Fly off the ramp, bend your knees and kickflip. Junior Claire Lin shoots into the air, skillfully maneuvering her customized skateboard. Lin’s longtime love for skating has recently rolled smoothly into a new realm: not just riding, but decorating boards.
While injured (non-skateboard-related) for around six to seven months, Lin still wanted to explore ways to engage with the community, searching for outlets to combine her passion for skateboarding with her artistic side.
She took inspiration from former professional skateboarders such as Kevin Long, who now creates art for a skateboard company called Baker Skateboards.
“At first, I was just interested in customizing my own skateboard,” Lin said. “But then I had the idea that I would like to see my art on someone else’s skateboard.”
Lin starts by drawing on the griptape—the black sandpaper which covers the surface of the skateboard—often with a white acrylic marker.
One of her most impressive projects to date was submitting her design to a manufacturer that produced the griptape in bulk.
On Oct. 8, she brought her custom manufactured griptapes to a skate park and found a skateboarding coach to give them out to kids landing tricks.
“It would be my way of getting involved with the skateboard community and having my own contributions towards it since it gives so much to me,” Lin said.
Her passion for skateboarding started at 9 years old at a skateboarding summer camp in Shanghai.
After injuries forced her to quit, she realized how much skateboarding meant to her.
“I feel like I didn’t realize how much I liked it until my mom made me quit, and then I was really upset,” Lin said. “That was when I realized that I really had a passion for it.”
Meanwhile, her love for art grew as she explored outlets in which her designs weren’t strictly confined by typical class-taught techniques.
“I guess I’ve always been interested in art, but not really into the traditional format of art classes,” Lin said. “So every art class I’ve attended I’ve pretty much quit because I wasn’t satisfied.”
Though she had to wait months until receiving a response from a griptape manufacturer, skateboard customization has become an important source of creative release for her.
Although she currently only works with smaller griptape manufacturers to distribute her boards, she hopes to establish contacts with companies and build it into a business.
In the meantime, she plans to continue creating new, elaborate designs, excited to hand them out to more kids.
“I grew up in these sort of little instruction camps,”
Lin said. “These kids kind of remind me of myself, so I think it’s sweet.”
