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Photo: Sara Bernardini
Establishing a University Skate Club
keegan guizard of the collegiate skate tour
Interviewed by Zane Foley Skateboarding is usually not associated with college or higher education. In fact, most skateboarders would agree that skateboarding and college are intuitively incompatible. In actuality, there exists a booming population of skateboarders in college, representing an opportunity to use skateboarding to help benefit students and their universities. Keegan Guizard founded Collegiate Skate Tour while attending North Carolina State University, in 2012, creating a national contest circuit among U.S. college skaters where students can represent their schools. Collegiate Skate Tour (CST) is especially inspiring because it helps relieve the daunting campus policies surrounding college campuses, helping to show an educated crowd the benefits of skateboarding. Keegan Guizard aims to inspire more skateboarders to begin skateboarding clubs associated with the Collegiate Skate Tour, with the release of his handbook – “How to start and grow a college skate club.” What is the Collegiate Skate Tour? Collegiate Skate Tour is a national skate contest series for skateboarders in college. It encourages higher education for skateboarding youth and helps skaters get the most out of their experience in school. The student skaters benefit from help to get more funding and support from their school for their SKATEBOARDING! The youth see that and are encouraged to go to school and experience rad things in the future as well.
What inspired you, how did it all begin? When I was a freshman at NC State University, the rules against skating on campus were kind of gnarly. My friends and I got together, presented to the right people and got that changed. The rule was, at one point, “all four wheels on the ground”. Now skaters can legally skate spots and cruise around campus (which is full of fun stuff to skate!). We continued meeting up as a skate club and got a lot of stuff done for the local scene and for ourselves at the school as a club sport. No 2
Oakland University Skate Club, Rochester MI
What made you want to expand and start teaching youth skateboarding? When we started to grow the contest series, I realized that we were only really marketing to dudes that were already in school. We wanted to reach the younger generation that might just now be considering college, so we organized a fun summer skate camp in NC (where Collegiate Skate Tour started). We aren’t really focused on scaling camps right now, but we get involved where we can, sponsor programs, and spread the hype of skating to younger kids wherever we go!
Why do you think skateboarding needed representing among Universities? Why did it’s absence exist to begin with? Before starting CST, there were several skate clubs at colleges and universities around the country but no organization to help them all meet up and build momentum or create more interest in going to school for skating. As a club sport at NCSU, we got school funding to travel with the homies, design and make merchandise, and throw local events for the skate community. I guess I figured, “If we can do this at State, I should help others do the same awesome stuff all over the country.” Skateboarders have historically been against any form of establishment (and sometimes still are). Skaters don’t usually see their favorite pros or hometown heroes going to school and maintaining success with their talent, so they feel uninspired to follow that path. Even some skaters that found success and accomplished pro status are finding themselves back at the bottom, now that skating is accelerating so quickly. Skateboarding is awesome; we live for it. But having a back-up plan is crucial. Higher education can be that. No 3
How do you convince a University to establish a CST Skate Club?
done it before. The Skate Club Guide is an example of how to organize your club, set general guidelines, and move forward in the best way. We hope that having this out there and available online will take down barriers to starting a club for a lot of skaters in school that don’t want a lot of stress. For any questions not answered in the handbook, anyone can contact us through the website. We’re HERE to help skaters grow college skateboarding!
There are lots of ways to present skateboarding to the university. First, find who you can talk with at the campus police department or department of transportation. Putting together a formal presentation on a computer is how to do it best. Bring up how physically healthy it is, how many skaters there are world-wide, and how relevant skateboarding is compared to other more traditional “sports or hobbies”. You can also use the CST name to prove that there is a “governing body” for this as a “college sport”. The skate clubs at universities are necessary for the momentum of skateboarding on campuses everywhere. Some of the best street skating happens on school campuses all over the country, and without groups of skaters fighting for rights and freedoms on those campuses, skating will remain illegal and skaters won’t have the freedoms they deserve.
Does your ‘CST Skate Club Guide’ ensure skateboarders and university skate clubs with the proper tools to create their own CST skate clubs?” / “How should skateboarders use your handbook to ensure their skate clubs’ successful integration into CST? The new Guide is something I’m pretty excited about. It can be really overwhelming to approach “the university” about starting and growing something, especially if you haven’t
What would you say to skateboarders who believe the outlaw aspect of skateboarding is a part of the spirit of skateboarding and believe it does not need to be legalized? There’s a lot of conversation happening around this right now. People are scared that skateboarding is becoming watered down. Making skateboarding more legal doesn’t necessarily take away from what skateboarding is. Making skateboarding more legal makes sessions at a spot longer and less stressful. It lets everyone be happy – skaters and non-skaters alike. Changing rules in favor of skateboarding is the opposite of defeat. It’s victory. It doesn’t make sense to want to be an outlaw, but I think it does make sense to want to rebel. Skaters can rebel by taking this into their own hands; otherwise we’re surrendering. If we’re going to piss off a cop, it should be because we won.
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Matt Cartledge, crooked grind, CST contest at Astoria Park, New York
We’re releasing a handbook that is a “how-to” for starting a club - some of the topics include getting university funding and organizing your own satellite CST events! No 5
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Killian Horne, frontside boneless CST contest Cocoa Beach, Florida
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How does CST encourage a positive and productive lifestyle for college skateboarders? CST symbolizes a lifestyle that: 1) absolutely loves skateboarding and all that it does for us, and 2) takes life seriously outside of skateboarding. There are a ton of dudes that drop out of school to pursue the dream (which is rad) but find out that they need another option. Even more relevant, there are those that make it and then see their career end after 5-10 years. Those guys also need education to live a comfortable lifestyle after their pro skating careers, and CST shows that you can go to school and still pursue skateboarding, as seriously or as casually as you want to.
How can a skateboarders get involved with CST? Follow us on Instagram (@collegiateskate), send us an email (info@ collegiateskatetour.com), and we’ll help you through the process of starting a club or getting your current club involved with the Tour. Check out our event schedule HERE! If you’re not a student, you can still go to the closest Tour Stop near you and enter a post-contest best trick jam! Always stoked to have more skaters on board!
Keegan & his home Skate Club at NC State University circa 2011
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