The Disciple of Scootering
Beck Dobrzanski Spreads the Good Word
Decomposing grimy Vans held on by broken laces and duck tape are attached to bodies with scabbed elbows and bruised knees, concealed by baggy clothing two times the necessary size. Three boys sit illuminated by the over-exposed yellow light of a computer, watching beat-up wheels bound into the unknown and skirt across rough concrete, synchronizing every leap perfectly to the song “Human” by The Killers. The boys’ eyes widened at the sight of the great dance taking place between riders and their wheeled appendages during the video they watched onscreen. This was the moment that Beck Dobrzanski knew he, too, wanted to perform this same dance.
“It was called, like, Craziest Scooter Tricks Number 13, and it was sick, and we were super hyped on it, and we were like, dude, we have to do that,” recalls Dobrzanski as we sit together on a park bench near Whittier College’s Hoover Hall on a warm December California day. The homemade video filmed on a Sony Handicap shown to Dobrzanski by his younger brother almost 10 years ago was not your average, grungy early-2000s skate compilation then popular on YouTube. In fact, it was the opposite. Within the margins of the intricate culture of skateboarding, a new subculture was growing out of the mainstream view.
Born and raised in Bakersfield, California, Beck Dobrzanski, an up-and-coming sponsored pro-scooterist and senior at Whittier College, has begun to gain public acclaim. With 9,267 followers and counting on Instagram and numerous YouTube videos that garner more than 20k views each, Dobrzanski’s social media presence illustrates how this pioneer is paving the way for the future of scootering.
“It was sick, and we were super hyped on it, and we were like, dude, we have to do that.”
Even from a young age, Dobrzanski was attracted to the danger of action sports with wheels. His passion began with a skateboard gifted to him by his parents at age 11. Moving on to another set of wheels, Dobrzanski found enjoyment in BMX biking and soon began to ride alongside his two brothers. After trials and tribulations in both skating and biking, Dobrzanski finally met his perfect match, a Razor scooter.
“It was like a scooter was a mix between the two. Like, it was the deck of a skateboard and the handlebars of a bike,” Dobrzanski says, pushing his long, brown surfer-dude hair away from his face in one quick motion.
It was at this time that Dobrzanski discovered a local Bakersfield skate park on a routine bike ride with his father. “I was way too nervous to go to the skatepark because I was scared of getting bullied and shit,” he says. But Dobrzanski credits the decision to finally enter the skate park to his younger brother. “He was going to the skate park alone at that point. That kind of made me think, what am I a baby?” says Dobrzanksi. “I have to go join my little brother. It kind of just blew up from there, and we just kept going.”
The daunting act of thrusting yourself off of random staircases in empty parking lots with crowds of people waiting to see what happens has become a culture in and of itself. As the ‘90s skate scene helped give rise to a new form of self-expression, community, and passion, skating has now become one of the most popular action sports today. According to a 2022 article published on the official RedBull website back in August: “Skateboarding is really a U.S. sport, but skateboard culture is exploding worldwide. More than half of all U.S. skaters live in California, and more than 75 percent are under 18. With these numbers, it is the sixth most popular sport globally.”
In becoming a new kind of counter-culture to skating, scootering has received more negative connotations and backlash, leaving scooter riders to find themselves often placed on the back burner of the action-sports industry.
“It’s definitely overlooked, but it’s still young,” Dobrzanski says, adding, “like a lot of skaters would hate on scootering, which is ironic because normal people would hate on skaters back in the day.”
Some of the cool-kid backlash against scootering has made it hard to gain recognition within the industry and made picking up the sport tougher than one might think. The disapproval may point to a larger issue of how society finds comfort in conformity and discomfort in the unconventional.
As a young kid suits up with the uncertainty of how they might be treated at their local skate park, they can find themselves more apprehensive. Looking over the concrete slabs of staircases and empty pools with brightly colored graffiti painted on the sides is a tough time to realize that your choice of wheels may not be in favor of the crowd riding primarily on skateboards.
“A lot of kids get bullied out of it,” says Dobrzanski, his toothy smile shifting into a more solemn look. “There were points where I was really embarrassed by it, you know? Especially when I first started.”
Beck Dobrzanski’s brother, Pierce Dobrzanski, a 17-year-old fellow scooter rider who is already sponsored, shares his feelings on the matter as he navigates through these perceptions of scootering as a junior in high school. “There would be kids at the skate park who would make remarks to me, but then I’d brush it off or ignore them, or I would say some shit back to them and keep doing my thing,” describes Pierce over a FaceTime call where he was reached while at the Dobrzanski home back in Bakersfield.
A lot of kids get bullied out of it.
Luckily for the Dobrzanski brothers, situations like this were not enough for them to give up, but nonetheless, self-doubts can linger. “Definitely, there were times when they would say something and I would be like, ‘Damn, should I just be a skater?’ But then I would think about it, and I would just be one of the millions of people,” explains Beck Dobrzanski, gaining back some of his natural cheer. “You don’t feel like you’re doing something new. It’s like everything’s already been done in a way.”
Dobrzanski’s eyes light up and take on an electric appearance I had not yet seen from him as he digs into the joy and sense of accomplishment he gets from scootering. “With scootering, I feel like there is always something to be improved on. Almost every person I tell that I scooter has no clue what I am talking about. I feel like a freaking disciple of scootering going around, spreading the good word.”
Too often, the pressure to conform in order not to be considered weird or even different slams shut that small window into the creative possibility of doing something never done before. What would become of scootering if people like Beck Dobrzanski and his brothers were not fighting to make a name for the sport they love?
I feel like a freaking disciple of scootering going around, spreading the good word.
