Jade Trevizo crouched over her skateboard at Plata Arroyo skatepark in San Jose, trying once more to master a basic maneuver that pops it off the ground and keeps it underfoot as the rider sticks the landing.
With a whack, the 13-year-old who started riding six months ago stomped the board’s wooden tail to the pavement, launching herself and the board upward. But she couldn’t land on the board. Instructor Felipe Franco held out his hand to steady her and offered tips to “ollie” as she gave it another go. Ten minutes later, she and her skateboard were airborne, then she stuck the ollie and smiled widely.
“You’re ollie-ing, you know that, right?” Franco, 46, cried out excitedly.
Felipe Franco spends his 46th birthday teaching skateboarding to teenagers like Jade Trevizo, 13, at Plata Arroyo Park in San Jose, Calif., on National Skate Day, Friday, June 21, 2024. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Franco, based in San Jose, teaches throughout the Bay Area — Gilroy, San Francisco, Union City, Livermore, Sunnyvale, Fremont, Milpitas and Palo Alto — with lessons costing between $60 and $200 depending on location and skill level.
But on Friday — the 20th edition of Go Skate Day, when skaters across the globe come together to celebrate skateboarding — he hosted a free, hour-long skateboarding lesson at Plata Arroyo skatepark on behalf of GOSKATE, a website connecting beginning skaters to teachers.
Jade, who started skating in December, had come to the skatepark on Friday hoping to learn how to “drop in” for the first time on one of the concrete ramps. She learned much more in her hour-long session.
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
