our mission
On a mission to create a more joyous and connected world, one ride at a time.
Beyond the Board is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit using longboarding to build confidence, lower the barrier to belonging, and bring people together in real life. We host weekly group rides, special events throughout the year, and leadership-based skate programming in partnership with youth organizations. Everything we do is built on a simple belief: the lessons we learn on a board, pushing through fear and meeting people we'd never have met otherwise, make for a happier, healthier life beyond it.
how this started
A pandemic, a Saturday workshop, and a school bus.
In 2020, our founder Brandon DesJarlais was a touring professional longboarder, traveling the world for skate events. Then COVID stopped everything.
Brandon moved to Los Angeles in the middle of that stillness. Isolated, disconnected, and unsure what came next, he started teaching people how to skate. Not because there was a plan. Because it was the one thing that made him feel like himself again.
At the start of 2021, he launched Longboard Dancing LA, a free Saturday workshop in Santa Monica. The first session had five people. People came for the lessons and stayed for each other. Within two months it was fifty people every week. It became obvious pretty quickly that this wasn't really a skill-building program. It was a connection-building program that happened to use a skateboard.
That summer, Brandon was invited to star in and choreograph a Facebook commercial that aired during the Tokyo Olympics. The money felt too important to keep. The skate community had given him everything, and he wanted to give something back at scale.
The idea: buy a school bus, build it out, and take this thing on tour.
Six weeks later, with a team that had never planned a tour before, Beyond the Board hit the road. Mask mandates were still in place. Nobody was sure if people would show up. But the world was hungry for joy and connection, and waiting another year wasn't an option.
what we do today
Four tours. 300+ activations. One community.
Four national tours and 300+ community activations later, Beyond the Board has settled into the work it was always trying to do.
Vibe Ride
Every Tuesday in Venice Beach, our local Los Angeles community gathers for a sunset group ride through Santa Monica and Venice. Free, open to everyone, and the heartbeat of what Beyond the Board looks like at full strength.
Learn more →Special events
Throughout the year, we host retreats, gatherings, and one-off experiences that bring the global skate community together in one place.
Youth programming
We partner with youth organizations to deliver leadership-based skate programming, using the board as a way into the bigger conversations: confidence, identity, taking up space, and showing up for the people around you.
founder
Brandon DesJarlais.
Brandon never set out to start a nonprofit. He was a competitive longboarder who'd skated in 26 countries, stunt doubled for Vin Diesel, and made a career out of being good at one specific thing. What he didn't expect was how much of his life skating would quietly build.
Connection had always been hard for him. But on a board, with other people who were scared of the same things he was scared of, something clicked. He learned how to face fear in front of strangers. He built friendships across cultures, languages, and continents that he never would have found otherwise. Skating wasn't just something he did. It was where the rest of his life got built.
Beyond the Board is what happens when those lessons get pointed outward. Brandon leads the org from Venice Beach and speaks publicly about what he's learned along the way. He'd rather the work speak for itself.
partner with us
We've grown through partnerships.
Brands, foundations, youth organizations, and individual donors have helped us reach hundreds of communities and the people inside them who needed a reason to show up. If you're building something that overlaps with what we do, we'd love to talk.