June 21st, 2009 was many things to many people. For most everyone on the northern hemisphere it marked the first day of summer. For all the patriarchs out there, it was a day of celebration and appreciation for Father's Day. And for all of us, it was Go Skateboarding Day. Events and sessions went down all over the globe. The cynics among us might say we don't need a skate holiday, that every day possible should be a "Go Skate" day. Nevertheless, any proper excuse to drop everything and roll for the day should be appreciated and embraced. I got out and pushed around between rainstorms and I hope you got to celebrate the day in whatever way you saw fit. As for my man Josh Brooks—homie went gusto. Brooks drove to, participated and skated in not one but three major events in the Southern California region on Go Skateboarding Day. So here are the updates on all that you might have missed.
P-Rod Skate Park Grand Opening
With Free Paul Sr. Stand-Up Bonus
On June 21st—Go Skateboarding Day 2009—P-Rod along with Nike, the LA84 Foundation and the LA Parks and Rec opened a new park with recreated spots co-designed by Lance Mountain. There's a Griffith Park imitation, a Sylmar rail revival and granite ledges for days. It opened at the Ritchie Valens Recreation Center with Paul Rodriguez Sr. running wild like he had free reign on open mic night. Here are some of the going-ons, photos of the new park and a list of the best comments Paul Sr. made all day.
The almost presidential security guards were necessary when they opened up the gates and let people try to get to P-Rod. It was insane.1) Introducing Shane O'Neil off-the-cuff, Paul Sr. said O'Neil was from Ireland (maybe because of his last name, but Shane O'Neil's from Australia)
2) While introducing Reese Forbes said something to the effect of (and I'm paraphrasing), Reese Forbes...we're happy to have him on the team. He's an amazing skateboarder, although I haven't really seen him skate.
3) When Janoski walked up to the stage to be introduced, Paul Sr. said, "In his spare time, he likes to impersonate Ringo Starr."
4) I hate to beat a dead horse, but E'erybody be likin' Theotis Beasley (Paul Sr. didn't say that. You could just hear it in the crowd). It's what you can get for staying positive, kids.
Looks like something from SF, but I don't know what this is a recreation of.5) Another funny moment was when they brought PRod on stage and opened up to questions from the crowd. "Can I have a bearing?" one kid asked. Another one, dressed in a Riddler cape held up his shoe. "I need a new shoe," he yelled. P-Rod smiled, shook his head and said, "Wait a minute. These aren't exactly questions." They shut down that Q&A real fast after that.
The Griffith Park ditch, both ways.6) After the grandstanding, they did a short demo. P-Rod killed it and Danny Supa tried to put down some tricks. Meanwhile, Paul Sr. was running around throwing out jokes. At one point, he called Danny Supa Mr. Clean and asked him how long he's been impersonating Lex Luther (all in good fun).
7) Lastly, Paul Sr. quipped, so truthfully, "If any of you happen to have a son that you can borrow money from, I suggest you do it. It's great."
It was a fun event and swarming with people, which only proves the importance of the park. Not only does it look amazing, but in a place like Pacoima, CA, it's not only nice to have, it's a much needed outlet for kids who have a lot of opportunities to get themselves into real trouble (and I'm not talking about typical suburban trouble, I'm talking
about drugs, guns, gangs and all the legal trouble that comes along with them). It was great to see Paul Sr. and Jr. interact, because Sr.'s such a continuous joker that Jr. just lays back and stays quite. You can tell from seeing him with his father and working on projects like this that he's very much his mother's child. Nevertheless, there would be no Paul Jr. without a the comedic Paul Sr., so was a nice Father's Day celebration to see them working together for a good cause.
Mark Appleyard and Louie Lopez signed for the kids.Josh Brooks
I'm giving a thumbs down to the fact that the park didn't open, not a thumbs down to the park. I'm eager as hell for this thing to open up.Go Skateboarding Day in Venice started off as a little bit of a let down for me. It's not to say that the event wasn't fun. It's just that I drove nearly an hour to cover it, expecting the shredfest would be coupled with the opening of the new Venice skatepark. It didn't.
Still, it was fun for the kids. Mark Appleyard, Louie Lopez, Terell Robinson, Ryan Decenzo and some other heads were signing autographs, while kids were shredding picnic tables, fire hydrants and kickers to oil drums—everything spraypainted in typical Venice fashion. There was a miniature version of Moose —a mini-Moose—and a whole bunch of people in interesting clothes, wild hair and all the craziness you can expect from Venice.
The last event I made it to on Go Skateboarding Day was Dennis Busenitz's adidas shoe release/skate jam in Upland, California. This was the first time I had been to Upland and, maybe it was dilusion from being trapped in the car, but when I got out of my automobile, I kind of liked it. It had a beautiful landscape and a tranquil lifestyle. This happened to differ greatly with how the demo went. Apparently, it was packed in and non-stop skating. The Adidas van was there and a DJ bumped some tunes while kids shredded with Dennis and other Deluxe dudes.
