Kurtis Colamonico spent most of his life learning and perfecting new tricks on his skateboard, but after the birth of his son and the end of his professional skateboarding career, he knew he needed to shift into something new.
These days, Colamonico’s time goes primarily to learning the ins and outs of the laptop he uses to run his community-building business, Skate Kids. Following his lifelong dream of becoming a teacher, the Long Beach native found a way to fuse his passion for helping children with his world-class skateboarding skills to make a living while ensuring that the next generation of skaters has it easier than he did growing up.
What started a few years ago as a one-man operation giving private skateboarding lessons and hosting the occasional skate park camp has quickly blossomed into a big deal throughout Orange County. While relocating the business from Long Beach, Colamonico landed deals with school districts and cities like Yorba Linda, Anaheim, and Costa Mesa to hold camps and demos for the areas’ children. After having to build up Skate Kids one client at a time, getting a few bigger agreements has kept Colamonico even busier than he ever was as a pro skateboarder.
“In three years, it’s grown like crazy,” Colamonico says. “You always think things are going to go faster than they are, but once they start moving, you just have to put in that work to get there. I’m just doing what I can for the kids and learning new tricks on this computer. It’s like my new skateboard.”
Although the Skate Kids-branded equipment trailer can be seen all over the county these days, Colamonico’s original goal was just to be able to maintain a job that would allow him to see his own son as much as possible. Hanging out at the skatepark seemed like the perfect activity for some father-son bonding, and it ended up giving the entrepreneurial skateboarder just the motivation he needed to inspire not only his own child, but also everyone else around him.
“My plan was just to build a business where I could spend time with my son,” Colamonico says. “I only have him half of the time, so I knew I didn’t want to be a 25 percent dad and only spend half of the time I have with him. That’s given me the spark to give my all to all of these kids. Watching these kids grow through skateboarding and building their self-confidence is what I love the most. Some of these kids come in with no balance, but I preach to them that I can do it and so can they, and then I have them rolling and shredding within a week.”
But Colamonico isn’t just teaching kids how to drop in and (much later) kickflip, he’s also looking to spread the positive life messages that he always took away from the sport. Considering that the bulk of any skateboarder’s career is spent trying, failing, and retrying new tricks in new spots, Skate Kids has become a popular tool among parents for teaching their kids lessons in perseverance, hard work, camaraderie, and keeping a positive attitude as much as it is physical exercise. For Colamonico — who often found refuge at skateparks growing up — teaching the life lessons that come through skateboarding is just as meaningful as seeing a kid finally land their first trick.
“A lot of people frowned on skateboarding when I was growing up, but skateboarding has helped me in so many ways,” Colamonico says. “I wasn’t perfect — everybody makes mistakes — but skateboarding kept me going the right direction. While some of my friends were making that full u-turn on life and going the wrong way, I would go skate. You go to the skatepark, and you’re out there giving people high-fives within five minutes. It doesn’t matter if they’re black, white, Mexican, or whatever ethnicity they are, everybody’s out there smiling together.”
Of course, Colamonico is doing as much learning as he is teaching. Aside from having to make the adjustment from athlete to coach, he’s also had to figure out the business side of things. Thankfully, the work ethic and industry connections he made while skateboarding have paid off as Skate Kids has continued to expand seemingly every month with new public contracts, private clients, and more offerings for children all over Southern California. Although he hasn’t quite mastered the art of running a small business just yet, Colamonico isn’t going to be slowing his roll anytime soon.
“Everything I’ve learned from skateboarding, I’m putting into this business,” Colamonico says. “I have so much stuff planned for these kids, but I just have to work to get there. I know that I will work to get there. It’s been tough, but it’s been fun. I’m still doing what I love, and I’m helping people get better while I can.”
To learn more about Skate Kids, visit their website.
Josh Chesler used to play baseball for some pretty cool teams, but now he just writes about awesome stuff like tattoos, music, MMA and sneakers. He enjoys injuring himself by skateboarding, training for fights, and playing musical instruments in his off time.