Wild in the Streets

The midwest is often overlooked by the skateboard industry. This summer that is about to change as Emerica has just announced it will hold its Wild in the Streets event in Downtown Detroit on June 21st also known as National Go Skateboarding Day.  The event will help kick off the building of the Ride It Sculpture Skate Park, to be built alongside the East Davison Freeway in an abandon lot.

The event should bring a lot of attention and awareness to the city of Detroit, through skateboarding.  The major focus of the event will be to help raise money and awareness for the Ride It Sculpture Park.  The more awareness that is built around the event, the more people will be able to help, and more money can be donated for a good cause.  Please donate to the park through crowdrise.com.  I have donated a small amount of money, but more importantly I hope to get involved and donate my time and energy to make the park a great, safe, and hassle free place to skate.  Learn more through Tony Miorana and his work with other parks in his video about the Ride It Sculpture Park.

Tony Miorana Ride It Sculpture Park

No Boundaries

What is your passion? What do you love to do?  Skateboarding is the ultimate freedom. No rules, no coaches, no time limit, no winners, nor losers. You are free to travel your own path. Skating allows you to momentarily lose yourself and feel truly free in a society struggling with war, financial meltdowns, and global climate change.  How can something as simple as a skateboard make these huge problems seem so obsolete? I think it is the connection of a similar interest, that surpasses all language, cultural, and geographic barriers. Skateboarding has no boundaries, no limitations, and no prerequisites. It gives back to you, only as much effort as you put into it. The more time and energy you put into skateboarding the more it gives back to you. This is a awesome video about a skater from Brazil, who not only skates without the use of his legs, but does so professionally.

Props to Og de Souza, not only does he skate better than most, he looks like he is enjoying his life more than most people too.  This is truly inspirational, getting out and making the best with what you have.  Skating in Detroit is similar to Og de Souza's situation.  We may not have the smoothest streets or the nicest weather but we make due with what we got and we enjoy it.  Now get outside and go skate.

Labour of Love

When most people think of skateboarding I would imagine they think of something juvenile delinquents do, Tony Hawk video games, or that horrible MTV television show Scarred.  In reality this could be the furthest representation of the truth.  Skateboarding is a brotherhood, passion, and I even read some where that more kids take on skateboarding then play little league baseball (this may not be true) but it is becoming extremely popular.  Within a 50 mile radius of Detroit I can name about fifteen free outdoor skateparks, and currently know of one currently being drafted for the city of the Detroit, that will be built in Roosevelt Park on Michigan Ave in the near future.  Here is a link to the article Roosevelt Park Revival It is hard to really define what skateboarding really is, but I can tell you what it is not.  It is not the X Games, nor MTV, or some Olympic sport.  It is a more of a lifestyle or art form than anything else.  Similar to how a painter expresses his thoughts on a canvas, a skateboarder can express themselves by using their natural surroundings as a canvas. Here is a trailer to a video project I was involved with for two years with some great friends of mine.  (Full video will be posted soon).

Labour of Love Trailer

Love skateboards is small independently run skateboard company from Toronto.  I have been lucky to meet some of my closest friends by being involved with this video project.  This video showcases the skating of myself, Joel Watamaniuk, Isaac Watamaniuk, Justin Bohl, Ben Locke, Drew Williams, Rob Mentov, and Ryan Kehrer on the streets of Toronto, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan.  The entire video was edited and filmed by a close friend of mine Jim Tumey.  

Ultimately skateboarding is something I will be involved with forever.  Even though I made this blog initially for a school project, I hope to continue to use it in the future to keep skateboarding moving in a positive direction.  Skateboarding and social media go hand in hand.  Nobody likes to skate alone, so why not share that experience with others.  After all its much more fun to skate with your friends than by yourself.