May 19, 2024
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Crystal Lake street skateboarder is globally ranked: ‘It is so much more than competition’

17-year-old Gabe Schuch finds street skateboarding his creative outlet

By Michelle Meyer
Gabe Schuch rides down an escalator at the 2024 Red Bull Boarding Pass competition in New Orleans.

Gabe Schuch rides down an escalator at the 2024 Red Bull Boarding Pass competition in New Orleans. (Photo provided by Brian Cook)

A typical day for Crystal Lake resident Gabe Schuch involves taking a Metra train to downtown Chicago and skating everywhere and anywhere. At just 17 years old, his passion for street skating has made him a globally ranked skateboarder.

Schuch is ranked 1,662 out of almost 19,000 skateboarders around the world and he is ranked 1,078 of more than 15,000 street skateboarders internationally. Based on the past two years of competition results, Schuch lands 224th in the world of street skateboarding.

Schuch specializes in street skating moves such as grinding handrails and jumping staircases. His biggest passion is riding through downtown Chicago to film videos and find new areas to master. The freedom of seeing anything from bushes to trash cans and incorporating them into skateboarding is the ultimate form of expression for Schuch.

“You always see spots,” he said. “It changes you, being a skater.”

Gabe Schuch, 17, of Crystal Lake wearing a shirt he designed from his own clothing brand he launched this year, Be Sumwhere.

Gabe Schuch, 17, of Crystal Lake wearing a shirt he designed from his own clothing brand he launched this year, Be Sumwhere. (Photo provided by Tom Schuch)

His dad, Tom Schuch, travels the country with him, including stops in Los Angeles, Tampa, New York City, Phoenix and New Orleans. His son is home-schooled because of his hectic schedule of constantly traveling for competitions that draw in skateboarders from around the world.

Gabe Schuch recently placed first of 59 in the Red Bull Boarding Pass Chicago event in February at the Asylum Skate Park in Lake Bluff. At the final event in a New Orleans airport, Schuch glided down an escalator ramp to earn third place for best trick.

But the competitions aren’t exactly Schuch’s end goal. Skateboarding mainly is used as a creative outlet, making it “so much more than competition,” Tom Schuch said.

“Being in the Olympics would be cool, but I’m just trying to just skate,” Gabe Schuch said.

Gabe Schuch began skating at 2 years old and started to “really get into it” at 7, he said. He was born and raised in Chicago until the family moved to Crystal Lake a few years ago, Tom Schuch said, adding that his son takes the train to downtown Chicago almost every day to skate.

“He is the Chicago skate scene,” Tom Schuch said. “That’s his life ... Chicago, downtown, the Chicago streets. He’s a street skateboarder.”

Schuch’s performances at competitions have landed him sponsorships from DGK, DC, Bones Wheels, Grizzly and Prosper Skateshop. The skateboard culture inspired him to launch his own skate clothing line called Be Sumwhere earlier this year. He sells shirts he designed through Instagram.

“When he goes to a contest and loses, he gets better each time,” Tom Schuch said. “That’s the thing with skating, it’s not really about the contests.”