Skate Book Club: March 2025

Skate/worlds: new pedagogies for skateboarding by Sander Hölsgens & Adelina Ong

$30.90 (Softcover)
Free (Digital)

Skate/Worlds: new pedagogies for skateboarding (2025), edited by Sander Hölsgens and Adelina Ong, was recently published by the University of Groningen Press. The book features a fantastic line-up of community changemakers, academics, educators and activists who contributed essays on a range of topics but all related to a theme of skateboarding as a tool for learning. Contributors include: Åsa Bäckström, Rhianon Bader, John Dahlquist, Jessica Forsyth, Sophie Friedel, Arianna Gil, Sander Hölsgens, Lian Loke, Sanné Mestrom, Douglas Miles, Nadia Odlum, Adelina Ong, Noah Romero, Esther Sayers, and Indigo Willing. 

In the opening chapter, Hölsgens provides some context and the motivation for creating the book. He writes, “The outcome is not a general story about skate culture, but rather a collection of situated studies that broaden and deepen our insights into the kinds of forms and effects skateboarding may have in specific contexts. As such, this volume proposes that there is no such thing as a skate world, but rather a diversity of interconnected skate worlds” (19). As a result, the book is diverse and provides space for skateboarders and non-skateboarders alike to discuss their perspectives of how skateboarding can be utilized for literacy and therapy, as a practice of decolonization, an impetus for belonging and creativity, an opportunity to dismantle gendered expectations of parents and children, and on a global scale.

The book will likely serve an audience that is immersed in academia or at least someone who has an appreciation for critical thinking, but what made the collection enjoyable for me, was when a writer made their argument personal and relatable, even acknowledging their bias and unique relationship with skateboarding.

On Monday, April 14^th the editors and several contributors will be celebrating the book along with a Q&A during an online webinar. Even if you can’t attend the live event (which ends up being 3:00am PDT or 6:00am EST since the hosts are in Europe), there will be a recording so still consider registering.

– Porter

Off Clark by Walker Ryan

$25.00

Publishing a second book is something worth celebrating for any author and with Off Clark skater/author Walker Ryan has joined a surely small club of professional skaters who have published more than one fiction book. Expanding on the same pseudo-real professional skate world Ryan built in his debut Top of Mason, his second book follows an episode in the life of a nomadic skater-filmer pair Mo and Richie. Adventurous, handsome, and charming, Mo (short for Mohammed) has etched out a very modest career in skating garnering sponsorships for the video parts he makes on his international travels with his friend and filmer, anxiety-ridden Richie (there are many analogs in the real world of skating for people like this, but for some reason the skater I kept thinking of was Michael Mackrodt). When Mo suddenly and unexpectedly disappears without a trace on one of these trips, it sparks the curiosity of his hopeful girlfriend Nina, a reporter who starts digging into the case, releasing her findings in an increasingly popular podcast.

Off Clark is a taught fast-moving novel, unfolding the plot quickly but assuredly with a blend of fast-paced action, lots of inner dialogue, and transcripts from Nina’s podcast.  Like Top of Mason, Off Clark draws from Ryan’s real-life experience in the skate industry, depicting the world in a way that respects readers with any level of familiarity with it, explaining just enough of the history and culture of skating without being overbearing. Fans of Ryan’s first novel will enjoy the expansion of his world – the Ryaniverse™– and the expressive inner lives of each character which flesh the story into a suspenseful read that leaves you caring about the outcome.

– Abada