When members of the One Way skate team aren’t skateboarding, they’re hanging out with team members, and much like old friends do, they squabble and make fun of each other.
Outside of making friends, being on the skate team is an opportunity all of them are grateful for: It’s a way for them to keep pushing their skateboarding skills, to promote a Central Coast skate shop, and give back to the community.
The team was started as a way for Dan and Dave Pankratz to get the name of their skate shop, One Way Board Shop, out into the skateboarding world.
“We’re a skate shop, so we needed to have a team. That’s what sets us apart from other retailers. We support skaters,” Dan Pankratz said. “I hate to compare it to this, but it’s a little like Little League. It’s an opportunity to feel like a team. We have skate demos, promotions, and skate for elementary schools. It’s definitely community-based.”
When they skate at elementary schools, they work hard to portray the messages of anti-bullying and being anti-drug. Team Member Robby Hargreaves, who’s skated for the team for eight years, said that the school skate demos often leave a good impression on the students.
“It allows us to show to kids what’s possible with skateboarding,” he said. “And although we sometimes fall down, we’re always willing to get right back on the board.”
Of course, being on a skate team also means being involved in skate contests. Even if not all of the team’s members are skating in the contest, they try and support those who are participating in the competition. But the adventure for the team is not necessarily the contest itself.
“We usually pile in the van and just hit the road. We’ll stop on the way and skate at popular skate spots or if we see something that catches the eye,” Hargreaves said.
Since one of the team’s top priorities is to advertise the shop, they use road stops to catch footage that could be used in advertisements. The team is also hoping to use some of the same footage for its first shop video, which is a work in progress.
“We’ve tried doing it for a couple years now. We’ve been wanting to do this for a while,” Hargreaves said. “It’s important to showcase the skating abilities of the Central Coast because we’re not really known for skate talent, but we’ve got a lot here.”
And there’s quite a bit of talent to showcase A good example is the team’s “golden child,” Anthony Anaya, who recently competed in a national competition.
Anaya is 18 years old and has been skating with the team for about six years. It was a no-brainer for Anaya to join the One Way skate team.
“Dan [Pankratz] told me that I should skate for them. So I did,” Anaya said. “I’ve progressed a lot due to being on the team.”
Just like the rest of the team, Anaya often skates in competitions. Through those competitions, he’s been able to pick up sponsors, including Foundation Skateboards and Dekline Footwear. Recently, though, he’s also been placing in those competitions. In June, he was in an Omaha, Neb., competition and decided to stick around and skate in another one a few days later.
“I was visiting with some friends, but they all had to go to work. Then I saw the Zumiez Best Foot Forward contest was in town. So I entered, and I just happened to place first,” he said.
The win qualified him for the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Finals. Anaya received a round-trip plane ticket to the Detroit competition, where he skated alongside 36 other skaters from Zumiez competitions across the United States.
Anaya gets quite a bit of support from the team, when he’s competing outside the Central Coast. He often makes bets with Ben Cabreana, who’s been with the team for 12 years and is also the team manager.
“He always texts me before he goes out and skates the contests,” Cabreana said. “He says, ‘If I get first, you have to wear a dress next time we go out and skate.’ So I always check the online results after the contest. And it’s second. I always think to myself, ‘He must have really wanted me to wear that dress.’”
The team attributes most of their skating successes to the hard work of One Way’s owners.
“They do a lot for the area, and they don’t do it for a check,” Cabreana said.
Most of the team’s members wouldn’t be skating if they weren’t on the team.
“There’s no way my parents would have kept buying me all this skate stuff,” Jeremy Banter, who’s been skating with the team for six years, said. “I’d probably still be playing soccer [if it weren’t for being on the skate team].”
In exchange for that equipment to skate on, each member of the team works as a publicity agent for the skate shop. Whether that’s accomplished by wearing One Way shirts in everyday life or sporting stickers at skate competitions, the goal is to spread the word about the skate shop.
“Ben and I both work to teach them that this is also meant to be a promotion for the business,” Pankratz said.
In the end, though, keeping youth on the board seems like the biggest mission for the One Way skate team.
“Giving back to the community is the dream, you know,” Pankratz said. “We try and give [skaters] a chance to be a pro. And it’s always an honor to see one of the current or former teammates make it to a bigger sponsor’s video or sign with a bigger sponsor. They start here, then make it to somewhere else. It’s rewarding.”
Contact contributor Henry Houston through the executive editor at rmiller@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 14-21, 2014.