On the Grind

Noah Steeves staff writer

Skateboarding is a commonly-looked-at sport or hobby in teen culture nowadays. Sheldon has a few skaters of their own. Sophomore Kai McCormack has been skating for the past five or six years. Not really remembering why he started skating, McCormack said, “I think me just being so young and seeing all the cool skaters and skate videos motivated me to start and after that I fell in love with it and stuck with it.” With social media and platforms like YouTube easily accessible, you can find skate parts (videos of people street skating) almost anywhere online. Seeing these videos of people doing unthinkable tricks is what motivated McCormack to start skating.

Junior Dylan Dignan got into skating from the independence of it: “I skated for two years and I got started because I really didn’t like basketball and I wanted something to do where I could manage it myself.” Skating is alluring because you don’t have a set schedule. Skaters skate whenever they want and don’t have set and scheduled practices.

There has always been an argument of whether skating is a sport, hobby, or culture. People argue it’s a sport because it is athletic. Some say it’s a hobby because it’s not competitive or taken seriously. However, if you ask any real skater, they will almost always say it’s a culture. McCormack views skating as both a hobby and culture:

“I’d say I first picked it up as a hobby ‘cause it was something to do that was fun. Then as I got better I started going out with friends and assimilated into the culture of it. Noticeably taking the trends from skating into my everyday life, and I guess just, ‘becoming a skater.’” You become emersed into skating, taking the trends of baggy clothes, the typical long scruffy hair, and the laid back lifestyle until you essentially “become a skater” and have the skater lifestyle.

Dignan said that skating comes with the life lessons it teaches you: “I feel like it’s matured and humbled me as a person. In the sense that it doesn’t matter; it’s all based on skill in skating; you can be whoever you want to be. It’s like that in life. In reality you can hate someone ‘cause of where they come from if you want, but what skating teaches you is that it doesn’t matter where a person comes from or what they believe. It’s just about progression in the sport and not who you are.” Dignan gives a good point of how everybody shares one common interest: skating.

Because of the laid back and chill lifestyle, there are common misconceptions which say skaters are delinquents or mischievous, and get into trouble. McCormack said, “I think the biggest misconception