8 youth skateboarders showcase skills in short films, onstage at Levitt during Innoskate

Morgan Matzen, Sioux Falls Argus Leader
·3 min read

Eight South Dakota students had a chance to answer the question of what skateboarding means to them in short documentaries tied to a one-of-a kind effort focused on exploring the impact of skateboarding on American culture.

The documentaries were shown to the audience at Innoskate onstage at the Levitt on Friday night. Innoskate, a festival created in 2013 by USA Skateboarding and the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, celebrates the intersection of invention and creativity in skate culture, according to the Smithsonian.

The students also got to show off their skateboarding skills and practice some tricks with Olympic skateboarder Bryce Wettstein.

The young skateboarders have been working with local photographer Wes Eisenhauer for the last few months to create short documentaries about how skateboarding intersects with invention, innovation and creativity in their lives.

Eisenhauer said he heard about the unique opportunity for these local youth from the Smithsonian and USA Skateboarding, when representatives from the organizations asked if anyone would be “interested in testing out a curriculum” they’d been working on.

A group of youth skateboarders shared videos about their passion for skateboarding to a crowd at Levitt Sioux Falls during Innoskate on July 8, 2022. From left to right: two organizers with Innoskate, Wes Eisenhauer, Sydney Patzwald, Willow Kniep, Miya Charging, Jonah Eisenhauer, Ingrid Thompson, Luna Baymiller, Mia Moon and Scout Kniep.
A group of youth skateboarders shared videos about their passion for skateboarding to a crowd at Levitt Sioux Falls during Innoskate on July 8, 2022. From left to right: two organizers with Innoskate, Wes Eisenhauer, Sydney Patzwald, Willow Kniep, Miya Charging, Jonah Eisenhauer, Ingrid Thompson, Luna Baymiller, Mia Moon and Scout Kniep.

From there, Eisenhauer and the eight young skaters went through the process of filmmaking, and the philosophy of skating, together. They each ended up creating a one-minute film about what skateboarding means to them.

The shorts were complete with animation, voiceovers, unique camera angles and shots of quotes like professional skater Jeff Grosso’s, “It’s you, your skateboard and the world. So go out and make it your own.”

Each short film played on the big screen at the Levitt during a question and answer session with the skaters before Dessa headlined the concert that night. After the Q&A, the skaters got a chance to skate with Wettstein.

Luna Baymiller, 13, started skating three years ago. In their short film, Baymiller noted everyone who skateboards starts not being able to stand on the board, but they grow from that starting point.

“I liked how we supported each other and hyped each other up,” Baymiller said, about the filmmaking process,

Miya Charging, 14, said she has been skateboarding for two and a half years now and has noticed the skateboarding community is a very open one. She’s enjoyed doing “boneless 180s,” a type of skateboarding trick, off of ledges and other obstacles.

Ingrid Thompson, 13, started skateboarding two years ago and likes how there’s no rules in skateboarding. It’s changed her life, given her new friends and an accepting community. As far as filmmaking, she liked learning the editing techniques and may keep doing it for years to come.

Eisenhauer said he was “extremely proud” of the young skaters, noting his own background growing up skateboarding with friends in Sioux Falls.

It’s all about how “skateboarding intersects with different innovations, thought processes, creativity, music, video and photography,” Eisenhauer said of the students’ films. “The idea was around being inventive, solving problems and how skateboarders do that within their sport.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls Innoskate: 8 youth share the stage with Bryce Wettstein