With Skateboarding being featured in the Olympics this past summer, skateboarding has become more mainstream and a validated sport to compete in. At Newsome High School, there are a select few in the student body who participate in street skating, like junior Dexter Lowry.

      Lowry is a junior at Newsome High, who is currently ranked 311 in the world for street skating. “I am happy with my rank but expect it to get higher, next year I want to try for the top 100,” said Lowry. To get higher on the rankings, Lowry has to win more competitions and get more points.

      This can be challenging, as competitions are not as common as one may think. “I get to attend contests about every other month, but they are anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours away,” said Lowry. With competitions being few and far between, Lowry still maintains a training regiment, like any other sport. “I put in about 2 hours a day on weekdays and 6-8 hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” said Lowry.

      With the amount of work Lowry puts into skateboarding, he, along with others, were excited for skateboarding to come to the Olympics. This would provide legitimacy for the sport, diminishing previously held stereotypes, which only kept the sport from growing. “With skateboarding in the Olympics, people can now see that it’s legitimate. Now more money will be in the sport, which will cause more competitions with bigger prize pools,” Lowry said.

    Due to this negative stigma, Newsome students who pursue skateboarding as a sport have to deal with ignorant claims backed by stereotypes. Students at Newsome like juniors James Parks and Jack Cabrera revealed how skateboarders are generally called lazy.

   For Lowry, these hasty generalizations do not get him down, as his idols influence him to work harder every day, “My Idols are Jake Ilardi and John Dilo because they both put in long hours to get better and perfect their style.” Besides comments from others about skateboarding, the price of skateboarding can be another pain to deal with.

     “Skateboarding costs around $125 a month from buying boards, shoes, entrance to skate parks and contests,” said Lowry. Like many teenagers, Lowry works a job, but to pay for his skateboarding expenses, he has multiple. Lowry works as a server and an umpire for local baseball leagues.   

      Still, no matter how expensive skateboarding is, or the challenges of participating in skateboarding as a sport, it is worth it for the students here at Newsome. Skateboarding gives freedom to athletes, as there are no rules nor coaches.

     In skateboarding, there is just the skater, the board and the concrete. This is unique to the sport and it is what people love about skateboarding. So to those students who skate day in and day out, keep on grinding.