Meet the Three-Year-Old Skater Sponsors Are Already Sending Gear

Three-year-old Athen Camacho is quite possibly the youngest sponsored skateboarder in the world. Right now, he's sitting on the cement crying, because his father, Tony, won't let him try an ollie five-stair without a helmet.

"I'd rather hear him crying and whining all day then end up in the hospital," he said.

Tony, a barber in Lawndale, California, was never much of a skater, despite having grown up in the skating hotbed of South Bay of Los Angeles. But Athen, his youngest son, jumped on a cousin's board at 18 months and was instantly hooked.

"Ever since then, he's been in love with it," Tony said. "The passion is amazing to me. You can find passion at any age."

Athen had his ollie, switchback, and 180 on lockdown before he knew how to use a toilet. He also knew how to use an iPad and regularly watched the latest edits from pro skaters, which introduced him to the concept of skate companies helping out skaters. But it wasn't until his father set up an Instagram account for Athen that potential sponsors began to notice the kid's skill. His talent, and his young age, caught the eye of local skate shops and companies, which then offered Athen (via his parents) what's called "flow": products and gear given to skaters in exchange for social media tags, shares, and shout-outs.

Athen may be one of the youngest skaters receiving flow from companies, but he's not alone. This generation of Southern California kids is arguably among the best young skaters in the world. They're also among the most visible. They start skating as toddlers and by the time they hit puberty, they have competition experience, sponsors providing them gear, and social media profiles with thousands of followers. Five-year-old Stuntman Jake is sponsored by four companies and skates with veterans in Venice Beach. Eleven-year-old Lil Rome Diddy, who lives in San Diego and has 159,000 Instagram followers, is a member of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s lifestyle brand, The Money Team.

"In the world of skating, social media [has] changed things drastically in the last five years," said Mark Gaudio, owner and co-founder of Silly Girl Skateboards in Fullerton. "The ability to have a marketing program based off of free social media uses has changed our game 100 percent in skateboarding."

It's not just skateboarding. Across the action sports world, social media has transformed the relationships between brands and consumers, sponsors and athletes, and athletes and fans. For companies, the internet provides exposure for considerably less money than advertising in traditional media. And for athletes, fame and fortune could be just one viral video away—no matter how old they are. The athletes, kids included, have also benefitted from the exposure.

"You can see [these kid skaters] pop up on social media in ways that you never have been able to in the past," Justin Regan, the head of global sports marketing for skateboarding at Vans, said. He added that Vans won't even look at a kid until he's about 13 years old, and won't sign a skater to a contract until about 16, at which point he or she will receive monetary compensation. At that point, Vans will also start covering things like skating trips, often with a group of sponsored athletes. Until then, though, social media is the main avenue for young athletes to promote themselves.

"That's really exciting for them to be getting that recognition, and it's completely outside of what a traditional sponsor could do for them," Regan said. "It's a way of getting positive reinforcement without needing the sponsor."

I met Athen on a perfect SoCal Sunday morning in Huntington Beach. He and his family were at Vans' Off the Wall Skate Park for the California Amateur Skate League's Street Contest. Athen wasn't yet competing, only recently having learned what competition means. Instead, he and his parents looked on as the dozen or so young skaters warmed up for the eight-and-under street competition.

One clan of rippers, the Weingartner family, showed up to the Vans skatepark stoked and ready to win some trophies. All three of the children skate, and they all want to be pros some day. Already, they're impressively savvy to the industry.

"I like landing tricks when it's on video," said seven-year-old Landon Weingartner. He and his older brother, Tyler, who's nine, started rolling down hills 18 months ago. Now they share an Instagram account with 13,500 followers. Their sister, Briel, rode her first skateboard last June. Now she has nearly 16,000 Instagram followers, and Silly Girl Skateboards and Grizzly Griptape provide her with gear.

"She picked it up really fast," said Briel's father, Nick. "She's learning stuff at a much faster rate than the boys. [After less than a year of skating], now she's getting all the attention."

As Athen watches Briel and Landon skate through their one-minute runs, he tells me that he wants to be a competition skater when he grows up.

"He picks everything out himself," Tony Camacho told me. "His outfit, the wheels, the bearings, the struts, the deck. He loves it. He knows the names and the specifics of it all, and I learn from him. When he's not out skating, he's on YouTube watching videos of skateboarders. No one tells him this stuff, and all we can do is support him fully. This is what he loves right now; if he decides to play basketball tomorrow, we'll let him."

Tony isn't anything like the skate dads Nick Weingartner has seen around the parks. Like the entertainment industry has its "stage moms," the skate world has its "skate dads"—the mothers and fathers who apply undue pressure on their children to skate, and who appear to be living vicariously through their kids. The Weingartners have noticed how they nearly force their kids into skating and trying harder tricks.

"I've seen parents pushing their kids," Nick said. "[Those] skate dads, they're yelling at their kids, 'Get up there and get that! If you want to get that sponsor you better do this!' But they're not the ones who are taking all the slams."

Tyler Weingartner didn't compete at the Van's park. He's taking some time off after moving up in the age bracket because he doesn't want to be the youngest skater in the nine-to-ten group. And though his parents encouraged him to keep competing, they let it go, they say, without much fuss.

"We don't want them to just be playing video games all day," Nick said. "They're already pretty good [at skating] and getting a lot of attention. They've got talent, and we'd like them to use it. [But] if they're not having fun it's hard to get better. Every new trick gets them a lot of slams. They'll probably fall 100 times. Some of the tricks can be 300 times before they land it, so if you're not having fun, that sucks."

Should parents be worried about those slams, especially at such a young age? According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, not any more so than other popular sports. Among the top ten sports-related head injuries for children 14 years old and younger in 2014, skateboarding is fifth in line, behind cycling, football, baseball and softball, and basketball, according to the association's data.

"As long as a child is wearing a helmet, the risk of serious head injury is minimized significantly," said Penelope Hsu, a pediatrician with emergency room experience who now works in the Park Slope Brooklyn office of One Medical. "The vast number of injuries I've seen with skateboarders have been broken arms from outstretching their hands when they fall. Knee pads and elbow pads don't protect against these injuries. Wrist guards probably would, but I don't see that many kids wearing them. Then again, working in the ER I only see the kids who weren't wearing them and got injured."

More likely, however, is that kids will just move on. Children are fickle. They change their minds more often than adults, Nick said, "which is why [sponsors] don't pay them money until they're older; until they know it's a real commitment." If the Weingartner kids decide to stop skating, Nick says he would be disappointed, but that he would never pressure them into continuing it.

All the kids I spoke to at the Vans event want to eventually have paid sponsorships and skate on professional teams. Landon wants to skate on the Volcom pro team, and won't leave the house without Volcom gear on in case an Instagram-worthy moment happens—he wants to be able to tag the company. Tyler wants to be a part of Plan B. Their sister, Briel, wants to skate on the Silly Girl and Grizzly Griptape teams.

The youngest professional skaters are in their teens. Before that, the kids' potential has not yet fully developed into talent.

"I don't know any large companies that are pursuing young kids," Regan, the Vans executive, said. "You don't really come into your power on a skateboard until your teens. There are a ton of little kids that may be prodigies, but until they grow up a little bit, you can't tell if they're professional-level potential."

The flow sponsorships that provide gear to kids require no paperwork. There's no signed contract for the parents or the kids. There's no money involved, and the parents that I talked to said they wouldn't sign anything of the sort. The children are free to find new brands, say their parents, or even give up the sport altogether. Companies like Van's believe the same.

"With a sponsorship there are expectations on you to perform in exchange for corporate support," said Regan, "and we don't want to put that pressure on a kid that's just discovering the fun in [skating]."

When Silly Girl Skateboards posts a photo of Briel, most people who see it will be her parents' generation, between the ages of 17 and 45, according to Silly Girl founder Gaudio. It's parents who are the ones managing their kids' social media accounts, and Gaudio believes that when parents see the posts of young skaters those parents will encourage their own kids to skate.

Gaudio attended the competition at the Vans park to support Briel and the other young skaters. At the end of the day, he wants to see more people skateboarding, and supporting the young athletes is part of that, he says.

"It helps grow the skateboarding community," he said. "It's passé to think, 'I don't want my kid to skateboard. You can only do it after you play soccer.' Now it's more like, 'My kid's going to skate; what's soccer?' It's kind of done a 180."