Standing on the edge of a low concrete ledge, Haleigh Omohundro grips Tessa Milici by the wrists and Milici grips back.

It’s a hot August morning at Taylor Farm Park in Sandston, and Milici is standing atop her fuchsia Powell Peralta skateboard. It’s Milici’s first lesson with RVA Skate School, and the 13-year-old is learning how to drop in, a rite of passage for any vert skater.

“When I drop in, I decide I’m dropping in,” says Omohundro of the decisiveness needed to succeed at this essential skating skill. “We’re going to stay low. You’re going to put a little bit more weight on your front foot.”

After a few failed attempts, Milici succeeds, then effortlessly rolls over a raised concrete mound. It’s all in a day’s work for Omohundro, who officially founded RVA Skate School this summer after months of helping kids at skateparks as a hobby.

Growing up in Mechanicsville, Omohundro guesses she first began playing skating around the age of 12.

“It was not really a thing that a lot of other girls my age did,” says the 30-year-old. “It would be hanging out with some boys and borrowing their board.”

Omohundro only got serious about skating during the pandemic.

“We all went into shutdown and I needed something to do,” she says. “A lot of people thought I was ridiculous. They were like, ‘What are you doing? You’re an adult.’”

Omohundro’s wife Sydney was among the skeptics.

“She made me a bet and taught me how to ollie and I fully fell in love with it,” says Sydney, who now helps her wife instruct others. “It’s awesome, being able to see someone get something for the first time. That joy in their face, nothing beats it.”

While Omohundro obliges beginners who wish to learn in the privacy of their own driveways and cul-de-sacs, she conducts most of her lessons at municipal skateparks like the one at Taylor Farm or DIY spaces like Texas Beach Skate Park. Presently, RVA Skate School teaches more than 20 consistent students, ranging in ages from 6 to 50.

Starting this Wednesday, RVA Skate School will begin hosting a bimonthly Free Skate Clinic at Taylor Farm Park through a contract with Henrico Recreation and Parks. The events will help teach new skaters the basics of ollies and drop-ins. Future events will take place on the first and third Wednesday of each month.

“It’s not just about the individual lessons,” explains Omohundro of RVA Skate School’s mission. “It’s about making skating accessible to everyone.”

Skateboarding goes mainstream

While skateboarding has existed since at least the early 1950s, its popularity has fluctuated over time. One monumental boost to the action sport came from Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox’s protagonist from “Back to the Future” who effortlessly skated his way in and out of danger. Tony Hawk also helped bring skateboarding to the mainstream, first through his domination of the sport that began in the 1980s, then through landing the 900 during the 1999 X Games and his wildly popular “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” video games.

But skateboarding hasn’t always been the most approachable sport, and longtime skaters might be surprised to learn that Omohundro is organizing lessons for skills that are traditionally picked up on the street.

Mike Milici, Tessa’s father, remembers this mindset. Riding his own pink-and-green Santa Cruz fishtail board as he watches his daughter take lessons, the 44-year-old initially began skating in the late ’80s.

“Skating was the coolest thing in the world at the time,” he says. “Skateboarding’s way more mainstream than it ever was. It’s an Olympic sport now. When I was a kid, skating and surfing were kind of dirtball sports. It was rougher kids, or outcasts in some ways. It wasn’t football or baseball.” [Editor’s note: Old school locals may remember Mount Trashmore Skate Park in Virginia Beach, which opened in 1974, as well as the photography of Glen E. Friedman, which helped define skate culture].

This outsider ethos might be best embodied by Thrasher Magazine, a San Francisco-based caustic glossy that’s imparted an entrancingly tribal vision of skateboarding. The publication was historically antagonistic to Hawk, referred to skateparks as quarantine zones for skaters and labeled those who didn’t fall in line with its worldview as “posers.” Its motto? “Skate and Destroy.”

Omohundro knows this history and wants to combat it.

“Skateboarding is a lot more than that crunchy, intimidating scene that seems unapproachable,” she says. “Skateboarding can be whatever you want it to be. It’s about personal goals, creativity.”

Her approach, which includes holding cleanups of DIY skating venues as part of its Litter is Lame campaign, is gaining popularity locally. Not only did Omohundro recently ink a deal to provide afterschool programming this spring at Sabot School, but she’s received equipment donations from Richmond-based Mustard Skateboards.

Then there’s the support of the skatepark, where skaters of all ages and backgrounds find community and root for each other. Its impact is clearly seen on the faces of beginners like Tessa Milici.

“They’re all cheering for a student who’s new,” Omohundro says, “and that goes a long way.”

RVA Skate School’s first Free Skate Clinic event will take place Wednesday, Dec. 3 from 5:30-7 p.m. at Taylor Farm Park, 200 Whiteside Road, Sandston, 23150.