In the heart of Texas A&M, a vibrant community of skateboarding enthusiasts is carving its own path, rolling through campus everyday. From skating on campus to showing off their tricks at the skatepark, this club has created a home for skaters in Aggieland. Currently, the organization is petitioning to create a skatepark on campus.

TAMU Skaters was born out of a desire to unite friendly riders scattered across the university and help overcome the initial fears of skateboarding while promoting the activity as a “safe and fun way to exercise,” according to StuAct. This organization has become the epicenter of all things skateboarding on campus. Every week, skaters gather at local skateparks in Bryan and College Station to share tricks, stories and the thrill of rolling across Aggieland’s terrain. 

Electrical engineering master’s student and general officer of TAMU Skaters, Eduardo Delagarza was at the beginning of the establishment of the organization. While skateboarding on campus during his first semester at A&M, he started recognizing many of the skaters and was added to a GroupMe after befriending them, Delagarza said.

“We would just hit up the group chat to go skate, whether that was just the streets or the park,” Delagarza said. “We would just stop people on campus skating, and just say ‘What’s up.’”

In Delagarza’s second semester, he recognized a skater from his hometown skatepark named Andrew. The two had discussed creating a skateboarding community, Delagarza said.

“I saw Andrew skating near Blocker and recognized him skating by, then later found him in my chemistry class,” Delagarza said. “Since back then in 2019, we had always talked about creating an organization, it didn’t actually happen until last year.”

TAMU Skaters slowly kicked off and before they knew it, they had a skating community in Aggieland, Delagarza said.

“We liked to have a safe space, sort of make a community,” Delagarza said. “Kinda do the same thing that skating in the real world does for us, but just now on campus.”

With the club representing a diverse community with a variety of skill sets, skaters are able to learn from one another. While transferring knowledge, they are able to foster relationships in the meantime, Delagarza said. 

“If you want to start skating, or already do skate, there are already people that you can be friends with,” Delagarza said. “Teach each other and mentor, it’s just always nice to have a group to skate with.”

Environmental engineering senior and President of TAMU Skaters Curt Sarmiento said the goal of the club is to bring people closer and give them a sense of home.

“If you are in there, you have people to talk to,” Sarmiento said. “It will be scary to talk to people normally, but still you will have friends no matter what.”

With two skateparks near campus, the group meets up to share tricks and just enjoy its time together, which school often gets in the way of, biomedical science junior and Treasurer of TAMU Skaters Madelyn Wang said. 

“We also skate on campus so the freshmen who don’t have cars can come over,” Wang said. 

Kinesiology freshman Zach Munguia said by inviting the community, anyone is welcome to come join from beginners to experienced skateboarders.

“Our door is pretty open,” Munguia said. “Even in the org description, anyone can join, even if you don’t skate, just come through and hang out.”