June 21st is Go Skateboarding Day and the city of Vancouver does it up real good. Check out this gallery of photos from one of the biggest gatherings of skaters in the world!
Gallery Photos by Kyle Gibson - Words & Photos below by Drew Penner
In the city ecosystem skaters are the lone wolves, scouring the landscape far and wide for the perfect prey – choice spots to hit and devour with motion and finesse. But even lone wolves have been known to join up in a pack, which allows them to tackle bigger obstacles in tough times.
Last weekend in Vancouver, a city that has been skater-proofed like crazy over the past decade, hundreds of skaters had the chance to pursue fast-paced thrills and dope lines collectively, as if hunting wounded deer on the tundra.
Ultimate, Centre, Marathon and Time Bomb Distribution all teamed up to put on Vancouver’s Go Skateboarding Day June 21, an event that cost no money to enter but allowed boarders of all ages to win cold hard cash for every sick trick they pulled off.
The event was a magnet for skaters from all over Western Canada, who either just happened to be in town or specifically made the trek for the unique experience.
Clad in a straw hat Jake Hamilton, the man behind skate company Who Da Hell?!,
sat on the bus with buddie Carl Wilson.
It was the Friday before the skate jam and they had descended from Courtenay with some buddies, grabbing the ferry from Nanaimo. As twilight began to light up the Vancouver night, they were bursting at the seams to snag a midnight skate sesh.
When they arrived at the planar surfaces, connecting beams, smooth pavement and jagged edges, they were nowhere near the only ones out for a ride during the unofficial preamble to Go Skateboarding Day 2014.
In a more organized capacity others joined the official pre-party in Chinatown at Fortune Sound Club’s Special Projects Space.
Others fanned out to other events around the city such as the Dusky show at Shine Nightclub, to soak up world-class house and techno.
The longest day of the year, Saturday June 21st, dawns. In Vancouver Grizzlies caps, Thrasher Magazine T-shirts and button-up plaid, young skaters get ready to savour every minute of Go Skateboarding Day.
We gather at the plaza near the Cirque du Soleil tent down by the false lake where dragon boat races are being held.
While there’s plenty of room at this skatepark under the watchful eye of a inner-city highway the hundreds of people that begin to filter in push even this space to its limits.
It looks like the street sport equivalent of a pond hockey scrimmage, or maybe the warm-up of a symphony orchestra – boards twirling, cameras panning, bodies writhing.
Suddenly the call comes and the pack of urban wolves is on the move.
There’s such beauty in the urban form and it’s something that these youthful extreme sportists can certainly appreciate. Case in point the first competitive spot is located directly adjacent to a cascading water feature. Yet here there is the grit, too. The man-made rapids are constructed out of concrete and a giant rat floats at the top of the waterfall. A couple skaters stare pensively at the urban drama that claimed one more life form. For many skateboarding is about survival, staking a claim on an otherwise aggressive monstrosity – the city.
But today was a rare chance to forget about the daily-to-day and celebrate the pure bliss side of things.
And what better way to do that than with dolla dolla bills?
“I got a handful of cash and it ain’t goin’ nowhere,” bellowed emcee Cyrus Thiedeke through a megaphone at the Hot Spot c-ledge as if he had launched his own pirate radio station. “Stop fuckin’ around and be a man.”
At each spot skaters hit throughout the course of the day $300 was up for grabs. Different sponsors had kicked in money at each location for the right to put up their branding. The fact that few actually did shows just how organically even the corporate marketers treated the spectacle.
The kids were up to the challenge, and with each taunt they attempted one trick after the other. A first big cheer followed a front tail kickflip fakie that no one was expecting. But they were about to see a lot more magic.
A stall to nose manual, with a nice pop out in finale, earned one skater $30.
One dude with a cast bailed hard – and he wasn’t the only previously maimed skater to suffer the same fate.
The in-person viewing audience made up mostly of skaters was a thick mass indeed, though laid back enough. And if you wanted to see the action you really had to work your way in.
Then all at once we were off to the next spot.
We wound our way down to Slappy Curbs where skaters began by firing themselves from a launch ramp as if they were fighter pilots taking off from an aircraft carrier in an unending assault. It was sheer power that allowed the participants to succeed on the next feature – an extended curb where body pile-ups became a frequent sight.
“Watch out,” came a casual voice from the other side of the crowd. “Cops!”
Brand reps slowly moved their beers out of sightas a pair of female police officers approached. It was a brief moment of tension amid a group that has often ended up at odds with the forces that be.
In 2007 Matt McCormack, Skylar Nalls, Robbie Brindley and Casey Canterbury were participating in Go Skateboarding Day down in Hot Springs, Arkansas, only to get caught up in an incident where their supporters contend police used excessive force to go after them in the enforcement of a city ordinance.
Luckily the wave of concern was brief as it the pair of Vancouver officers seemed to be particularly enjoying their sunny Saturday assignment of watching talented young individuals push their limits on four wheels.
What did they think of the whole scene unfolding before there eyes?
“I dunno,” said one, smiling as if living vicariously through the street riders around her. “It seems disorganized, but it seems like a lot of fun for the people that are part of the skateboarding community.”
Go Skateboarding Day was dreamed up by the International Association of Skateboard Companies to promote the sport. In a place like Vancouver the extra support is much appreciated, and comes as a skate resurgence is being felt in BC’s biggest city.
Recent developments, such as the emergence of the Jamcouver Cultural Society, the establishment of the University of British Columbia skatepark and events like the Hastings Bowl Jam, have begun to breathe new life into the local skate community and promises to usher Vancouver itself into a new era.
One of the Go Skateboarding Day events highlighted just how passionate local skaters are at building that community. On the other side of the city at Ambleside Park in West Vancouver Supra Distribution set up a fundraiser for the Ambelside Skatepark Project. They brought in Marc Johnson, Chris Roberts, Tony Ferguson, and Rick McCrank to get the support – and the cash – flowing, so there will be ample place for kids to throw down on their boards.
Next we’re off to Victory Square as magnificent feats and plenty of scrapes and bruises are part of the drill, as a never ending flow of skateboarders blast themselves off the stairs. One spectator even got smacked in the face by a runaway board – twice. Then it was onward to the Terry Fox statue by BC Place. Here the pursuit of excellence was less about completing a trick and more about making the effort. There’s no shame in falling. The only shame is in not trying at all.
Janessa Grant, a 28-year-old skater who came down from Kamloops, took a break to watch the action, reflecting on just how amazing the day had been.
“Everyone was just a part of it,” she said. “We were so close and it felt so good.”
For her, feeling the different road materials here was a novel experience, and pointed out the way the event was set up helped to bring the skate community together.
“There’s no limit on how many people can do an outdoor event,” she said. “In the street everyone is united.”
To those who see the world through a skateboarding lens, passing through Vancouver is a unique experience. It’s as if they carry a road map to revered locations wherein a hidden mythology will begin to unfold itself.
Past the viaduct as we walk to the park for the end-of-day barbeque one kid motions to the overgrown slabs of rugged concrete through a mangled fence. It’s the ghetto park featured in Electronic Arts’ SKATE game, his friend agrees.
Another motions to the industrial building nearby where he proudly declare he met Spike Jonze randomly. “Who?” his friend asks. Next comes a brief lesson in the director behind Girl films and, he notes, the new movie Her.
It’s as if they checked off an important landmark on a Skater’s guidebook.
Chilling down at Strathcona Park the taunting emcee thought about this idea as he looked back on Go Skateboarding Day, which had attracted over 1,000 people this year.
“I think Vancouver is a thriving scene: it’s the California of Canada and it will never change. People come here from Ontario, Saskatchewan, the Island -- everywhere,” he said. “We’re all out here for one reason, which is skateboarding.”
