A Kickflip to Remember: NYC Summer Skateboarding Camps on Tap

Do your kids dream all day about kickflipping, manuals, and ollies? Do they have Tony Hawk or Patti McGee posters plastered all over their walls, or head straight from school to Tompkins Square Park with their friends on Friday, in order to try to catch some serious air?

Well, there’s an easy way to give them what they’ll surely consider to be the ultimate NYC summer experience: skateboarding camp. Don’t worry if they tell you that they’re novices, either, because such camps welcome all skill levels.

For starters, there’s the BB Skate Club, which offers five separate iterations of a week-long summer camp for younger kids between June 29 and July 27.

Kids of all abilities will go to a “sampling” of 20 different skateparks both across the five boroughs and across the Hudson River, including spots in Riverside and Astoria. They’ll learn everything from how to ride a board to how to perform tricks, much of it based on one-on-one instruction.

“The camp focuses on teaching fundamental skateboarding skills such as ollies, kickturns, and drop-ins, as well as advanced tricks like kickflips and rock-to-fakie for more experienced skaters,” BB Skate Club notes.

The camp, which goes for around $900, also offers individual day passes and sibling discounts. Classes run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and pick-up and drop-off occurs at McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Sign-up can be found at www.bbscskatelessons.com/summer-skateboard-camp.

There’s also Homage Skateboard Academy’s weekly summer camp, which takes place in the Gowanus and Boerum Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn. It starts at $949, and there’s a $200 deposit which is only refundable if the cancellation comes before March 15, but no refunds after that date. Parents can sign their kids up at www.homageskateboardacademy.com/skateboard-summer-camp/.

Homage has its own “temperature-controlled” skate park, which is designed by PUSHparks. An average camp day, which begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m., involves both “structured lessons” and “free skate sessions.”

“Our experienced instructors love to teach skateboarding and are constantly progressing in their teaching abilities, just like their skating abilities,” Homage’s website notes. “Our coaches are Red Cross Certified for both CPR and First Aid, and have years of child care experience.”

Crucially, Homage advertises its skateboarding summer camp as something that creates soft skills for kiddos, such as “creativity” and “problem-solving.”

If you want your kids to both soak up the sun and get some tricks in, there’s also a weekly skate camp operating out of Rockaway Beach, run by Locals Surf School. Specifically, they’ll be skating at Beach 91st Street Skate Park, which is positioned in a rather scenic manner along the beach’s boardwalk.

The camp’s cost per child (aged 5 through 15) is $550, and the hours are Monday to Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Skateboards, protective gear, refreshments, and sunscreen are all provided. It’ll run for nine weeks, between June 30 and Aug. 25. Sign-up is available at www.localsurfschool.com/skate-camp.

Locals Surf School says that they maintain a 3-to-1 counselor-to-camper ratio, keeping classes small and instruction hands-on. The camp also promises that non-skating games, “fun activities,” and “learning exercises” will keep the days at camp “varied.”