Dayton has been providing skate lessons to our son for several years. He has always been so patient but at the same time pushed him to try new things. We highly recommend him! read more

Dayton is an awesome teacher. Really friendly, knowledgeable, and patient. He specializes in teaching kids and youth. His lessons are conveniently located at Poods skatepark in Encinitas which in and of itself is a great place to learn. Highly recommend Dayton and Sk8tboardschool! read more

Sk8boardSchool - Skate Parks Near Me

Came here with my family and witnessed an encounter of him with the police. Another family was politely asking for him to refund them money for lessons that he was no longer showing up to and he refused to give their child lessons, or return the money from the lessons. He began threatening the dad and verbally attacking the mother. The son was crying because he was so scared of the skate coach. read more

Dayton is not only a great skater and cool guy but a genius of a teacher, and he works well with both small kids and adults (my son and I both take lessons). read more

A friend referred us to Dayton for skateboarding lessons and we are so happy with the progress. My son is 3yo and started with zero skateboarding experience. Dayton is very patient with him and slowly build his confidence on the skateboard. An important part of teaching kids this young is that you really have to be out of sight during the lesson otherwise they will quickly want to quit as soon as they see you. I was familiar with this concept since the swimming instructors at the YMCA also encourage for parents to not intervene. It doesn't mean you can't see them. They just can't see you. This also helps build the student and teacher bond which is important. Skateboarding is fun but it's also very physically demanding. This means that your kid might get frustrated quickly and want to give up. Which is what happened to us. This is where Dayton's experience comes in as I'm sure he has seen it all with kids this age. Dayton had some helpful tips on how to get him back on track. Daytons philosophy seems to be that the student should be ready to learn and most of all have fun! After 2.5 months of lessons my son went from learning to balance on the board with assistance to now being able to ride off and get on the board without assistance. All of our hard work is paying off and I'm so proud of my son for trusting us when it became challenging and needed that extra support. Another thing to keep in mind is that all lessons are an hour. However, this doesn't mean your kid will be skating that entire time. They take water breaks as needed and reserves some time towards the end to give a progress report to the parent. Also things to work on at home. We highly recommend Dayton, I wish he was closer to us but it's worth the drive from Clairemont Mesa. Tip: I highly recommend to get the protective gear he recommends or have him get it for you. read more

Sk8boardSchool - Skate Parks Near Me

DO NOT LET THIS MAN NEAR YOUR CHILD. This so-called instructor asked me to leave him alone with my 4 year old son so that he could get into teaching mode. I watched him from afar and this man proceeded to bully and shout at my child until he was in tears. DO NOT LET THIS MAN NEAR YOUR CHILD. read more

Dayton is NOT in it for the love of skateboarding. Doesn't seem to have the patience for children - made my kid cry, turns out he made a lot of kids cry after talking with a bunch of parents whose kids had lessons with him. Wish I had read his reviews before I booked. After purchasing a 10 pack of lessons - He pushed me to buy more lessons and held back teaching new skills until I paid for another 10 pack of lessons. Also he has a contract with some strict rules on scheduling - make sure you read the fine print before you sign up! Dayton obviously has skills he can share but it seems like he is burned out on teaching kids. read more

I am writing this because I didn't listen to others when they approached us at the skate park, nor did I listen to the reviews on here. Our child took lessons with Dayton for almost one year. He was fine at teaching the basics and helped get our kid into skating. This summer, we signed up for a skate "camp" with Dayton. To our disappointment, the "camp" ended up being the kids sitting on a picnic table for four hours, and skating with no instruction for the last hour. One of the days, when our 7-year-old had to use the bathroom, Dayton was very dismissive and mean. When our child's mother said something to him, Dayton went off on her and proceeded to say, "you are expelled and I'm keeping all of your money." We had just purchased a $600 package of private lessons, and we hoped that Dayton would still show up the next weekend for the lesson. However, as my 7-year-old approached him to start the lesson, he proceeded to leave the skate park and will not return any of our texts our calls. Essentially, he has taken $600 from us and refused to provide the lessons. I hope people read this and understand what will likely happen if you use Sk8boardSchool. Things may seem okay at first - yes, for almost a year we looked past Dayton being 5-10 minutes late to every lesson and then often trying to sell other people while we were in the middle of our $60 per hour private lesson. When your kid starts to work on a new skill, Dayton will insist that you buy additional lessons because "we can't keep working on this without more lessons in the bank." It's disappointing to see people acting this unprofessional, and also disappointing having someone steal $600 from us - but what's worse is that my 7-year-old kid now says he's worried about seeing "coach" at the skate park and that he will say something mean to him. UPDATE on August 10, 2024 - We confronted Dayton about getting our $600 back, and he proceeded to call my wife a "bad mother" and tell me that I was "going to jail" - all in front of our three children (ages 7, 5, and 3). I also learned that he is not even allowed to do lessons at the Encinitas Community Park as he does not have the permit with the parks & recreation department. PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN NEAR HIM. read more

Dayton is incredible!! We travel from Dallas to the San Diego area every summer to see him for 2 weeks! I cannot recommend him highly enough! He is terrific with kids and teaches them life skills in addition to skating!! read more

We spent a couple weeks in town for Summer and bought a package of lessons. My son really honed his skating skills thanks to Dayton. We would highly recommend him as we will for sure line up more lesson when we come see grandma later this year. read more

I was at the Encinitas skatepark and noticed Dayton giving youth lessons. His red shirt said sk8board school so I went over and asked him if he did adult lessons. He kindly said yes and I booked a trial lesson. I told him I wasn't interested in learning tricks but just some extra things while riding around and then maybe going down a ramp. After the first lesson I was able to go down stairs and go down the bunny hill ramps. Honestly, I'm so adverse to any type of danger (being an adult) so this was beyond what I thought was possible. Dayton gives off such a positive attitude and makes you feel safe the entire time! It's also just really nice to have someone as a second pair of eyes to navigate the park while you try stuff out. Totally recommend Dayton and sk8board school and just go all in and get the 10-pack, the first 5 lessons go by too fast. read more

I'm an adult mid-40s, and I've always loved skating, but I've never advanced beyond basic street skating. I've always wanted more confidence in skating ramps and bowls, and once I moved to San Diego the parks were plenty, so I decided it was time to get to work. However, a good attitude and willingness to succeed only go so far if you don't have the proper skills, and I am not looking to do bodily harm skating something beyond my level. I would see small children and toddlers all in pads getting lessons and I thought that would be awesome if they had the same thing for adults. After seeing these kids practicing and watching the success and fun they were having and how confident they looked riding street and ramps, I approached the instructor, Dayton, and inquired if adults could sign up. Dayton had an open session and gave me a free lesson on the spot. From the very first lesson, my skating has improved. I finished lesson three today, and already I'm comfortable practicing multiple foundational tricks on the street course, and I'm feeling solid practicing work in the bowl; starting at the bottom and working my way higher and faster each time. I'm not a pro by an stretch of the imagination, and I don't expect to be by the end of ten sessions, but I do believe these lessons will form the foundation of how I will skateboard for the rest of my life, and my only regret is not having done this at a much younger age. I cannot recommend this enough for anyone who has dreams of being a stronger skater. Hope to see you out there soon! read more

I do NOT ... do NOT recommend Sk8boardSchool summer skate camp. We were instructed to be there at 9am sharp only to have my son sitting at a picnic table doing nothing while Dayton made multiple trips to his car and waited for others to arrive for 20-35 minutes each morning. I then watched my son (and others) remain either at the picnic table or in the field playing random games for minimal amount of time while Dayton sat at the picnic tables on his phone the majority of the day. It is called "skate camp" and they did not skate for more than 1.5 / 5 hours in the day. I was also disturbed when Dayton shamed my son for having to go to the bathroom (comparing him to a 4 year old girl that was present saying "even she doesn't have to go to the bathroom yet". The next time he has to go to the bathroom he came over to me and said "I dont want to tell my coach he's going to be mad at me". At that point Dayton came to where I was sitting, was very abrasive and told me that I needed to leave because someone from my family has been "hovering" every day and we were interfering with my son's participation in camp. I confronted him with my observations, told him I was highly disappointed with this "camp", told him the way he spoke to my in laws, my son and now me in unprofessional and unacceptable. He tried to make excuses all of which I was not accepting. I told him the reason he keeps asking us to leave is because he doesn't want us seeing that this "skate camp" is a joke. At that time, he became more abrasive and said "you are expelled from camp and I am not giving you any money back". To say I was shocked by his behavior is an understatement. It's appalling. 0/5 stars. DO NOT RECOMMEND!!! read more

I am only doing this review so others don't get swindled. Super flaky, doesn't respond to texts, half the time when he does schedule something he doesn't know and then schedules someone else at the same time. The kids like him and they have fun when they're there so it's a big bummer but yeah...Wouldn't recommend doing lessons with him. read more

On a trip to SoCal I took my son to the Poods skate park in Encinitas. He was very excited to be there since our home town has nothing like this. I could tell he was a little unsure of what to do but really didn't have much to offer besides encouragement. We ended up talking with Dayton from Sk8board School when he offered by son some advice about how to skate a particular part of the park. We decided to do a one hour lesson with Dayton. It was absolutely the best part of our trip. Dayton spent the full hour getting as much stuff in as possible while not outrunning my son's abilities. First he instilled in my son the importance of protective equipment while learning and even lent him a set of wrist guards for the lesson. They started off with some basics but when it was apparent that my son could do them he progressed on to more challenging skills. The entire time he was positive and encouraging and able to help my son break through some of the mental barriers of doing some of the more advanced stuff. My son walked away from the lesson very excited with what he was able to learn and a sense of achievement that you can't put a price on. We had a great time and will be setting up more lessons with Dayton at Sk8Board School when we are back in town. Thanks! read more

I signed up with Dayton on an impulse because our four-year old loved the idea of skateboarding and he was promoting his services at our neighborhood skate park. Dayton does a nice job of integrating safety and fun into his lesson. However, he is not equipped to teach young children. The lessons are one-hour long, whereas other lessons for this age group are much shorter. What is most concerning, is the way he spoke to our daughter when she expressed not wanting to continue during a lesson. I am assuming he believed he was acting in his student's best interest, but it's clear he does not have the skills to provide a supportive learning environment. We terminated our sessions without a refund. read more

Dayton's lessons are ok and he is nice enough with the kids, but in our experience, he was late or didn't show up on more than one occasion. Beware of paying him in advance. His "no refund" policy seems to apply even if you can't get him to show up on time for his lessons, or if he doesn't have availability to schedule you. We have had much more professional lessons in a better environment elsewhere and we are having to take legal action to get our money back from Dayton. read more

If you are fortunate to have been referred to Dayton, you will know that he is an exceptional teacher. We had a huge milestone today with my son and daughter; on lesson number four. With Dayton's help, my son overcame his fear and dropped the large transition. He is just turned seven years old, so his initial reaction to new things often is "I don't want to do this". Same with my daughter who is nine. (even though they both said yes I want to learn skateboarding like their friends). Dayton is so skilled, calm and attentive, he creates an environment that the kids trust. Always working with them slowly and building up on each lesson. We found it very helpful to come multiple times per week, and they improved exponentially! From never having ridden a skateboard, to going down to transition in 4 lessons!!?? Stop the nonsense. Most importantly, he does not let them quit. Which kids can often give up early. And to see my son come around and have that feeling of accomplishment, he was so proud of himself and excited. And I am so appreciative of Dayton. read more

Sk8boardSchool - Dayton is so careful, kind and most importantly encouraging to my kids, who sometimes want to throw the towel in early. - Skate Parks Near Me

Outstanding instruction for my twin 8 year old boys. Dayton started with safety, having the boys learn to fall on their knee pads over and over. From there it was on to basics, foot position, how to Ollie, how to drop in, go down stairs and more. All in an hour!! Great energy, fantastic with kids, they had so much fun!! read more

Great one on one skateboard instruction! Dayton is professional, on time and great w kids. We met before school started to shred and get the wiggles out (seems like PE is not a stressed enough curriculum in schools these days) . Highly recommended. Logan learned a Ton his first lesson.. read more

Great skate school! Lessons can be one-on-one or group. Dayton works incredibly well with both kids and adults, building confidence and skills each lesson. My son's lessons were at the Encinitas Community Park and he was in the 'bowl' on the first day. I think the most effective part of the instruction, is that it takes the mistique out of the skatepark obstacles that appear intimidating at first, but end up being very achievable. Sign up for a great opportunity to learn to skakeboard with a seasoned instructor! Super fun! read more