How have skateboarding and the skateboarding subculture shaped the lives of Columbia residents over the past few decades? That’s a question a group of USC Honors College students explored recently with the help of USC University Libraries’ Oral History program.
The topic is especially timely as the visibility of skateboarding continues to grow. First appearing in the Olympics in 2021, skateboarding is now a staple sport at the 2024 Paris Olympics. There is a certain attention the sport now commands that it did not previously, as competitors showcase their artistry and athleticism on the world stage.
A lot of skateboarders “have mixed feelings about that, because it’s always been known as an individual sport, and it’s been known for its own individuality…. And now that it’s been put into this category of being an Olympic sport now, I don’t know, I guess it’s become a little more mainstream now,” says Paul Goff, owner of Salty’s Board Shop in Columbia.
This conversation around the sport got Andrea L’Hommedieu, Head of Oral History at the South Caroliniana Library, thinking about whether skateboarding had reached what could be considered an inflection point in its history. Eventually L’Hommedieu realized there might be an answer to that question in her own Columbia community.
With the help of USC students, L’Hommedieu began to document the history and culture of skateboarding in and around Columbia. In her Honors College course “A Podium of Their Own: Skateboarding’s Journey to the Olympics”, students got to immerse themselves in the local skateboarding scene and learn how to collect those stories to make a diverse collection that portrays the community around them.
L’Hommedieu approached this class with three objectives in mind: exploring the history of skateboarding, teaching students about oral history both theoretically and in practice through hands- on experience, and documenting the experiences and history of the skateboarding community in Columbia, South Carolina. Through this class, students learned how to conduct their own oral history interviews to create a collection of stories detailing multiple facets of the community.
The resulting collection, “Skateboarding’s Journey to the Olympics” consists of twenty-four interviews whose subjects range in age from 21-58 and all either have been, or currently are, involved in the local skateboarding community in Columbia. From skate shop owners to members of local skateboarding teams and everyone in between, these interviews paint a cohesive picture of the Columbia skateboarding community. In the collection, interviewees describe the skating scene through friendship, social media, fashion, pop culture, mental health and more. The class, and later the collection, helped to spotlight a very close-knit community that is often overlooked.
Most of the interviews for the collection were conducted by students in L’Hommedieu’s class. This gave the students the opportunity not only to gain hands-on experience in collecting oral histories, but also to collect the history of the community they call home.
The collection captures a wide range of experiences and perspectives on the skateboarding scene. In addition to offering a deep dive into the lived experience of its subjects, it dispels a stereotype or two.
For example, the Columbia skateboarding community “is a very wholesome group of people,” says one interviewee, Chris Cryer, who’s a member of the Bluetile skate team. “I feel like there’s always the stigma of skaters that they’re these kind of like, punk kids that just want to destroy property and get rambunctious and stuff like that, but, I don’t know, there’s something different in the water in Columbia. Everyone’s very thoughtful, very open, and everyone’s just really honest and humble and just appreciative that there’s another person that skates in Columbia. We’re a small community, but we’re a strong community.”
Not only were students responsible for collecting the interviews, but many students were also actually interviewed themselves, which gave the collection a more personal edge to the students in the class. For example, one interviewee, Laney Hayes, had interviewed an owner of a skateshop in Columbia during one class, and got the chance to be interviewed herself by a fellow student in a later class.
“I feel like this type of experience will help me reflect on how far I’ve come in my skateboarding journey, and just will help me continue to grow,” Hayes said in her interview.
The University of South Carolina’s Department of Oral History records the memories and descriptions of daily lives, communities, families and notable events that shaped South Carolina and continue to do so. The Department’s main objective is to make those stories freely available to a wide audience. The Department of Oral History’s holdings include online collections as well as those available on-site only. The collection “Skateboarding’s Journey to the Olympics” is available online.