By Kailyn Huynh
He knows that there’s always a risk. For sophomore Robert Anguiano, who goes by Robbie, that could span from serious injuries like concussions or sprained ankles to, most devastating of all, failure. Still, he always returns: because there’s nothing that makes him feel more free — more fearless — than gliding along the ramps with a skateboard beneath his sneakers.
Anguiano first picked up skateboarding during the pandemic, when regulations prevented him from playing baseball. His father, who had always been a good skateboarder, decided to respond to the COVID-19 hit by bringing Anguiano and his younger brother out to a skate park.
“I got pretty decent really fast,” Anguiano said. “[My dad] started filming me [and] getting clips. [I] wanted to post my clips, so I got Instagram.”
Anguiano’s Instagram account, @robbie_skates02 has amassed over 1600 followers. He has posted more than 80 clips of himself skating, and also features highlights from his various varsity track and cross country meets, as well as some simple moments with his friends.
Anguiano notes that friendships are the most important part of his skating experience.
“You never want to skate alone,” Anguiano said. “It’s like being trapped [in] a house all by yourself.”
Anguiano recalls that one of his biggest accomplishments, skating the Vans handrail, came with the encouragement of his friend and trainer Christian.
“He brought me to the Vans skate park, and he’s like, ‘You should do the rail,’ like, ‘You got this. You know you can do it, I know you can do it,’” Anguiano said.
While he had seen his other friends get seriously hurt attempting the rail, Christian’s advice to act as if he knew how to do it allowed Anguiano to get past his mental block. On the first try, Anguiano nearly injured himself, but he chose to get back up and continue again. After only six attempts, he finally got it.
Anguiano recognizes that, more important than the success, is the process of getting there. That’s why he chooses to post his falls, instead of only portraying his best highlights.
“I think when people see me fall that shows them that like, ‘Wow, when I look at pros and they have this amazing part, it doesn’t just take them first try to land a trick,’” Anguiano said. “It’s a battle, you know.”
Part of this battle for Anguiano was learning how to manage both his passion for skating as well as that of cross country and track.
As Anguiano was entering the summer into freshman year, his skating reached an all-time high. He managed to get clip after clip, wanting to do more and wanting to go bigger. Then, cross country started to interfere with that, and it nearly took over.
“As soon as I hit my first practice, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do cross country because it’s making me sore and I can’t skate anymore,’” Anguiano said.
However, he wasn’t about to give up. Anguiano soon realized that balancing both his passions would require getting his body into shape and getting used to being more physically active. He restructured his mindset, made time to skate after practices and saw progress in being able to land more tricks than ever before.
For Anguiano, skating isn’t just for fun; it also serves as a way for him to clear his mind and release tension off his body. When he’s overwhelmed with emotion, like after a bad performance on the track, he’ll go out to skate.
“It’ll help me really just take away anything that comes as an obstacle for me,” Anguiano said. “All [the] problems in your head just go away.”
Nowadays, Anguiano mainly skates during the off-season. Or, on Tuesdays evenings, he can be found at his local “Skate Church” in Fountain Valley, which is located at the Cornerstone Christian Fellowship Church. This is where he invites many of the friends that he meets through skating, and here they’ll skate for an hour or two and then end off with a five to 10 minute message afterwards.
Anguiano is extremely grateful for all the life-long friendships he has made through skating. He is also appreciative of how the shared hobby has brought him closer to his dad, someone who he looks up to and who continues skating to this day.
“I think [skating] will always be with me in my life. I think I’ll always learn new tricks,” Anguiano said.
Anguino acknowledges that he still struggles a lot with fear in skateboarding, but that he mainly just tries to be outgoing – one way is by putting his name out there through his Instagram. While he believes it would be cool to go professional for either cross country, track or skating, what Anguiano really wants is to teach others how to skate and to make it fun for them. And, for anyone who might be interested, he has one thing to say.
“[Skating will] change your life really. You’ve just got to think of it this way, ‘I can get good at it, I can be better,’” Anguiano said. “It’ll make you a better person. It’ll make you fearless, almost.”
