It's not 'No Fear' but Overcoming Fear for Phenom Kid Skater from Sherman Oaks

Tuesday night presented a scare for Tony and Melissa Croll, when a loud thud resonated from the room of their 8-year-old son, Curtis.

After barging through their son’s bedroom door, Tony and Melissa saw Curtis sound asleep on the floor, having fallen off of his 4-foot-high trundle bed.

“I think he’s so used to falling when he skateboards that it didn’t even affect him,” Tony said with a chuckle. “It didn’t even wake him up.”

Curtis Croll is a Sherman Oaks-based youth skater, one that has defied the odds by winning a multitude of statewide skate tournaments against those his age and older. But aside from his heaping pile of trophies and medals, Curtis’s skating career is defined by the courage with which he approaches a sport that has struck fear in parents and children alike.

Curtis first hopped on a board at the age of 3, after Tony approached Curtis regarding adopting a new pastime.

To Tony’s surprise, Curtis not only said that he wanted to delve into skateboarding, Curtis was ahead of the curve as far as skateboard culture.

“I told him to grab his skateboard that his uncle just bought him and I would watch him skate in the driveway,” Tony recalled. “He said, 'No I want to go to a skate park.' I had never been to a skate park in my life. I don’t know how he ever even heard of a skate park." 

It was at that point that Tony located Pedlow Skate Park in Encino, wherein Curtis became a regular, along with his partner, one of the elder men at the park, his father.

“I figured if he was going to skate, I would as well,” Tony said. “I was 36, he was 3-and-a-half. So we learned to skate and he loved it. It was a lot of falling and trial and error for a while, but eventually, he got better and we began getting him lessons.”

Ironically, Tony too had his dealings with the skateboard at a young age. Or, he at least thought about it.

“My dad never allowed me to skate because he thought it was too dangerous,” Tony said. “He wanted me playing tennis and soccer.”

Tony explained that much thought went behind the decision to allow Curtis to continue skateboarding, especially since Curtis developed an affinity for vertical skating or, "vert skating," as opposed to street skating.

“I like doing big airs,” Curtis said. “On ramp, you can do more tricks because you can carry street onto ramp. And on ramps, you can skate smoother.”

Vert skating incorporates ramps, bowls, and Curtis’s personal favorite, the half-pipe. Street skating does incorporate some ramp-like structures, but it namely features rails and flat ground.

“I was hesitant to tell my dad that either of us were skating for a couple of months, even though I was 36,” Tony said laughing. “Not until it was apparent that it was going to be part of our lives for a while did I tell him. We obviously don’t want our son to get hurt, but we realize he can get hurt doing anything. I feel like it was a calculated risk with pads, and he’s not a clumsy kids. He’s very athletic.”

Tony found himself to be painfully correct when he tabbed skating as “dangerous” when two years back, he tore his MCL on a vert ramp.

Still, Tony did not allow his brush with injury to deter his son.

“Skating is a dangerous sport, but I don’t want to say it’s any more dangerous than football,” Tony said. “Unfortunately, he’s going to get hurt some day. He’s hurt himself a couple times, but luckily, it hasn’t been terrible.”

So far, a sprained ankle and bruised foot have been the only injuries Curtis has suffered, and as time went on, Curtis began to draw attention from others at Pedlow for his skating prowess.

Curtis soon joined a youth skate team, Termite, as well as the California Amateur Skateboard League.

He was 6.

“It’s fun to win and to learn new tricks,” said Curtis, who began skating competitively in CASL. “It’s fun to compete. And I learn most of my tricks on my own. I think of a trick I want to learn, and I keep trying it until I land it.”

Since joining Termite and CASL, Curtis has competed in tournaments across the state, as well as the country, including a gold medal finish in the 8-and-Under Street Competition of the California State Games in Encinitas in July, the state’s biggest tournament.

Curtis' long list of accomplishments includes winning first place in the 10-and-Under Bowl competition at the CASL competition in Fontana at age 7, as well as a third place finish at the California State Games in the 10-and-Under Mini-Ramp competition just this past month. 

“He likes competing a lot," Tony said. "When we go to different skate parks and travel around the state finding new parks, he’ll find the best skater at the park, and he’ll play them in a game of S.K.A.T.E. He’s an amazing competitor, but he likes skateboarding. I don’t know if he has the crazy desire to win, he just works as hard as he can. In other sports, I don’t see him compete or try as hard. He just loves skateboarding.”

Aside from Curtis’ athletic education, Tony believes that through skateboarding, Curtis has been afforded a few personal lessons, as well.

“One of the things we found when we started skating is that we were at a public park and he attended a private nursery school,” Tony said. “He didn’t have a lot of exposure to other ethnicities. I found that meeting different types of people and being around them, it was wonderful for him. It was a huge education besides skating. It was a personal education, which was great.”

Curtis, who has dreams of becoming a professional skater, has still not completely conquered the fear of performing in front of hundreds of people.

“My first time being in a competition I’ve never done before, I get nervous,” Curtis said. “But once they call my name to do my first run, I just do it. And for my second run, I’m not nervous. It’s fun when you have a great line and you place. Then you get medals and trophies.”

As his father tells it, the fact that Curtis is scared sometimes but does it anyway is what makes him special.

“People say, ‘Your kid has no fear, that’s awesome,’” Tony said. “He has a ton of fear. Dropping into a bowl for the first time is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. Curtis is scared when he does things.”