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new life as teaching tools, and the

students who are practicing on them are

learning lessons that stretch far beyond

skateboarding.

;ifgg`e^@eWhen Rohan first came up with the idea

for the skatepark, he didnt think it would

lead to a teaching job. We just wanted a

place to skate, recalls Rohan, age 28,

who won the 1997 Vans world amateur

championship in street skating. Open

Road, a New York Citybased nonprofit

organization, had developed the park on

the land next to East Side Community,

converting it from an old bus garage, and

Rohan and others would skate on the

basketball courts during after-school

hours. With Open Roads help, Rohan

began to turn the courts into a skatepark.

Although the park isnt technically on

school grounds, the reception from East

Side Communitys administration wasnt

warm at first. The principal came out

one day, and he wasnt having it, says

Rohan. Hes like, You cant do this

here! I said to him, Look around. Your

students are out here. One of those

students was Tyriq Holloway, a 10th-

grader at the time. Holloway picked up

the sport after seeing Rohan and others

skateboarding at the park.

I didnt skate back then,

he says. I was on the basket-

ball team. [Skateboarding]

looked cool, and I wanted

to try it, so I saved up my

money and got a board.

Holloway thought that a

skateboard class at school

would be a fun way to

learn the sport. At first some

teachers thought that it was a

crazy idea, he says, but the

principal is a really cool guy. He

was like, if you can get enough

kids to sign [a petition], we will

think about it. I got every kid at

the school to sign it and some

teachers, too.

Despite his initial reaction,

the schools principal, Mark

Federman, could not ignore the

support for a skateboarding

phys ed program, and he called Rohan

to make it happen. Two skateboard

companies, Zoo York and CCS, donated

the gear, and brands like Red Bull and

Vans chipped in money to help pay for the

obstacles in the park.

It only took a few months for the school

to add the class to the curriculum. We got

the parents to sign permission slips,

says East Side assistant principal TomMullen. We really didnt askanybody.

We just did it. It turns out that its

right in line with the Department of

Educations philosophy of trying to get

kids interested in sports that they will

then do on their own time.

:cXjjGifa\ZkjWith the green light, Rohan now had to

figure out what the class should consist

of. He worked with the

schools gym teacher to

design a program. Rohanestimates that 70 percent

of his students had never

been on a board before

taking his class, so the

goal of the program is to

get kids to be active and

interested in skating,

not to create the next

Ryan Sheckler. Everyone starts from

the ground up, says Rohan. When it

comes time for grading, enthusiastic

participation and attendance weigh more

heavily than skill.

Each class consists of 15 minutes of

stretching and warmup exercises, 10minutes of drills, and 20 minutes for free

skating. The drills include things like butt

races, where one student sits on the board

while another pushes. In the Michael

Phelps laps, students lie on their

stomachs on their boards and push

themselves with their arms. During the

wall crawl, the kids stand on their boards

and push along a wall with their hands.

As the classes progress, new drills like

relay races are introduced.

The exercises are designed to teach

balance and control. They also level theplaying field so kids of all skill levels can

participate. Just because an advanced

skateboarder may know how to kickflip,

it doesnt mean he or she cant be beaten

in a relay race by a faster student who is

using a skateboard for the first time.

Ifcc`e^FeFor Rohan and other skateboarders,

being accepted by the school system is a

major step forward. When I was in

middle school, you would get suspended

Tyriq Holloway (above)circulated a petitionto add skateboard physical education to theschool day.

Students are introducedto skateboarding throughstretching and relay races.

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for bringing your board to

school, Rohan says. [Skating]

wasnt as popular as it is now,

where you have TV shows with

Rob Dyrdek and Ryan Sheckler.

That exposure has also made

authorities more comfortable

promoting skateboarding, and

its coming at a crucial time.

We have an obesity epidemic

in this country, says Rohan.

You have kids that stay at

home and play video games

all day. There are massive

problems with lack of exercise

in American culture.

While it might not commonly

be associated with exercise in

the same way that running

and other sports are, skate-

boarding can be just as

physically challenging. It is also

a sport that can be practiced

just about anywhere.

Not every kid from the city likes to

play basketball, says assistant principal

Mullen. And a kid that doesnt want to

play basketball doesnt have much to do.

There arent that many alternatives.

For Mullen, the skateboard PE class

began as a way to broaden his students

interests. I wanted kids to try something

new, Mullen says. I feel like that is arewarding experience and could lead to a

powerful life lesson. Just try something

that you wouldnt think youd be able to do

and see, hey, I can do this.

The approach seems to be working.

Laura Navarrete, who is a sophomore at

East Side Community, had little experience

with skateboarding before she took

Rohans class but has

improved a great deal

since she started. I

think its good to learn

new things and notjust stick to the same

curriculum, Navarrete

says. When I come to

school now, I have a class

that Ill have fun in.

The students sense of

accomplishment is also

showing up outside of

skate class. There are a

few kids whose self-esteem was pretty low

coming in, says Mullen. I feel like being

involved in skating, and having something

to be good at, has made them happier kids.

And happier kids do better in school. He

hopes that the skateboard program, with

the help of its sponsors, will eventually be

able to offer college scholarships as a

reward for academic performance.

E\nKi`ZbjThe success of East Side Communitys

skate program has attracted followers.

A few blocks downtown from East Side

High, on the fenced-in rooftop of the New

Design High School, Rohan and Open

Road have started their second skate

class. The walls of the

New Design skate-

park are decked out

with the paintings of

local graffiti artistsas part of an ongoing

exhibition curated by

the schools dean,

Jesse Pais. The graffiti

art plus the skate-

boarding, they are just

more tools to keep the

kids engaged and to

make them feel good

about the school they

go to, says Pais.

Thats true for Amara

Serrano, a junior at New Design. She grew

up in a family of skateboarders but never

got on a board herself until she enrolled in

skateboard PE class. My uncle and mycousins skate, she says. I used to ask my

little cousins to help me, but they

never thought I really wanted to learn.

But I would be committed if I had some

instruction. So, I am psyched to try

it now.

Rohan believes that the lessons his

students at East Side Community and

New Design are learning through skate-

boarding can open many doors down

the road. Skateboarding is a giant

industry, and it offers a lot to the kids,

he says. They can be professional skate-boarders, graphic designers, or clothing

designers. They can make magazines,

shoot photos, do videos. There is pretty

much an endless landscape of job

opportunities within the skateboarding

industry.

So now when the days skateboarding

lesson ends and the students (reluctantly)

turn in their helmets and boards before

they head off to their next class, they are

energized and ready to take on the next

challenge, whatever that may be. N

Even though he is the teacher, Rohan is stillable to find time to sneak in a few tricksbetween classes.

Drills like the wall crawl arefun ways to teach balance.