Kurtis Colamonico has been one of the best skateboarders in the world for well over a decade. He’s traversed the globe with a who’s who of skating history and competed in several of the largest competitions of the last 15 years. 

But that’s not really what he’s spending his time on anymore. 

These days, one of Long Beach’s favorite skateboarding sons is more concerned with raising the next generation of Tony Hawks, Chris Coles and Ryan Shecklers. Colamonico started getting more into teaching the youth to skate (through his business, Skate Kids) after his son was born and his priorities shifted. 

Myspace managed to find some time in Colamonico’s schedule (between skating, instructing, and being a dad) to talk about his skateboarding career, his new business and how he started skating. 

Not a whole lot of professional skateboarders out there would want to spend their time teaching kindergarteners to kickflip at the end of their skating career. How did Skate Kids come about? 

Skate Kids started because now I have a 4-year-old. Skateboarding has been my passion for over 20 years, I actually wanted to be a kindergarten teacher when I was growing up. I said, “Hey, let’s take it to the next level and combine the two.” With Skate Kids, I’m happy, my son is happy, the kids I teach are happy, their parents are happy. It just made sense for everyone. 

You gotta do what you love. I was working at an auto body shop to make some extra money because some of my old sponsor companies moved out of action sports, and I just wasn’t happy. When I first started doing Skate Kids, some parents were iffy because of my look, but now it’s doing great just from word of mouth.

Obviously, you teach kids to skate, but how does Skate Kids actually work? 

It’s really just me, so I try to take care of as much as possible. I do camps during the holidays. I do skatepark tours. I’ve been doing some private lessons, because I wish I had a pro to teach me when I was growing up instead of learning on my own. I’m still learning the business, because other companies have been doing stuff for a while, but I’m still pretty new at this. 

I’m teaching the kids balance and how to work hard. I love watching them build the confidence to stand on the board first, and then they start building confidence toward doing a trick until eventually they just go for it. I also provide the equipment for kids to use when they’re getting started. Darkstar is giving me boards and pads for the kids. A bunch of sponsors are really into it, even some of the hard to get ones are sending packages. I think about what I wanted as a kid, and I try to provide all of that. 

How did you get into skating when you were a kid?

I think I’ve had a board since I was 4 years old, but it wasn’t until I was 11 that I decided it was really what I wanted to do. At first, my family didn’t believe it could be anything, but I just stuck with it. I got a job at 16 and saved up for a double tail board, and now I’m 31 and still riding a skateboard for a living. I used to just hop right back up, but now it takes a little longer to recover. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same. It’s awesome that my kid loves it now too. I don’t pressure him about it, but he does it all on his own. He’s the only kid I work with who doesn’t listen to me. 

What was it like becoming a pro skater?

More than anything, it was really hard. I loved it, but it definitely wasn’t easy. My parents split up when I was young, and I moved with my dad to Huntington Beach. I would hop on the bus to go to the skatepark, but I had to hide it from my dad because he didn’t like it. That was back in the day when a lot of pros would be at the skateparks around there, it was like a meeting spot for them. For me, I wanted to show off and impress them. 

I really wanted to skate for Furnace (Skate Shop), so getting that was really cool. I met Andrew Reynolds and Chad Fernandez at the skatepark one time, and they brought me into World Industries. They told me to take whatever I wanted, so I think I walked out with like 15 skateboards and like 20 tees. I gave all my friends boards and shirts, it was like 10 Christmases all at the same time for me. 

I became an amateur and my family still didn’t agree with me. They were hard on me about it, but I just told them to watch. If you want something enough, you have to go get it. My shoulder popped out like 100 times during that time, but I knew I couldn’t take time off to fix it because I was so close to becoming a pro. I wanted my name on a board more than anything. 

I got my first pro board through World Industries, and immediately had shoulder surgery because I figured they’re not going to cut a guy they just signed. I had to go six months without skating, but then after that is when I started doing things like the Dew Tour, and everything just took off.