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Boise Parks and Recreation gears up for inaugural skate camp

Posted at 3:00 AM, Jun 18, 2024

BOISE, Idaho — Boise Parks and Recreation is hosting their first skate camp this summer, named, Foundations of Skateboarding.

  • Foundations of Skateboarding Camp begins on June 24 with campers ages 6 to 11.
  • Instructor Kurt Derow took the time to teach campers at Out and About camp a few fundamentals ahead of skate camp.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)

Summertime is one of the best seasons for kids — hanging out with friends, going to the pool and going to camp. I’m your neighborhood reporter Jessica Davis at Out and About Camp, where this week campers at Fort Boise Community Center are learning how to push, flip, and maneuver a skateboard.

For some, skateboarding is a rite of summer and must start somewhere.

“We're going to teach them how to stand on a board, turn on a board, potentially push and kind of have them cruise around like the foundations of rolling,” says Kurt Derow.

Derow is the skate camp supervisor for Boise Parks and Recreation skate camp, Foundations of Skateboarding, the first camp of its kind for Boise Parks and Rec.

"The first official day of camp is June 24 and today is more getting my feet wet,” says Derow.

At Out and About Camp, campers spent an hour learning new skills from Kurtis, like learning how to push and even properly fall.

"You just go anywhere you want to go, and you control the things you do," says Jackie Biggerstaff, a camper at Out and About Camp.

Emmy Smith is a camper as well, it's her first-time skateboarding and she says she enjoyed her experience, “I like learning how to turn, it feels really cool to do like loops or turning around stuff.”

And everything that was taught at board day for Out and About Camp will be taught at Foundations of Skateboarding Camp, where campers can get a summer full of lessons.

"I want a skateboard,” says Emmy Smith. "I feel like it sounds so much fun so if I do get a skateboard definitely, I'm going to try it out at least."

Kurtis Derow, adds, “When they get to skate, it changes the way you think and it makes you see the surroundings in a different way. It kind of brings back that inner child point of view where everything is something you can run and jump off of and I think that's good for a creative mind.”

Starting June 24, Boise Parks and Recreation will be hosting their first skateboarding camp, and there are still spots left.