Riding strong into the future

Chris Yemma

Ryan Reyes is one gnarly dude. He can pull kickflips and pop

shove-its with a skateboard, when most of us would just pull a

hamstring.

Reyes, 15, is part of a skateboarding culture that has evolved

from a once-shunned way of life to a more accepted sporting culture.

Images of troublemakers would perhaps pop up in people’s minds when

the subject of skateboarding came up.

Nowadays, as a younger generation of kids emerge onto the scene,

parents are exerting more control over them at a young age, and the

sport is gaining popularity and acceptance simultaneously.

A lot of that has to do with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who

revolutionized the sport, partly by making a successful career out of

it while portraying an image contradictory to what used to be thought

of skateboarders.

Reyes, a kid who lives with his father on the weekends in Costa

Mesa and rides out the week in Corona with his mother, is just one

among this younger generation of people breaking out onto the skate

scene. And as the scene unfolds, Reyes is right there on top of it.

“He’s been skating [competitively] for two years and he loves it,”

said Ray Reyes, little Reyes’ grandfather who lives in Fountain

Valley and helps shuttle him to and from certain competitions.

“He’s got a lot of guts.”

Reyes recently finished third at the State Games Skateboarding

championship at Woodward Camp in Tehachapi. Only the best

skateboarders of Northern and Southern California qualified for this

event.

He also recently finished third in the year-long California

Amateur Skateboard League competition in the 11-15 age division. He

placed fourth in the Skateboard Olympics in San Diego last year and

was chosen to be in a DVD that is currently being filmed and is

scheduled for release later this year.

Basically, when he isn’t in school, he’s tearing it up on the

street pavement or on the half pipe plywood.

“I skate for like three hours everyday,” Reyes said. “On the

weekends I skate eight hours.”

Mainly, you’ll find him at the Block in Orange, taking advantage

of the skate park and half pipes. His day job, though, is cruising

the halls as a sophomore at Corona High in the Inland Empire.

He doesn’t play typical high school sports, like football,

basketball or baseball. He doesn’t do any high school sports for that

matter. Just about all of his free time is dedicated to the art of

perfecting his next gnarly trick.

And sometimes, it can be a little too gnarly.

“I fell on my backyard rail one time and my disc popped out,”

Reyes said. “I had a huge bump on my hip -- baseball size -- but I

never went to the doctor. I probably should have went.”

Reyes got interested in skateboarding four years ago, but it

wasn’t through a friend, relative or by any other conventional means.

It was because of the Legend himself, or at least a version of him.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, the video game, was the driving force

behind Reyes’ induction to the skateboarding world.

“I had a skateboard but I didn’t know you could do tricks until

that game,” he said. “After that, it took me a couple of months to

get started.”

At recent competitions, Reyes has encountered another version of

the legend -- Riley Hawk, Tony’s son. On a couple of occasions, Tony

has shown up to watch the events, Reyes said.

And as the skateboarding culture evolves and becomes more widely

accepted, the future becomes brighter for people like Reyes.

“I want to keep skating my whole life,” Reyes said. “I want to

skate as a career.”

With skate parks popping up everywhere, and Tony Hawk paving the

way, that dream is a lot more possible now than it has ever been.