Skate Fest at the YMCA in Long Beach

In case you didn’t know, I used to be a Director at a YMCA in downtown Long Beach at the Community Development branch.

Fun Fact: It was actually the job that made me realize that I wanted to get into teaching and education in general. There’s so much to be said about young people’s needs growing up that many don’t get either in the home or at school. The YMCA Youth Institute seeks to help fill that gap.

Luckily for me, they decided that teaching skateboarding was one of the ways they wanted to engage their kids this spring with a grant from the LA84 foundation. They hit me up and I made a call to my buddy Cory Keen over at Keen Ramps at it was all set into motion.

It was two days of learning to skate including stance, pushing mechanics, parts of the board, kick turns, leaning, etc. I got sunburned the first day and that sucked. But overall, it was super rad.

They even had Cold Stone Creamery sponsor the event and passed out free ice cream to the kids on both days!

YMCA youth sweeping the parking lot at the Community Development YMCA in Long Beach California. — Carlos and the crew make sure that the ground is free of any rocks or debris before we get started.

Our friends at Element hooked them up with some skateboards for the kids to ride. They were so pumped to have a fresh setup.

Girl with helmet smiling at the camera during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — See! I told you. STOKED!

Teens taking a phone break and selfie during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — Teens will be teens. Posing for a quick selfie to all their adoring fans.

Kids skating Keen Ramps obstacles at the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — Quarter pipes + kickers + rails
= happy kids.

This girl amazed me all weekend. On the first day, she asked me if she could set up a separate trashcan for all the water bottles the kids were using. She wanted to give them to her mom to recycle them.

Kids pushing Keen Ramps quarter pipe to store away for the evening at Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA.. — Cory’s ramps are no joke. Once they sit down, they are solid. It took like 4 kids to push a single ramp.

Group of kids skateboarding on the sidewalk in downtown Long Beach during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. Young boy is has a large smile on his face. — Part of the experience was mobbing around town as a group from Point A to Point B. The look on this kid’s face tells it all.

Group of kids skateboarding on the crosswalk in downtown Long Beach during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — Since there were so many of them, they were getting caught at the crosswalks and stopping traffic. We had to use the younger staff to keep track of them all while they learned to navigate the streets.

Young boy climbs on Keen Ramps quarter pipe during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — This kid was my favorite. He has this look and persona of a full grown man. He was still doing kid stuff like climbing on the ramps and going down on his butt.

Elementary aged girl in helmet smiling at the camera during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — This girl showed up two years ago to the last Skate Fest and killed it. She wasn’t much for the ramps but she was charging around the parking lot full speed. I see hills in her future.

Elementary aged boy in helmet shows his dirty hands during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — Dirty hands but still give no shits.

Elementary aged boys hanging out during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — The crew of smaller boys deciding it’s more fun to skate the ramps sitting down.

Young boy sits down while skating Keen ramps quarter pipe during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — Exhilarating

Young boy looks scared sitting down while skating Keen ramps quarter pipe during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — and terrifying

Little girl pushes on her skateboard during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — Playing with some motion blur and panning. I think I shot this at 1/60th of a second with the neutral density filter on. I would have liked this image a lot more if the background was less busy.

Young kids learning to skateboard at Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA.

Young boy looks at the camera during the skate contest. — See what I mean about this kid?

Young boy laying down on skate obstacle during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — For the finale of the day, we held a mini contest for all the kids based on their age groups. the littlest ones had only three kids skating. At one point, I looked over and saw this kid laying on the box. I thought he was trying to be funny and do a “sleeping” trick but it turned out that he was crying. I walked over and chatted with him as I escorted him off the course. I never did figure out why he was crying.

Young boy learning to drop in on his skateboard on a Keen Ramps quarter pipe during the Skate Fest at the Community Development YMCA. — In the third age bracket of middle school kids, Cameron decided that the 10 minute heat was a good time to try to learn how to drop in on the ramp. After about 10 tries and a little pep talk, he came really close to sticking it. I could tell that he really wanted it. The time was up but we let him keep trying. After 3 more unsuccessful tries, he stuck it and the crowd lost it. Somehow at the exact same time, some dust or something ended up in my eye and my eyes were all wet. It was beautiful.

If you need some ramps for an event like a birthday party or video shoot, make sure you hit up my friend Cory at Keen Ramps.