B 8C 4 4 =kB : 0C 4 1 >0 A 3 8 = 6

/
s third period begins at East Side
Community High School in New York
City, a group of 10th-graders eagerly
wait for the day’s lesson. But the
sound that’s echoing off the walls isn’t
squeaking chairs or rustling textbooks. Over
the excited chatter of the class, the crisp sounds
of wood snapping on the ground and rolling
way to get active. The class is an elective that
kids at two New York City schools, East Side
Community and New Design High School, can
take as an alternative to traditional gym class.
The program started with 20 students and has
grown to more than 40.
Now when East Side Community’s students
file out of the school into the park next door, the

` ` V` V[ `R ` ` V\ [ N a a d\ ball bearings fill the air. basketball courts share space with benches

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“Everybody grab a board and helmet,” says built for grinds and slides on a skateboard. A Pro skater Billy Rohan
the teacher, Billy Rohan. It’s time for skate- shipping container behind a set of bleachers developed a program

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board class to begin. houses ramps and rails built by Rohan, his that uses skateboards to
Started in 2008, Rohan’s skateboarding students, and other members of the local skate teach gym class at two
BY NOAH JOHNSON physical education class offers students a new community. These obstacles have taken on a New York City schools.

A PHOTOGR APHS BY MICHAEL J. LEBRECHT II/1DEUCE3 PHOTOGR APHY SPORTS ILLUSTR ATED TEEN A
 B 8C 4 4 =kB : 0C 4 1 >0 A 3 8 = 6
new life as teaching tools, and the
students who are practicing on them are
learning lessons that stretch far beyond
skateboarding.
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When Rohan first came up with the idea
for the skatepark, he didn’t 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 City–based 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 Road’s help, Rohan
began to turn the courts into a skatepark.
Although the park isn’t technically on
school grounds, the reception from East
Side Community’s administration wasn’t
warm at first. “The principal came out
one day, and he wasn’t having it,” says
Rohan. “He’s like, ‘You can’t 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
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skateboarding at the park.
“I didn’t 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 school’s principal, Mark
Federman, could not ignore the
support for a skateboarding Tyriq Holloway (above) circulated a petition
phys ed program, and he called Rohan to add skateboard physical education to the
to make it happen. Two skateboard school day.
companies, Zoo York and CCS, donated
the gear, and brands like Red Bull and Ryan Sheckler. “Everyone starts from
Vans chipped in money to help pay for the the ground up,” says Rohan. When it
obstacles in the park. comes time for grading, enthusiastic
It only took a few months for the school participation and attendance weigh more
to add the class to the curriculum. “We got heavily than skill.
the parents to sign permission slips,” Each class consists of 15 minutes of
says East Side assistant principal Tom stretching and warmup exercises, 10
Mullen. “We really didn’t ask anybody. minutes of drills, and 20 minutes for free
We just did it. It turns out that it’s skating. The drills include things like butt
right in line with the Department of races, where one student sits on the board
Education’s philosophy of trying to get while another pushes. In the “Michael
kids interested in sports that they will Phelps” laps, students lie on their
then do on their own time.” stomachs on their boards and push
themselves with their arms. During the
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Gifa\Zkj wall crawl, the kids stand on their boards
With the green light, Rohan now had to and push along a wall with their hands.
figure out what the class should consist As the classes progress, new drills like
of. He worked with the relay races are introduced.
school’s gym teacher to The exercises are designed to teach
design a program. Rohan balance and control. They also level the
estimates that 70 percent playing field so kids of all skill levels can
of his students had never participate. Just because an advanced
been on a board before skateboarder may know how to kickflip,
taking his class, so the it doesn’t mean he or she can’t be beaten
goal of the program is to in a relay race by a faster student who is
get kids to be active and using a skateboard for the first time.
interested in skating,
not to create the next Ifcc`e^
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For Rohan and other skateboarders,
Students are introduced being accepted by the school system is a
to skateboarding through major step forward. “When I was in
stretching and relay races. middle school, you would get suspended
 B 8C 4 4 =kB : 0C 4 1 >0 A 3 8 = 6

for bringing your board to

school,” Rohan says. “[Skating]
wasn’t 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
it’s 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 few kids whose self-esteem was pretty low
play basketball,” says assistant principal coming in,” says Mullen. “I feel like being Even though he is the teacher, Rohan is still
Mullen. “And a kid that doesn’t want to involved in skating, and having something able to find time to sneak in a few tricks
play basketball doesn’t have much to do. to be good at, has made them happier kids. between classes.
There aren’t that many alternatives.” And happier kids do better in school.” He
For Mullen, the skateboard PE class hopes that the skateboard program, with Serrano, a junior at New Design. She grew
began as a way to broaden his students’ the help of its sponsors, will eventually be up in a family of skateboarders but never
interests. “I wanted kids to try something able to offer college scholarships as a got on a board herself until she enrolled in
new,” Mullen says. “I feel like that is a reward for academic performance. skateboard PE class. “My uncle and my
rewarding experience and could lead to a cousins skate,” she says. “I used to ask my
powerful life lesson. Just try something E\n
Ki`Zbj little cousins to help me, but they
that you wouldn’t think you’d be able to do The success of East Side Community’s never thought I really wanted to learn.
and see, hey, I can do this.” skate program has attracted followers. But I would be committed if I had some
The approach seems to be working. A few blocks downtown from East Side instruction. So, I am psyched to try
Laura Navarrete, who is a sophomore at High, on the fenced-in rooftop of the New it now.”
East Side Community, had little experience Design High School, Rohan and Open Rohan believes that the lessons his
with skateboarding before she took Road have started their second skate students at East Side Community and
Rohan’s class but has class. The walls of the New Design are learning through skate-
improved a great deal New Design skate- boarding can open many doors down
since she started. “I park are decked out the road. “Skateboarding is a giant
think it’s good to learn with the paintings of industry, and it offers a lot to the kids,”
new things and not local graffiti artists he says. “They can be professional skate-
just stick to the same as part of an ongoing boarders, graphic designers, or clothing
curriculum,” Navarrete exhibition curated by designers. They can make magazines,
says. “When I come to the school’s dean, shoot photos, do videos. There is pretty
school now, I have a class Jesse Pais. “The graffiti much an endless landscape of job
that I’ll have fun in.” art plus the skate- opportunities within the skateboarding
The students’ sense of boarding, they are just industry.”
accomplishment is also more tools to keep the So now when the day’s skateboarding
showing up outside of kids engaged and to lesson ends and the students (reluctantly)
skate class. “There are a make them feel good turn in their helmets and boards before
about the school they they head off to their next class, they are
Drills like the wall crawl are go to,” says Pais. energized and ready to take on the next
fun ways to teach balance. That’s true for Amara challenge, whatever that may be. N

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