Local skate team producing video

By Catherine Amos

Published: July 3, 2008

It was 9:30 a.m. on a hot, sticky summer day. Most teenagers were probably still in bed. But one group of friends was already hanging out where they know they’ll find each other — Yowell Meadow Park.

Evan Dwyer, 19, Tim Smith, 19, and Jesse Clare, 16, are three of the founding members of “Rep The Pep,” a local skateboarding group that frequents Yowell’s skate park at the corner of Blue Ridge Avenue and West Evan Street.

Those three, plus fellow skater Blake Scott, started the group last spring following the death of friend and avid skater Hunter Payne. Rep The Pep quickly grew to 13 members, “counting Hunter,” Dwyer said. The guys enjoy filming their skate tricks, both here in Culpeper and on the road in bigger towns like Richmond and Fredericksburg.

“(Skateboarding) is such a big part of youth now,” Dwyer said. “A lot of people come down (to the park) just to hang out. So we figure the skate park is kind of becoming part of the experience.”

Dwyer and Clare do the majority of the filming. They have compiled clips and montages of RTP members and others for a video that the group will premier at the library July 19. RTP hopes to feature local bands for the video’s soundtrack to further represent the youth of Culpeper, hence the name, “Rep The Pep.”

“We just film so much stuff and everyone’s heard about the stuff we’ve landed,” Dwyer said of their stunts, “so I’m glad we put it all together. It’s not just memories. That way people have some part of Culpeper to see.”

Smith agreed, noting that Culpeper’s skaters all knew of legendary tricks past skaters had allegedly performed at the park, but none that anyone had actually witnessed.

“There’s a lot of stuff people have done that was never on film,” Smith said. “But we all believe it because we don’t know.”

Dwyer said they have been filming each other for years and have since upgraded to semi-professional cameras. In terms of skate filming, “we do it pretty by-the-book,” he said, which involves using fisheye lenses to make tricks and skaters look bigger.

“I like filming artsy stuff, like zooming out from a tree,” said Clare, who recently won an “ollie” competition hosted by Culpeper Baptist youth group Vortex. He ollied over a pole (airborne with skateboard in tow) at a height of 30 inches.

Dwyer filmed a promo video for RTP’s blog, repthepep.com, where he zoomed in from across the river. There are a handful of videos available on the Web site.

“We just kind of experiment,” he said. “Try to make stuff up. I’ll roll along to give you a feeling like you’re here, and you see the trick in passing.”

They guys said they liked seeing the progression of their skills through the videos they have filmed. And with skateboarding, they can track their progress simply by listing the number of tricks they can perform and the evolution of a skater’s style, or how they look on a skateboard.

“Some kids look really stiff,” Smith said. “They look like a robot; they’re not comfortable yet. And then someone like (Jesse), he looks like he’s been born to skate.”

Dwyer said the 13 skaters featured in the video are “the best ones” in Culpeper, who can hold their own on ramps in other towns. “On a Virginia scale, we’re decent,” he said. “But there’s definitely a lot better people.”

Bigger towns with a bigger skateboarding population seem to be more accepting, the guys said, but skaters still have a stigma most places.

“It’s just a wooden board,” Smith said. “I think people think we’re breaking stuff and we’re really not. I don’t want to call out bikers, but they cause so much more damage than skaters ever will. Nobody gets pulled for biking.”

Even in the rising temperatures, Smith and Dwyer sported RTP’s signature black T-shirts with large white lettering. Aside from Smith and Clare’s shaggy hair, nothing seemed particularly rebellious about these boys, yet they complained of how skaters are treated as delinquents.

“I guess it’s because people don’t understand it,” Dwyer said. “We’re out here just trying to enjoy ourselves, just like someone playing basketball or golf. We’re just doing it in a different way. It’s just recreation. We’re not trying to get in anyone’s way.”

Clare agreed.

“We’re not as bad as you think,” he said.

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .

Check them out
Rep The Pep members will premier their self-made video of skate tricks at Culpeper County Library July 19. Following the premier, the team will be selling copies of the video and Rep The Pep T-shirts at Yowell Meadow Park. Visit repthepep.com.