Carleton Grad Builds Community Through Skateboarding
Lead image by sergeyryzhov / iStock
By
Dan Rubinstein
Photo Credit:
Terence Ho
To Aaron Cayer, a skateboard is the perfect vehicle for learning how to navigate through life.
There are the basic biomechanics of moving your body in a physical environment. There’s the resiliency you develop by failing again and again while trying to land new tricks. There’s the relaxing, therapeutic feeling of riding once you become proficient. And there’s the social aspect of developing a group of peers.
Cayer was in Grade 8 when his family moved to Ottawa from a village southwest of the city. He didn’t know anybody at school, so when a kid asked whether he skated, Aaron said “yep” and went out and got a board that night.
“Skateboarding was an avenue for making friends,” he recalls.
“It didn’t matter that I wasn’t any good. They were just like, ‘Hey, you’re gonna do this with us.’ People are generally quite accepting as long as you have a good attitude.”
Now in his early 40s and a Carleton University graduate, Cayer experienced this dynamic whenever he travelled with his board. Even in countries where he didn’t speak the language, skaters were generally welcoming and inclusive. There can be pockets of gatekeeping and territoriality, but if a stranger pays attention and respects the norms, such as knowing your level and waiting for your turn, you’re more likely to be greeted with smiles and even mentorship.
“Skateboarding can spark connection,” he says. “It can also be a tool for change.”
Free Skateboards and Lessons for At-Risk Youth
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Cayer looks at the sport in a holistic way.
Not only is he one of the co-owners of Ottawa skateboard shop Birling, he’s also a co-founder of the Ottawa Skateboard Association, a non-profit that provides free gear and lessons to at-risk youth and works with government to develop more and better skateboarding infrastructure.
After getting degrees in both commerce and economics at Carleton, Cayer and his artist friend Tom Pajdlhauser worked at a local skateboard store. They talked to each other all day about what they would do different if they ran their own business — and in 2012, with support from a silent partner, they opened Antique Skate Shop in Centretown.
It lasted about four years and was an incredible learning opportunity, says Cayer.
“My father, who was an entrepreneur, helped change my frame of mind around a failed business. He told me that I had basically got an MBA, dealing with suppliers, accounting, taxes, HR and other parts of the business.”
Cayer, Pajdlhauser and two more friends, Kyle Robertson and Adam Wawrzynczak, applied those lessons when they opened Birling in 2017.
The shop, in a house on Somerset Street, is warm with repurposed wood and features a café and small private skatepark in the backyard. “Birling” is a lumberjack game in which two people try to remain standing on a floating log, a nod to Ottawa’s history as a timber town.
“Local shops can help better their communities,” says Cayer.
“Yes, we’re here to sell skateboards, clothes, shoes and coffee, but we treat our staff well, give back and are a space for people to come together.”
Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Carleton
Although that ethos is integral at Birling, Cayer and his partners knew it made sense to separate their charity work from their business, so they opened the Ottawa Skateboard Association (OSA) at the same time as the shop.
Since then, the association has refurbished and donated more than 1,000 gently used skateboards to at-risk youth and sent dozens of kids to City of Ottawa summer skateboard camps. The OSA offers free skateboarding lessons through a partnership with Ottawa Community Housing, runs events to encourage more girls to skate and works with the city and National Capital Commission to advocate for and develop places to skate, supplying both designs and financial analyses to help guide decisions.
“One of the things I’m most proud of about the OSA is that everybody has a voice, especially our younger members,” says Cayer.
“People challenge me and that’s great. I’m old — we should be focused on what 20-year-olds want. I’m just a volunteer who shows up and teaches kids how to skateboard now.”
Part of this outlook can be attributed to Cayer’s time at Carleton, where he studied business ethics and corporate social responsibility alongside the nuts-and-bolts of commerce.
A self-proclaimed nerd who attended every class, did all the readings and spent countless hours studying in the library, Cayer appreciated that all of his professors were approachable (even the one who refused to accept late assignments, imparting the importance of finishing tasks on deadline). Most significantly, he learned how to think critically at Carleton.
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” he says, “going to university is a way to improve your life.”
Just like skateboarding.
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