{"id":194532,"date":"2026-03-04T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/?p=194532"},"modified":"2026-03-04T17:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:05:14","slug":"carry-on-fail-fail-again-fail-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/community\/action-sports\/skate\/carry-on-fail-fail-again-fail-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Carry On: Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
Kids who are anxious about trying new things start leaning into discomfort. Photo: Kevin TK Frantz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The clock starts. A dozen kids stand at the edge of a concrete bowl at Carry On<\/a>\u2019s Provo skate facility, boards in hand and staring down a sharp drop. Some are here for their first session, while others have been coming for months. All of them are about to fail.<\/p>\n

\u201cFear. Failure. Fall.\u201d Carry On\u2019s Program Director Dave Lowery<\/strong><\/a> calls these the Three Fs \u2014 the foundation of everything they teach. \u201cWith skateboarding, you live in failure,\u201d Lowery says. \u201cYou\u2019re practicing a trick over and over again, until one day, you land it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not your typical youth sports program. There are no points, no winners and losers, no external outcomes to chase. Carry On, a nonprofit based in Provo and now expanding to South Jordan, uses skateboarding to teach mental resilience, and they\u2019re doing it by completely reframing what it means to win.<\/p>\n

Executive Director Cole Parkinson<\/strong><\/a>, whose background is in sports psychology, is deliberate about the choice of sport. \u201cIt\u2019s independent, not a team \u2014 and that\u2019s a feature, not a bug,\u201d he explains. \u201cThere\u2019s an identity component: The value of being a \u2018skateboarder.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWith skateboarding, you live in failure. You’re practicing a trick over and over again, until one day, you land it.”<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Skateboarding has always been the outsider sport, the middle finger to establishment culture. But that rebellious DNA is exactly what makes it work for teaching resilience. \u201cWe\u2019re not gatekeepers,\u201d Lowery says. \u201cThese kids were often the rejects. Here, they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike team sports, where performance is constantly measured against others, skateboarding offers something rare: a space where effort directly correlates to progress, where there\u2019s no scoreboard to tell you you\u2019re losing. You push yourself into what Parkinson calls \u201cstretch zones.\u201d And when you fall \u2014 not if, but when \u2014 you decide whether to get back up.<\/p>\n

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Carry On’s mission: “To support youth in their mental health by utilizing skateboarding to teach resilience skills, and to foster the development of competence, confidence, connection and character.” Photo: Kevin TK Frantz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each session follows the same rhythm: 25 minutes of skating and 15 minutes in the classroom. During skating, coaches guide students through progressively harder challenges, always framing the goal around the experience itself rather than the trick. \u201cThe development is there,\u201d Lowery says. \u201cBut if we frame everything around landing the trick, we lose the magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cResilience doesn\u2019t develop in a vacuum. When it’s reinforced at home, across generations, that’s when it really takes hold.”<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Then comes the mental skills training. Carry On has developed a curriculum around seven core topics: zones of purpose, dedicated training, thought patterns, confidence, focus and attention, community and motivation. Each class ends with breathing exercises. \u201cWe\u2019re very preventative,\u201d Parkinson emphasizes. \u201cEveryone needs training in these strategies \u2014 positive self-talk, stress exposure, building confidence through incremental challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coaches know every participant\u2019s name when they walk through the door. They celebrate the falls as much as the landings. Lowery describes the scene from The Sandlot<\/em><\/a> in which Smalls, not knowing how to catch or throw a ball, is taken under Benny\u2019s wing and is won over by the group when Smalls sticks his glove in the air and Benny hits one right in, demonstrating that everyone belongs. Lowery shows that clip to all their new coaches.<\/p>\n

Parents notice the changes first. Kids who are anxious about trying new things start leaning into discomfort. Kids who struggle with negative self-talk start to catch themselves and reframe their thoughts. The skills don\u2019t stay at the skate park.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cEveryone needs training in these strategies \u2014 positive self-talk, stress exposure, building confidence through incremental challenge.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The program has expanded to include adult classes, which sell out faster than youth sessions. Parents and kids now learn side by side, facing fear together. \u201cResilience doesn\u2019t develop in a vacuum,\u201d Lowery notes. \u201cWhen it\u2019s reinforced at home, across generations, that\u2019s when it really takes hold.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you reframe skateboarding around the process instead of the outcome, something shifts. You\u2019re not chasing the perfect trick to post on social media. You\u2019re building the capacity to fail, fail again and eventually fail better. You learn to fall seven times and get up an eighth.<\/p>\n

Carry On is now registering for winter sessions at both their Provo and South Jordan locations. Scholarships are available for families in need, funded by their \u201cPushing Together\u201d donor club. Visit carryon.org <\/em><\/a>for more details.<\/p>\n

Read more about skate culture in SLC:
\nUtah Skatepark Advocacy Group: Concrete and Stone Can Be a Home<\/a><\/em>
\nAnalog RGB: The Skate Photography of Leo Wilson<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carry On uses skateboarding to teach mental resilience, and they\u2019re doing it by completely reframing what it means to win. … read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":194625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[378,340,333],"tags":[25917,31689,31688,2316,2791,14171,21921],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}