Santa Cruz alternative education skate shop lesson avoids the grind

Ryan Escobar takes a look at Maria Escobar’s skateboard in Dominic Yarbrough’s physical science class at Costanoa High where the students are learning to build their own skateboards. (Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Calvin Whittaker and Hugo Fuller discuss their skateboards in the foreground as Costanoa High physical science teacher Dominic Yarbrough, center, talks with UCSC class aide Olivia Johnson. (Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Costanoa High student Rocco White learns how to build a skateboard Thursday in Dominic Yarbrough’s physical science class, where the students will build one board for themselves and one for sale to fund future class projects. (Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel)

By Jessica A. York | jyork@santacruzsentinel.com | Santa Cruz Sentinel

PUBLISHED: May 12, 2017 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: September 11, 2018 at 12:00 a.m.

SANTA CRUZ >> Dominic Yarbrough’s students are not always able to skate through their classes.

In recent weeks, though, they have been trying — with the Costanoa Continuation High School teacher’s blessing and encouragement.

The alternative high school’s physical science class is in the midst of building skateboards, two per student, from scratch. Along the way, 15 teenagers are “getting their hands dirty” with subtle lessons in applied physics, design and logo, marketing and communication skills. Yarbrough said student interests are a driving force in how he crafts his lesson plans and projects, echoing Costanoa’s school motto of “a personalized education for each student.”

The skate shop idea was borrowed from a Morro Bay alternative high school class, he said.

“Most of the other projects, the science I’ve been able to, it’s more explicitly taught. This project, I think because they’re just so into it, I can’t really stop them for working long enough to really teach them about the science,” Yarbrough said with a smile. “It really is, ‘OK, get your hands dirty.’ And then I have something to hang that knowledge on.”

Student Anahi Servin, 17, said Thursday that the course was like no other science class she had taken before. Students and teachers are like family and Servin and her peers are invited to “build stuff and break stuff,” she said.

“That’s how we learn in this class, just basically, I guess, if it’s a fail, it’s successful,” Servin said. “I don’t know how else to say it. (Yarbrough) says either way, it’s going to be destroyed, so we might as well.”

Skateboarding enthusiast Rocco White, 16, said he did not know how well his new boards will hold up when put to the test, but he was excited about creating them, right up to designing a school logo on a board created to sell as a class fundraiser. The students each made an extra skateboard to sell, with proceeds going toward future class projects.

“On the bottom, I have nothing right now. But I’m going do a grizzly bear right here with it’s mouth open,” Rocco said, pointing to his in-progress work. “It’s going to be a big bubble and it’s going to say ‘Costanoa,’ like the bear is roaring ‘Costanoa.’ Hopefully, I can draw it.”

Using skateboard kits from Toronto-based Roarockit, students each had about 7 minutes to glue together and carefully align their seven sheets of pressed Canadian maple, before the glue dried, 16-year-old Hugo Fuller, 16, said. Next, they placed their layered boards inside vinyl vacuum packs above Styrofoam mold before hand pumping the air out. Fuller’s first board deck needed a bit of sanding along the edges to realign the layers, he said.

Fuller and a couple others from the class recently toured Santa Cruz-based skateboard manufacturer and distributor NHS, among whose brands include Santa Cruz Skateboards. Yarbrough said he has a vision of expanding the skate shop project into a multi-credit effort that brings several areas of study under the skateboarding umbrella, which could include future involvement with NHS.

Jeremy Page, an NHS development manager who gave the tour, said he first heard about the class through its online fundraising page on gofundme.com. When he saw how the class was working to scrape together funding and donations for “bits and pieces,” he reached out to them. Through NHS donations, Yarbrough was able to expand the lesson beyond building skateboard decks, with students able to outfit 30 boards with grip tape, wheels, bearings and wheel mounts.

While the class’ methods of skateboard-making differs from the mass production done for NHS brands, Page said he was impressed by the students’ level of involvement in the process.

“What they’re doing is actually pretty advanced,” Page said. “They’re sourcing veneers from Canada and they’re cutting their shape, they’re sanding, they’re gluing their veneers together — really taking it from beginning to end.”

Page said there is plenty of applied science, math and chemistry know-how involved in today’s skateboard production, beyond riders sitting on their garage floors, “cutting something out and slapping some wood on it.”