In recent years, the skateboard scene in Philadelphia has exploded. Jenkem Magazine named Temple University the #1 university in the U.S. for skateboarding, and a picture of Philly local Brian O’Dwyer appeared on the cover of Thrasher Magazine’s October 2022 issue. Collin Wolf ’26 is studying marketing and posts videos of himself skateboarding on his Instagram. The Hawk sat down with Wolf to find out who he is and what’s behind his passion for skateboarding.
The Hawk: How did you become interested in skateboarding?
Wolf: I got interested in skating seven or eight years ago. I was at a park, and I saw these 30-year-old guys jumping off a ledge with their buddies, just skating this ledge. I forced my mom to let me and my brother wait in the park and just watch them because it was so sick. After that day, my brother got a skateboard, and we started sharing it.
The Hawk: How was the skateboard scene in your hometown?
Wolf: It was cool because I lived five minutes away from the beach. There are some cool little street skateboard spots right by the beach. And there’s definitely a group of different age groups that skated, but there wasn’t a huge skateboarding scene, like there is in Philly.
The Hawk: How is the skateboarding scene here at St Joe’s?
Wolf: Campus is pretty bad for skating. Not to say all bad things, but some of the security guards have made me get off the board. That’s stupid, by the way. We’ve paid to go to college here, and we can’t skate on our own campus.
The Hawk: Do you have a favorite skate park in the city?
Wolf: I think Muni. It’s not a skate park, Muni is a street spot. I like ledges, that’s what I really like to skate. It’s just ledges and manual pads. No matter what you post at Muni, it can be the most basic content, but with the city buildings surrounding the footage, it really looks good. There are these benches that go around the whole area, and they’ve been waxed and messed with for 10-15 years, so they grind really well. There’s a bunch of oversized chess pieces and dominoes, all this art that you can skate. It just looks so good in videos with all the buildings around you. You can ollie over a chess piece, grind a bench and then pan up and there’s giant city buildings. It’s really, really good for social media.
The Hawk: What is an ollie?
Wolf: An ollie is basically a jump on a skateboard. It doesn’t even make sense when you see it for the first time. It looks like you’re defying physics. Basically, it’s when you stomp down on the tail of the board, slide the top of your foot up and jump all at the same time. It lifts the board up in the air with your feet. It’s a really cool motion. If you’re skating downtown and need to go up a curb, you can just ollie up.
The Hawk: What are some of your favorite skateboard tricks?
Wolf: I learned how to kickflip when I was a little kid, so kickflip is definitely one of my favorites. It’s also very well known. Kickflip is the one where the board does a barrel roll. I’ll also say no-complies, because that’s kind of what people know me for doing. It’s the trick where your one foot steps off the board and then it lands back onto the board after getting air, all in one step. They look really trendy, and you see them a lot on social media. I can do like 30 variations of them. I absolutely love them.
The Hawk: What do you like about the actual activity of skating when you’re on the skateboard?
Wolf: It just feels really freeing. You can always rely on it wherever you are. Sometimes you just get lonely or you get sad, and with skating, wherever you go, it goes. Wherever you’re going, if you have a board, you can skate whenever.
