First things first is we're going to get our helmets on, right?

We're going to make sure the sizes we had on last week are the right sizes.

And then after that, we're going to grab our skateboards and we're going to...... Skate club is a fun afterschool activity in the morning public school.

It's a good place to try out skateboarding and see if it's a sport for you.

Oh, right.

A little too tight.

Yeah.

My bad.

You need help with that, Bella?

How's that feel, David?

Good, good.

Here we go.

Can I see how much I gotta tighten it?

How's that feel?

A good.

Start.

Stella.

Nice.

All right.

We're here.

There you go.

It helps when feet too are all the way on the nose and tail.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Looks like you guys might be ready for concrete.

But it's whatever you guys are comfortable with.

We bring 20 skateboards and helmets to get kids on a skateboard.

A lot of them have never been on a board before, so it's pretty exciting.

The first couple weeks, we really work on pushing and balancing and how to stop, how to turn.

For a lot of these kids.

The afterschool clubs are going to be the first experience they have with skateboarding.

We're introducing the sport to kids that may not have had exposure to it in the past.

This is not typically part of gym class.

There's not leagues.

There's not clubs to sign up for.

It's in a place that they're familiar with.

It's with their friends.

It's safe.

We've got qualified instructors.

I want everyone to tell me where I put my front foot on the skateboard.

Exactly.

I'll switch it to get in pushing mode and then riding mode.

Right?

Yeah.

All right.

I was a female skater, and that we were going to have some little girls who might be a little nervous around older boy instructors.

So that's kind of where I came in to show them that skateboarding is not just for the boys.

You can do it too.

One last question.

All right.

What do we yell when our board goes flying?

Oh, boy.

Exactly.

All right.

Are we ready to free skate?

Yes.

All right, let me know if anyone wants to hold hands okay.

All right.

Go right ahead.

Watch out for one another.

Can I see it again?

Do it one more time.

Wow.

You really got it that pretty quickly.

They learned that they've got a need for speed.

And so we start going faster and then learning some tricks, like some toe flips.

That's the one we like to start out with.

The kids really like that one.

Really makes them feel good when they see the board flip.

In elementary, middle school, and early high school, skateboarding was a huge part of my life.

That's where I found confidence.

That's where I learned the benefits of physical activity.

And it's where I made a lot of friends.

And then right after you do it like that and you hold it there, what you want to do is just put all your weight on your front foot and lean forward.

Let me see one.

Yeah, exactly like that.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's pretty much what you're going to do.

You're going to, like, lift it up and you're going to stick out your arm.

Kind of like that, It's different than a lot of sports, but because of that, it attracts different types of people.

And we weren't ready yet.

And so we want to be there to support those kids that often don't find a place in a normal team sport activities.

Sometimes we have kids who come to skate club, maybe a little upset.

They'll tell me, you know, I'm a bad kid.

You know, I'm angry or things at home are tough.

And I just always, always tell them to put that into the skateboard.

I've got a very good.

Yeah, right.

That was it.

That was a full rotation, dude.

Part of the reason why I and others start started skate DSM is because we wanted to give that experience to other kids in the community and show how much skateboarding can impact you know your life, in a positive way.

People don't think of Des Moines when they think of skateboarding.

We're at a world class Lauridsen Skate Park, largest skate park in North America.

It's 88,000ft.

We are celebrating the end of the school year and the end of our after school skate clubs.

with field trips to the skate park.

We're always talking about ways to get our kids off of screens and outside, enjoying the fresh air and getting exercise.

Skateboarding provides that.

Oh, you had it.

You had it for sure.

It's just a way to get your energy out and like, feel all the wind going in your face without having to hold handles like a bike or a scooter.

I got on the board.

And I just fell in love with it.

It's not about becoming a top skateboarder.

It's about progressing and learning and getting better than when you started.

If you just learn how to ride, that's perfectly fine.

If you walk out of the skate club and still don't know how to ride a skateboard, but you had a great time.

We also count that as a big success.

Maybe this will become the thing that they're passionate about.

You know, every kid, particularly at this age, is kind of finding their passion.

We have gone from one school to 16, from one program to 31.

So we've had tremendous growth just over the last year.

We want to expand these opportunities to kids beyond Des Moines.

That's where the future lies with After-School Skate Club.

That feeling of being able to get something that's super tough.

They get to carry that throughout the rest of their day, throughout the rest of their week, and hopefully the rest of their life.

So skateboarding can make you feel pretty capable of some incredible things.