{"id":499815,"date":"2026-10-18T03:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T03:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/499815\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T03:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T03:30:09","slug":"sdsu-skate-club-welcomes-new-members-the-daily-aztec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/499815\/","title":{"rendered":"SDSU Skate Club welcomes new members \u2013 The Daily Aztec"},"content":{"rendered":"


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While overseeing social media management, events planning and community outreach, Julian Macdonald, Skateboarding and Action Sports Club president and founder, works to recruit a new generation of members.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the original crew who helped me start this club, we are all third years now,\u201d Macdonald said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really important for us to be able to bring in the younger generation and find people who we are going to be able to pass the torch to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going into his freshman year at SDSU, Macdonald learned the university previously had a skateboarding club, but it shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the active skateboarding culture on campus, no one brought the club back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked around and I saw all the people skateboarding to class, and I knew that San Diego is such a big community for skateboarding in general,\u201d Macdonald said. \u201cIt was kind of a no-brainer for me to be able to create this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fall 2024, Macdonald founded the Skate Club. By spring 2025, the club was officially recognized.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Macdonald began by posting flyers across campus, which had a QR code to an Instagram group chat. That group chat would then grow to have approximately 40 people within a few weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the interest was immediately there, and I was ecstatic,\u201d Macdonald said.<\/p>\n

The club does not receive any funding from SDSU. Instead, the skateboarding community raises the funding they need themselves. The last fundraiser<\/a> the club hosted was in December 2025, in collaboration with Slappy\u2019s Garage, Sk8mafia and the City of San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really lucky that skateboarding is a relatively inexpensive sport,\u201d Macdonald said. \u201cOnce you get your board, you\u2019re pretty much good to go. All you need is a ground or a place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A skateboarder performs a rail-grind during the SDSU Skate Club meeting near the SDSU Transit Center, Wednesday Sept. 30, 2026 in San Diego, Calif. (Roman Fong<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Macdonald and the club\u2019s eight other officers are enthusiastic about the influx of new members joining this year. Christopher Vasilakos, vice president, said he sees this new generation of members as its future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really nice to see because a lot of us are either seniors or juniors, and our time at SDSU only goes for so long,\u201d Vasilakos said. \u201cSo it gives me a lot of excitement to see new faces and just see where this club can go after we graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macdonald said that membership isn\u2019t confined to those who are experienced skateboarders. The \u201cAction Sports\u201d in its name includes scooters, bicycle motocross, rollerblading and other sports. Those who aren\u2019t interested in doing sports themselves are also encouraged to join as content creators to contribute through filming and editing videos for social media or creating designs for merchandise and flyers.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The club] is a platform for students, all students who are involved in media in any way, to be able to get some experience, help out and make some really cool stuff,\u201d Macdonald said.<\/p>\n

In addition to attracting more members, one of the club\u2019s main goals is to dispel negative stereotypes about skateboarders and gain the same level of representation as mainstream sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that we\u2019re trying to do is kind of change the way that people see skateboarding as a sport, and take it away from being something that\u2019s frowned upon, degenerate, whatever, to something that is encouraged and exciting,\u201d Macdonald said.<\/p>\n

Macdonald and the Skate Club want to keep the spirit of skateboarding open to anyone seeking community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor someone who maybe doesn\u2019t have the most positive home environment, [skateboarding] is the only way that they can get outside and enjoy themselves, and it allows them to do so easily and freely,\u201d Macdonald said.<\/p>\n