Up Close: Steve Jefferson

This 20-year-old is Seeking to Make Loudoun Safe for Skaters

By Rachael Dickson (Contact)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Steve Jefferson founded the Loudoun County Skate Project when he was a 17-year-old student at Park View High School. Now 20, Jefferson is studying Web site design at NOVA, and continues to run the project with his parents, in hopes of bringing more legal skate areas to Loudoun.

Jefferson is also a sponsored skateboarder and competes in local events. He is sponsored by Elite Board Shop in Fair Oaks Mall, and Destructo Trucks.

How did you get started skating?

I actually saw a skateboarding competition with Tony Hawk on TV. I was like, oh man, I want to do that. I've just been skating ever since. My parents are very supportive. I have three brothers that are also into skateboarding and inline skating.

What is the goal of the Loudoun County Skate Project?

The goal is to support the skateboard community, to enhance it and to bring legal skate areas into Loudoun County. Right now there's only Leesburg skate park, Catoctin -- that was actually built by a group of skaters -- the same thing that I'm trying to do. It's been there for like 10 years.

Photo Gallery

Steve Jefferson Shows Off His Moves

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Steve Jefferson skateboards along a ditch in Sterling. (Rachael Dickson)

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Jefferson does a frontside ollie in the air. (Rachael Dickson)

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Jefferson relaxes for a second during a skateboarding session. (Rachael Dickson)

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Jefferson skates along the side of a ditch in Sterling. (Rachael Dickson)

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Jefferson does a backside ollie. (Rachael Dickson)

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Jefferson does an ollie off a flight of stairs in Sterling. (Rachael Dickson)

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Jefferson poses with the Loudoun County Skate Project sticker on the bottom of his skateboard. (Rachael Dickson)

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[We also want to] show that skateboarders aren't the troublemakers that many people think they are.

The whole skate community [supports the project]. I'm not sure how far it spans. I know it's really popular in Sterling. I go to random places and I see LoCo Skate Project stickers slapped on some skate store, and I'm like, oh cool, people actually know about this.

How did you get the idea for Loudoun County Skate Project?

I got this fine in D.C. for skateboarding for a couple hundred dollars. They took my skateboard -- that was like the first time it happened. My mom was like, I don't want you going there anymore, this is dangerous, you need a place to legally skate. Why don't we start something to try to get a skate park? That was what motivated me to move along with the project.

Where are you not allowed to skate?

Everywhere. Not only places with no skateboarding signs, but I could skate here [at Starbucks in Sterling] and give it a few minutes, and I'd have the manager out here saying, you need to leave.

We're paranoid about police coming … I don't know where to go -- like we've explored everywhere -- we've had no success anywhere.

Do the police usually prosecute it?

We've gotten different attitudes towards our skating in places … some cops are like, oh, I used to do this when I was young, they don't care. Other cops are like, sit down, let me talk to you. I mean I've never received a fine around here or been arrested. [But] if you go to D.C. that happens every day.

I remember one of my friends was skating at this elementary school in just a parking lot. A cop came up to him and said he was trespassing after school hours and he ended up getting like community service and fines. He had to go to court. It was horrible. He wasn't going to try to destroy something or trespass into the school, the only thing he was trying to do was find a place to skate other than the street.

What type of skate park do you want to build to solve this problem?

The style of skate park that I want to get is more of a public-use area. Some people call it a skate plaza. It blends into the environment. It can be like a public-use plaza where people can go sit down, eat lunch and talk, but it's also legal for skating.

Have you looked at a lot of locations for this?

Probably like five. The one that we're working with now was recommended to us by Loudoun county parks and recreation. It's their property and from what I've heard they're going to give it to us to make a skate plaza. So that's definitely a plus.

When we first told [Sterling Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio] about it he was cool, he was like, yeah, let's meet here and talk about it, I'm definitely interested. That was a long time ago. That was pretty much the first person we went to besides park and rec. We wanted to get this out and he was the first person on our list.

[Then in an article in the Observer Online] he commented on our organization's efforts and he was all negative. He was saying it's an extreme sport with extreme risks and that's definitely not the situation.

About a week after it got printed we had a skate park expert write a letter to the editor.

Is that a common perception of skaters? That it's extreme?

Some people do classify it as an extreme sport with like BMX riding. I mean, we might like jump down stairs and stuff, and that might be extreme to some people, but it doesn't have extreme risk. Actually it's way safer than most sports. The most popular sports -- like football, baseball, soccer -- are much more dangerous, much more extreme than skateboarding.

Tagged: Loudoun County Skate Project, skateboarding, Up Close

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