BB Social Club

Omar Rivera is on to something. You may have spotted his BB Social Club van (www.bbsocialclub.com) around Manhattan transporting happy kids to and from skate parks all over the City. BB Social Club is a lifestyle program that teaches children the fundamentals of skateboarding.  It also offers birthday parties, after-school pick up, personal lessons and drop-in lessons. It’s founder and owner, Omar Rivera, started the company in 2010.

After moving to New York City in 2007 and working for a skate shop for two years, Rivera left the shop and began teaching private skating  lessons.  The one-on-one instruction eventually developed into the BB Social Club.  Now, Rivera and his crew of eight, including one girl, pick-up amateur skateboarders all around the City and return them to their parents a little bit closer to semi-pro.  The skaters are not the only ones who are learning.  Parents also sing the praises of the BB Social Club.  “What I like about it is that I can see that Xander is really learning to skate,” says CrushworthyMoms co-founder, Karina Lepiner, whose son Alexander has participated in the program for two months.

Teaching skateboarding is not all that BBSC accomplishes.  Rivera says that he teaches kids, “skating through confidence.”  It’s a twist on the usual wording, but Rivera totally understands what he is saying. “Skating has done so much for me including giving me this business, but it has given me confidence throughout my life.”  He wants the students who participate in the BB Social Club to apply their confidence from learning something new to other areas of their lives and it appears to be working.

The BB Social Club is a unique concept, started by a confident guy who loves working with children.  As BB Social Club expands its reach, there will be a lot more confident kids in New York City who happen to own skateboards.

                                 Image #1 courtesy of Karina Lepiner; Images 2-3 courtesy of www.bbsocialclub.com