‘I Love It!’: Pro Skateboarder Designs Signature Skateboard For Mom as Thank You Gift

“It was an absolute surprise! This is crazy, I love it!,“ exclaims Toni Shelton, who says its hard to restrain her excitement of seeing her youngest son thrive in a sport he loves. “This is the best gift ever!”

Toni is the proud mother of Carlisle Aikens, a 23 year old pro skateboarder, a rising fashion model and a wonderful son. One year after earning pro status as one of the few top black professional skateboarders in the country, Carl expressed his love for his mom by creating a designer skateboard in her honor.

“Man, this one means a lot to me,” wrote Carlisle in his Instagram post. He wanted to make a statement to his 100,000 plus followers on how much his mother meant to him. “This woman is my everything! This one is for you, Mama!”

Toni is extremely proud of Carlisle’s popularity and says that sometimes he could be shy. His three siblings agree. What caught everyone in awe, was Carlisle’s boldness to design a skateboard specifically for his mom and to secure a contract so the skateboard can be included in Chocolate Skateboard’s merchandise catalog.

Carlisle’s brother David and sisters Jennifer and Imani were the only family members who knew about his secret gift and said keeping it as a surprise was easy.

“We were all excited about it being a surprise,” says Imani. “Mom was the best at surprises growing up. So we wanted to honor her in the same way.”

David who lives in Los Angeles knew this surprise gift would really make her smile. “Our mom loves surprises, so I wasn’t going to tell. This was a big one.”

Jennifer who recently got married says, keeping things under wraps was pretty smooth for her too. “To be honest, It wasn’t that hard for me. I just kept quiet and looked forward to seeing her open her gift.”

When Carlisle went pro in 2021, he attracted several sponsors including a model contract with Calvin Klein, an endorsement deal with Adidas and a custom skateboard for retail from Chocolate that featured his photo image and signature.

All of this was announced at a premier party for the debut release of Chocolate‘s skateboard documentary Bunny Hop, which introduced several new skateboarders including Carlisle.

“When I attended Carl’s movie screening last year, I was ecstatic,” says Toni, “But to see him with his own designer skateboard, I couldn’t help but to be more proud.”

Carlisle admits that he gets a lot of his show business flair from his mother, who also had her own impressive career as a commercial model and as a ‘house’ music promoter during her youth.

After 40 years of hosting ‘house’ parties and being interviewed on radio and television, she’s still recognized as ‘Disco Toni’ to thousands of house music fans and is currently producing her film documentary- Toni Shelton’s Queen Of House Music.

But of all the photographs her children grew up seeing in picture frames and photo albums, there was one that really played a part in Carlisle’s surprise gift for his mother.

“When Carlisle told me about his idea about creating a fun skateboard design for mom, I said ‘wow’ that’s a big deal,” says Imani. “We were proud of our little brother for doing something so awesome.”

The final product, a designer skateboard bearing Toni’s image of when she was a professional model during the early ‘80s.

“What makes this gift so special,” says Toni, “Is that Carlisle loved that photo of me. I didn’t know he liked it enough to put it on his pro skateboard!”

Now customers and fans can see Toni and Carlisle’s designer skateboards on store shelves at Chocolate Skateboard Co. and online at Crailstore.com. With their name and photograph emblazoned in color, the skateboard designs are quickly becoming popular overseas and in the United States.

Toni says she never tried skateboarding but looks forward to learning someday. She loves her gift and appreciates everything her children does for her. “I was surprised, happy and proud. I’m still on cloud 100, that my kid put his mom on his pro skateboard!”

Carlisle says this is the perfect way to share the limelight with his mom by making her a part of something cool and to thank her for encouraging him in his profession. “I love you mom. You’re my greatest source of inspiration in everything.”