FREEWHEELIN’ AROUND LOS OSOS

Six-year-old Los Osos kid is skateboard champ

Mateo Carvajal, 6, is not only quick on his feet, he’s also a quick learner, picking up skills from other skaters

By Sona Patel

He’s never received any formal training, and he’s only 6 years old. But Mateo Carvajal is already a local skateboarding champion.

A few days every week, 3-foot-8 Mateo straps on his pads and helmet, grabs his board and heads to the skate park with his father, Carlos Carvajal.

“Whoa, how’d you do that?” other skaters will ask. And Mateo replies, “I’ll show you.”

The Baywood Elementary School student spends about 10 hours a week at the park with his father. The Los Osos man watches his son glide effortlessly on the smooth cement, his bright red hair peeking through a scratched black helmet covered with stickers.

In the past few months, Mateo has snagged several top honors in the Central Coast Monster Skate Park Series, a contest for young skaters, by demonstrating maneuvers that he picked up by watching skaters in the park.

“It made me feel proud, and I wanted to see him do something he enjoyed,” Carvajal said.

Mateo watches DVDs and videos to learn new moves. For the past year and a half, skating has been a favorite pastime of Mateo’s, along with eating ice cream, according to his father, who raises Mateo as a single parent while working as a mar tial arts instructor and a salesman.

“He sees things, watches someone else doing a trick, and he’ll start practicing,” Carvajal said.

Carvajal said he is Mateo’s No. 1 fan, perhaps most evident through skating videos of Mateo that he has posted online.

And skating has taught Mateo more than just a Disaster 180 or transfers—a couple of the tricks that he has used to impress the judges.

He’s made friends at the skate park and has learned that picking up new tricks takes patience and a lot of practice.

And after winning a series of competitions with prizes such as skateboards and skating clothes, Carvajal said his son has learned how to share. For example, he said, Mateo gave away three of the six skateboards he won at one recent contest to friends who wanted to learn how to skate.

As for Mateo’s future skating career, Carvajal said he and his son will consider accepting sponsorships from local skate shops and participate in skating workshops and competitions.