe I did it alone,” Cazares said.

The welcoming community Cazares found on campus inspired him to reestablish the UCLA Skate Club. While his efforts mark the third time students have tried to create a campus skate club since 2013, Cazares is hopeful that this attempt will stick.

Although Cazares anticipates pushback from administration because of the potential risks of skateboarding, he said the process of establishing the club went smoothly.

“Skateboarding is obviously very susceptible to injury, and ... it seems like universities are a business first and then a public education institution after,” Cazares said. “They don’t want lawsuits happening, and I’m sure they care about our safety.”

As the newly established club made its debut in May, Cazares hopes to make camaraderie and fun the hallmarks of the campus skateboarding experience.

However, from his own experiences, Gant said UCLA has not always encouraged skating on campus.

“The other day, we got kicked out of a parking lot while it was raining,” said Gant, who was asked by UCPD to leave while skating in a campus parking lot. “There was nowhere else to go.”

Gant said this was his fourth instance of being evicted from a public space by UCPD while skateboarding. He said he finds it odd that UCLA would discourage the activity when it remains a prominent part of LA culture. But, he added, there is a prevailing stigma that portrays skateboarders as lacking respect for public spaces.

“I think it’s because of a lack of control,” Gant said. “Basketball players are confined to the court. Same thing with most other sports. With this sport, you can go anywhere, and I don’t think the school necessarily likes that we can skate wherever.”

In 2009, UCPD and UCLA Transportation placed “No Skateboarding” signs along Bruin Walk and other busy areas of campus, citing concerns about public safety. Students who are caught skating in these dismount zones risk facing a $200 fine.

Disputes about skateboarding extend far beyond UCLA’s campus, with stereotypes portraying skaters as rebellious delinquents who hold little respect for public authority.

Dubler believes skateboarding has become a symbol of trouble for those who believe skateboarders take advantage of public spaces.

“I think people get upset about it because skateboarding is a way that young people are allowed to be in public,

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Alexa Cyr, Breanna Diaz, Iman Baber, Justin Huwe, Kate Green, Martin Sevcik, Rachel Rothschild, Zinnia Finn [PRIME staff] having fun in ways that sort of defy the expectations for acceptable uses for urban space,” Dubler said. “The power relationships and dynamics of who’s allowed to be where and when, and what they’re allowed to do there, are brought to the surface by skateboarding.”

Skaters like Dubler and Gant, however, believe the positive impact of skateboarding outweighs its negative associations.

With the Olympics now hosting skateboarding events every four years, Gant said he would like more people at UCLA to see skateboarding as a source of enrichment and community. Dubler added that he wants UCLA to add more facilities for student skateboarders in the future, emphasizing that the community could benefit from more campuswide acknowledgement.

“I think UCLA is full of radical skateboarders who would benefit from some form of recognition from the school,” Dubler said. ♦

Alicia Carhee, Alyssa Bardugon, Carlos Gabriel Ramirez, Dylan Tzung, Emily Kim, Esther Myers, Katy Nicholas, Keira Feng, Layth Handoush, Mallory Cooper, Mitra Beiglari, Sarah Choudhary, Tea Shulga [PRIME contributors]

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