Campus Orientation: Kutztown

August 10, 2015

Kutztown is a small town halfway between Reading and Allentown. Horse and buggies roll through daily. There are 9,500 students at the university, and about 5,000 townies. Like at most colleges, longboarding kooks are prevalent. However, there are a small group of about 7-10 skateboarders that keep things moving in town. We generally meet up behind CVS to do slappies and play skate, then go on missions from there. If you find yourself in town, skate behind CVS to see Kutztown’s only quarterpipe, and an adjustable diamond plated wallie. Town has some wallrides, a good ledge in an alley, some gaps, bump to bars, and a few manny pads. We just concreted a jersey barrier at the top of town as well. The pigs are always lurking, but they are more concerned with party animals instead of skate rats. Main Street has good manual pads and bump to bars, but it is a quick bust. Lurk down Sander Alley to lay low and find the greatest gems in town.

Peter, wallride

Campus has handrails, stairs, gaps, and plentiful unique features. For the longest no-bust skate session, we usually skate campus on weekends or at night. North campus is all academic buildings, so during off hours there aren’t many people around. The library has a 4 up 7 down, and the Academic Forum has long stairs with tall handrails. Make sure to circle all the buildings, most of them have gems hiding behind them. Security rolls through campus, but hide behind a building or dip into a bush and you’re straight. Kutztown has several skateable fountains, but if you wait until it is warm outside they’ll be filled. If you skate on campus, bring some wax, cuz there aren’t many homies that skate campus regularly. The best spot on campus is arguably a double-sided curb in the baseball field parking lot. It is super long and painted yellow, so it doesn’t need any wax. While the town is small and skaters are scarce, we’ve developed a tight nit community that makes sessions and projects happen. Shout out to anyone in Kutztown that skateboards, and anyone who skated here before our time.

A few months ago we had a curb jam behind cvs, and I’m pretty sure it was the biggest gathering of skateboarders that Kutztown has ever seen. It was still deep winter, but we shoveled and swept and before we knew it there was a full on 30-40 person jam. Berner brought his arm jam, there was a moveable wallie, a plastic barrier, and of coarse, we swept out the slappy curb.