Vancouver Skateboard Coalition

Words Melanie Mercier, Photos Norma Ibarra @Lapir0

Chickflip’s Ladies Night continues to grow and bring together new faces, familiar faces, seasoned veterans, young rippers, rusty bones, fresh off the press she-redders and supporters from all over the city.

Much like skateboarding itself, the format of ladies night is always evolving to keep the level of stoke high and tailor to all abilities. On April’s edition at SBC Restaurant, the first hour consisted of skate lessons where people learned to get comfortable riding their board and familiarized themselves with the ramp.

After the lessons were the screening of the legendary skateboarding documentary Skategirl by the Canadian filmmaker Susanne Tabata – a documentary that captured moments of history in the evolution of the professional female skateboarding industry. The documentary sure left the whole audience inspired and keen to get back on the ramp to skate some more for the remaining hour.

It’s amazing to see the smile on everyone’s faces throughout the whole night. From the time one hops on their board, to the time another progress or observes someone else land a trick. Everyone is supportive of one another regardless of their age and ability. A sense of community reigns throughout and it’s really rewarding to see.

For more information about upcoming events please visit the facebook group and/or instagram page.

After many lengthy conversations with Vancouver Parks Board the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition is very excited to announce the newest official, more about city installed addition to Strathcona Skate park, treat New Curbs!

In addition to that a very generous Donation from Folk Skateboards allowed for the install of a Barrier.

Awesome things happening!

Photos: Michelle Pezel

 

Hi everybody! The Vancouver Skateboard Coalition is as active as we’ve always been, stay connected by following our social channels for all the latest news and info!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years today since the ribbon cutting took place at the Hastings Skatepark on May 25th, 2001. Were you there? You can see in this photo that I shot of Sluggo on that opening day, there was barely any graffiti on the walls at all, she was still a new born babe. And, she’s standing the test of time, looking better than ever and that’s mainly because of that guy up there, Sluggo. He took it upon himself to paint the whole bowl a few weeks ago to make it killer smooth. Thanks a million for that Sluggo. There’s a very long list of others that need to be thanked for making Hastings a reality all those years ago, but you know who you are.

Every time I think of Hastings, I think of Josh Evin, just one of the many, many rippers that have unlocked Hastings’ potential – just look at that air – RIP Josh. Photo taken from Louis Feller’s Flickr page.

Do you have any pictures or videos from the Hastings Park? Put them up in our Facebook group gallery (or post the videos to our wall). I have a bunch of photos from the opening day on a disc somewhere… I’ll try to dig them out and put them up in the gallery sometime soon.

Now get out there and carve a few lines in the bowl, and show it the respect it deserves.

Leo Romero nosegrinds the rail at the Wild in the Streets Emerica demo a couple years ago.
Photo by Miss Kim

We’ve received word from the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Park Board that the downtown Vancouver Skate Plaza will be temporarily shutting down for some much needed repairs. We don’t have the official closure dates yet, and aren’t totally sure how long it’s going to be closed for, but we’ll let you know as soon as we get that info in. What we do know is that they’re waiting until after our BC Youth Week event, which is happening Sunday, May 8th (Mother’s Day – so save the date if you have/know younger skaters) which is a relief to us so we don’t have to move the event to another park. We’ve been holding the Youth Week event at the Plaza for years, so we’d like to keep it there.

The Park Board started engaging the skaters a few months ago to gather input on what we’d like to see fixed, and made a list of priorities that came out of the online surveys and meetings. First up is that the ground needs resurfacing in the prime landing areas, as the surface there has been deteriorating more over the last couple of years. The second thing up was that the granite ledges are to be swapped out/flipped over/replaced as needed. That’s a pretty good start to the repairs that are needed.

Newline Skateparks, who originally designed and built the park has been awarded the contract for the repairs, so we know it’s in good hands. Sweet.

We’ve been really busy lately and haven’t had much of a chance to update the website lately… We came across this awesome video of PD and a couple of the Barrier Kult members from Skull Skates on the local Vancouver show Urban Rush and just had to share it. Well worth the full 7 minute watch.