Words by Jake McNichol, Founder and Executive Director of Freedom Skate Park. Photos by Jordan Galiano.
Doing the Impossible
It’s pretty crazy that anyone learns how to skateboard, if you think about it.
Skateboarding is awesome. But learning to skate? Learning to skate is not easy! It’s painful, scary, and can be horribly frustrating. And that’s what makes skateboarding so amazing. When you start trying to skate, everything feels impossible. Even the most basic building blocks like pushing, riding down a bank, or popping an ollie, feel out of reach. But if you stick with it, eventually it all clicks. You drop in for the first time. You finally get an ollie that sticks to your feet. You do your first kickflip. That’s when the world opens up.
Tom Asta, ollie p- Greg Ludwig
Eric Britt, bs crook 
Tyler Nelson, fs bluntslide p- Greg Ludwig
Rich Whitehead, loop p- Jeremy Berkowitz
When you learn to skate, you aren’t just learning to shift your body weight and move your feet in the right way. You’re learning that you can do things that seem unbelievable, magic, or even impossible. You’re learning that the barriers you thought existed for you are self-imposed, and that if you think creatively and work hard, you can achieve any goal you put your mind to. That’s why skateboarding is special, and why skateboarders do so many great things and contribute so much to society, on and off the board.
To celebrate Freedom Skate Park’s fourth year of free, indoor skateboarding events, we partnered with Vans, Santa Cruz, Pro Tec, Super Skate Posse, Dogwood Skateshop and Shred Co. to give out free skateboards, shoes, and helmets to 25 underserved kids in Trenton, NJ from Sprout U, a pillar of art and creativity in our community. Of course, it’s awesome to see kids get laced up with top quality product, but what was even cooler about this event was knowing that all of these kids were about to have the same experience we all had when we started skateboarding: that they were going to learn that they have it inside of themselves to overcome challenges and achieve their goals, even the goals that feel impossible at first.
Thank you to all the sponsors and volunteers who made this event possible and to all the skateboarders worldwide who put in work to build a better skate community. If you’re ever in Trenton and need somewhere dry, warm, and well-lit to skate, stop by Freedom. We’d love to be the place where you do what feels impossible to you right now.
