Kaitlyn
My name is Kaitlyn Massey and I am a Head Coach for The Source Park, in Hastings and this is my personal experience in the world of skateboarding.
Kaitlyn Massey - Source Park Head Coach
My background/what led me to Source Park
Coventry to corn fields, to cups of tea by the sea. I grew up between the US and the UK and spent half of my childhood moving around the niche rural towns in Iowa. This was where the majority of my early skateboarding journey began.
When I was fourteen my mum made the decision to leave the field and move us back to a little West Midlands town called Kidderminster. I was born in England and spent the first eight years of my life there. The decision to move was as quick as Hill Bombing a set of Bones Ceramics. There wasn’t much time to properly pack which in turn meant that there was no space for 8” planks of wood: flight companies do not seem to see these as “appropriate” carry-ons.
Within a few days of arriving, I remember walking around vast stretches of new concrete playgrounds and longing for nothing more than to be cruising around the streets again. Post move funds were sparse so we headed to Sports Direct where I got a No Fear board: because a crap board is still better than not skating! To give non-skaters some context, a No Fear board, it’s the equivalent of eating your lunch time salad with a wooden spork instead of a metal fork.
Although the board got me rolling, the truly transformative part of my passion flourishing within skateboarding came from moving down to Bembridge, Isle of Wight where I trained to become an Outdoor Activity Instructor. You might ask yourself how these two things coincide. Fair point.
When I was eighteen, I left home to become an Outdoor Activity Instructor down in Bembridge, Isle of Wight. The company that I worked for provided offsite accommodation and it just so happened that my new residence was carefully parallel to a local park with a little concrete pad, decorated quarter pipes and a jump box connecting them. Outside work, this is where I spent the majority of my time. There was also a pretty solid street spot down by Bembridge Pier, about a five minute skate from the skatepark, with a great bit of flat ground curbs and a stair set. The move completely resparked my love for skateboarding as a sport, culture and community.
Unfortunately, my little Isle of Wight pipe dream was cut short by the common enemy of everyone living through the 21st century, COVID-19. Due to the nature of my job, Coronavirus meant that cruising around the island was no longer an option and I ended up having to leave my job and moving down to Hastings, the home of The World’s Largest Underground Skatepark.
Ever since I was about eight or nine, it was my dream to work in a skate shop. As you can imagine, it was a bit of a long shot aspiration. Due to the sparse skate scene in the small towns where I grew up, I never thought that I would be presented with an opportunity to make a career in skateboarding.
Being a Head Coach at such an established skatepark seemed like such an unrealistic far fetched career path. To this day, I still wake up and feel overwhelmed with gratitude when I remember that I have the pleasure of mixing work and passion. You never work a day in your life when you are doing what you love.
In March 2021, I applied to work full-time in the UK Source BMX warehouse. During COVID, I worked at ALDI, on the delivery team and had lots of background experience in warehouse work. Although I wanted to do more client based work, at the time there were no other positions so I took a leap of faith and started to get my foot through the doors of the skatepark world through warehouse shutters.
During my interview, the Retail Directing Manager, Matt Brown, said that although he thought I would be able to manage warehouse work, he wanted me to be more customer facing and involved in the operations down at The Source Park. The same day as my interview, He spoke to some people in the company and created a new job role for me. I would work Monday-Wednesday at the warehouse and then two other days of the week down at the park. I happily accepted and was able to leave my job stacking shelves. As time went on, I found myself super interested by the coaching roles that the park offered and I began instructing beginner skate 1:2:1 lessons. The majority of the 1:2:1 coaching was done on my days off and in my spare time before I started my shift.
With my background as an instructor, it felt amazing being able to leave cardboard boxes behind and continue pursuing my passion in teaching. In Autumn 2021, I spoke to Matt about coming down to the park full-time and pursuing coaching more seriously. He was super supportive and helped me establish myself down at the park. In Winter 2021, I came down to The Source Park full-time and worked myself into a head coaching position. I was able to focus on developing more skills in coaching and skateboarding; as well as doing loads of research into the science behind skateboarding. As more months went by, my client base down at the park nearly tripled and my childhood dream had begun to fall into place.
Development at Source/Skating/Meeting Friends/Teamwork
The Source Park has offered me a sense of belonging like no other place had ever done before. The staff went from being “just” some rad people that I spent my shifts with to some of my best mates. My employment, at The Source Park, has opened hundreds of conversations with all sorts of individuals in the skate scene. It has given me a sense of compassion towards other people’s situations and empathetic towards those who have had similar walks of life to mine. It has inspired me to visit upwards of 20 different skateparks, in the past six months alone and opened conversations about the importance of skateboarding as a coached sport. The general demeanor down at the park is that of a flourishing garden filled with the most extravagant flowers. The staff team, different in their looks and walks of life, all working in unity to create a personalised experience for each individual who steps foot into the park. Who would have thought that a skatepark would become such an inclusive space.
Each day, The Source Park is filled with people varying in age and ability all skating together. This place has changed my life for the better. Even when fighting battles with my own mental health, I always know that I can go down to The Source and be surrounded by the most compassionate family. Everyday that I wake up, I feel blessed to be a part of what that place offers to people.
Depression sits in the passenger seat in my mind and does not hold back using the passenger handbrake throughout all daily tasks in my life. Skateboarding is one of the only things that allows me to leave him at the petrol station and drive away. There is something about the fear factor and adrenaline that rushes through your body when you skate that does not allow your brain to have background noise. Whenever I skate, the only thing flowing through my mind is exactly what I am doing in that exact moment and preemptively pushing around the park looking for my next trick. Skateboarding has been the most successful antidepressant throughout the entirety of my life and I could not recommend it more to anyone.
No other sport compares to skateboarding. Although it is an individual sport, the sportsmanship and dynamics between ’boarders is incomparable. Even when you look at the way that athletes are in competition, you will see all of the skaters fist pump and hype each other up just like they would when filming street clips. One of the best feelings as a skater is to rock up to a new park, headphones on and having the choice to be alone in the skate space in your head surrounded by other people.
There is something about the fear factor and adrenaline that rushes through your body when you skate that does not allow your brain to have background noise.
Kaitlyn Massey coaching Florence Salerno.
Florence visited Source Park this Summer.
Who are you?
My name is Florence Salerno. I am 12 years old, and I skate twice a week at the Alexandra Palace skatepark and Cantelowes in Camden. If I could, I would skate every day!
What made you start skateboarding?
I had this old skateboard we found on our street once, and I decided to go with my friends to the local skate park to try it out. So stupidly, I went down a ramp, not knowing anything about skateboarding and fell flat on my back; from that moment on, all I wanted to do was get down that ramp.
How long have you been skating?
I’ve been skating for about a year and a half. It makes me feel in control after I’ve accomplished a trick, gone on a ramp, or something like that.
First impression of Source Park?
When I walked into the skate park, I was impressed by the variety of ramps. There are large and small ramps, easy and hard ramps, so everyone at any level can join in.
How did your time with Kaitlyn go?
A couple of months ago, I fell and hit my head at the local skate park and lost all of my confidence. Just one lesson with Kaitlyn built my confidence back up, and now I can go back on those ramps, and I’m back on track! Imagine how much better I could do if I had a weekly lesson with her. Kaitlyn is really funny and helpful, and she didn’t make me feel pressured to do anything I didn’t want to do. I learned some tricks and have improved since my lesson.
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Coaching kids/classes seeing progression/development
A skatepark is one of the most dynamic classrooms you will ever step foot into. Regardless of ability, everyone is always finding a new way to take their skateboarding to the next level. Whether it be improving their general style or learning a new trick, a skater always has room to progress in the sport. Skateboarding has no true end point. It is nothing like sitting down and spending your lazy Sunday completing all of the levels in Tony Hawk Underground; it is an ever changing environment that challenges a skateboarder to think about how they are going to hit an obstacle. They might go Frontside (facing the ramp/obstacle) or Backside (with their back to the ramp/obstacle) and once they decide which way they are going to face they still have the next challenge of choosing which stance they are going to approach the trick in; Regular, Switch, Nollie or Fakie. As a boarder, you feel super comfortable in your regular stance but the second you start changing it up and skating Switch or Nollie you are humbled by feeling like a complete beginner all over again. The dreaded singular stance plateau leads boarders reaching out into the modern world of skateboard coaching.
Coaching within skateboarding is a fairly new concept. Most coaches learned everything they know on a board the hard way; guts and slamming hard when their guts were filled with false confidence. The skatepark environment offers a vast space filled with potential for a skater to cruise around and experiment with new tricks. The Source Park is made up of two skateparks. The Main Park: the larger of the two wooden indoor spaces with a big bowl, a little bowl and a street section at the back of the park and the Plaza: a street style section filled with banks, rails, hubbas and stair sets. To help participants achieve more progression in their skateboarding journey, The Source Park offers a range of coaching paths tailored to each individual’s needs.
On a Monday, I run a toddler’s session at the park. It is aimed at under 5s, costs £10 including all hire equipment and runs 1-3pm term time, 9-11am throughout the summer holidays. From dinosaur skateboarding and “chase the coach on her bike” to climbing and sliding around the ramps, this session is an ever changing environment which teaches younger participants valuable skills from a young age. Under 5s learn about skatepark etiquette and safety from a young age which aims to prevent future injuries/collisions. The session promotes trust, self-confidence and friendship building. During the session, I offer a range of different services including: learning to ride a pedal bike and learning how to ride a skateboard. Over the past year, the demand for the Toddler’s session has skyrocketed and the session has flourished as a whole. It only started out with only a few individuals but now has upwards of ten under 5s that regularly attend. The most recent Toddler’s session had an outstanding turn out with over twenty young individuals all skateboarding and riding balance bikes around the park.
Eagles Coaching is our group coaching session. These take place during term time on a Monday or Tuesday night. Group coaching is offered to skateboarders when they are seven and has no age limit. Participants are split into different time blocks between 4-7pm depending on their skill level. The 4-5pm session on Monday and Tuesday nights are tailored to beginner skaters. Coaches spend lots of time helping participants improve on their confidence on a board and in the park. The sessions between 5-7pm are for our intermediate skaters who are looking to challenge themselves and meet other like minded individuals. We also offer an Adult’s Eagles Group Coaching Session. This is run on a Tuesday night 7-8pm. Many of our adult coaching clients found interest in group coaching through watching the rapid progression of their own children during a six week coaching block: six hours in total, one hour each week during a participant’s selected time block. Many parents wanted the ability to take up skateboarding as a new family activity but felt too intimidated by the preconceived difficulty of skateboarding before they knew that coaching was an offer.
Another coaching session, that The Source Park offers, is our weekly girl’s night: held on Wednesdays 5-7pm, in the main park. The session costs £10 off peak and £12 on peak times. It is our busiest session and is primarily coached by one of our amazing female coaches Danielle Burton, who took it upon herself to coach the session voluntarily and teach upwards of thirty young girls how to skateboard from scratch. The Girl’s Night creates a safe space for girls, non-binary and LGBTQ+ individuals to find a sense of belonging, in a once primarily male dominated environment. The session aims to help support the growth of the female skate scene and offer a platform for participants to work together to aid each other in progression.
At The Source Park, the most sought after method for individuals to access when learning to skate is 1:2:1 coaching. This option allows clients to work 1:2:1 with a qualified coach to achieve the fastest route of progression. 1:2:1 coaching costs £35/hr. Included in this cost, is all hire equipment (including PPE), a coach and full access to the skate park for an hour. The park also offers these sessions larger time blocks and allows for groups of people to book in with a coach. 1:2:1 coaching is super dynamic and a great route for all individuals. Over the past year at the park, I have coached a large number of clients including kids with special educational needs, home schooled individuals and adults looking to get back into skateboarding. I have also run 1:2:1s for Client’s Date Nights, Birthdays and Hen Dos. This method of coaching has been under great demand, especially with SEN individuals. The park can be opened before operating times to offer a more focused quiet space for the clients to learn within. This helps participants avoid getting overstimulated/overwhelmed and aids these individuals in growing their confidence within the park.
Kaitlyn Massey
myskateofmind.blogspot.com
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Source Park
White Rock, Hastings TN34 1JL
Call. 01424 238360
www.sourcebmx.com/sourcepark
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