Skate hard or go home.

That’s the only option for the 23 members of the MSU Skate Club, a group of aggressive in-line skaters, BMX bikers and skateboarders from the Lansing, East Lansing and Okemos areas. The club is open to anyone interested in skating.

In just a matter of weeks, the club has managed to drum up areawide interest in the sports, which are among the largest growing in the country.

“Our main goal in starting the club was to have other people to skate with,” said Skate Club president Brian Lindensmith. “I’d skate on campus and down Grand River, but I didn’t have anyone to skate with.”

After posting flyers about the club, Lindensmith, a finance sophomore, found nearly two dozen other interested skaters and bikers to accompany him.

In parking lots, behind buildings, on loading docks, stairs and handrails, Skate Club members come together daily to practice new feats and socialize.

“It’s fun because we’re all doing something we enjoy,” said member Paul Kondrat. “When you come up here (to MSU), it’s hard to find people to hang out with, but skating gives us a chance to meet a lot of people.”

A five-year in-line skater, Lindensmith says he’s making plans for club members to visit skate parks in Kalamazoo and Detroit, as well as attend Woodward Skate Camp in Woodland, Penn.

Kondrat, a no-preference freshman, has been skating for two years and says it’s the adrenaline rush he gets from doing tricks that keeps him intrigued.

Only days after falling after attempting to step up, in skates, onto a bike rack, he accepts that “spills are just a part of the sport.”

“It may sound crazy, but we jump off of large objects because we think it’s fun,” Kondrat said. “There’s a feeling of excitement when you’re trying to do something you’ve never done, and when you get it right, you have this feeling of accomplishment.”

Lindensmith agrees.

“The thrill of the sport is the risk factor,” he said. “It’s also the fact that it’s fun and you can do what you want, you can be innovative.

“It’s all about creativity.”

Spills, cuts and scrapes aren’t enough to keep elementary education senior Kym Lewis off of the pavement. One of the two women in the club, Lewis said she began aggressive skating two months ago after driving past a skate park this summer.

“I became immediately awed and inspired from watching those kids,” she said. “I knew right then that I had to learn to fly like them.”

Determined to learn to “fly” and undaunted by the fact that she would be one of only two girls, Lewis joined the Skate Club.

“I guess I don’t spend much time thinking about the fact that this is a male-dominated sport,” she said. “I’m more concerned with enhancing my own ability and trying not to break any bones in the process.”

Jumping curbs and flights of stairs, club members are bound to have accidents, which is why they’re encouraged to wear special padding and helmets. Such protection however, is not a requirement.

“A lot of people don’t like to wear pads because they think it inhibits their mobility,” Kondrat said. “They know the risk of injury and we can only encourage members to protect themselves.”

Along with building a network of skaters, bikers and skateboarders, members of the Skate Club also want to publicize the sports for those who are not familiar with them. In an effort to push the sport and let people know about the Skate Club, Lindensmith says the group is in the process of making a video.

Because there is limited space for club members to skate on campus, they’re also working with the Lansing Area Skate, Bike and Recreation Foundation and Modern Skate and Surf, 1393 E. Grand River Ave., to build a $713,000 skate park in Lansing’s Ranney Park, near Frandor Shopping Center, 300 Frandor Ave. Ranney Park is located on the border of Lansing and East Lansing making it easily accessible for skaters from both cities.

The 20,382-square-foot skate park is scheduled to be completed in November, but is not expected to open until April. The free park will accommodate 100 skaters at a time.

“I’m really excited about the park because that means there are going to be a lot more people skating,” Kondrat said. “The accessibility will bring more people together.”

Not only will the park bring more skaters together, but it will also be a place for after-school activity for youth, which is one of the recreation foundation’s reasons for constructing the park. Equipped with ramps, ridges and rails, among other features, the skate park will eliminate business-owner frustrations with skaters using their grounds to practice.

“The skate park will be so much better for skaters,” Kondrat said. “We need our own playground.”

For more information about the MSU Skate Club go to http://www.msu.edu/user/lindens1/msuskate.htm