Girls and boys. Men and women. Freaks and geeks. Skaters, bladers, roller skaters and a spectrum of skin tones. Everyone was welcome and everyone showed up June 10th to skate around the waterfront for black lives.
Absurd. Lindsay’s narrative is — and has been for these past few weeks —ridiculous. Uncharted. Somehow Suay Sew Shop has flipped from a dark wave of uncertainty to a crowd-funded infusion of over $110,000. The news story recounts the drama of Lindsay, her business partner Heather Pavlu and childhood friend Chloe Schempf as the trio began researching, constructing and innovating the essential and notoriously absent PPE masks.
We were so excited when we heard Quell was holding a day-long series of events last February in partnership with Leo Baker’s NYC Skate Project and sponsored by Nike SB. NYC Skate Project was started by Leo to provide programming for gender non-conforming, trans folx, non-binary folx, and CIS women who skate. We were able to send our MOST EXCELLENT east coast correspondent and resident beginner skater Maya Haptas out to the event and she gave us a run-down of what it’s like to attend.
Come out for the night to celebrate and support SLAG programming which last year reached over 10,000 individuals building confidence, resilience and an inclusive community through the vehicle of skateboarding. The night will include food, drinks, music, a live and silent auction of exclusive items and hearing personal stories from the program.
To form our opinion, we asked the most stylish person we know, skateboarder/fashionista Marisa dal Santo for some of her wisdom. Since she stopped sacrificing her body to stair counts, Marisa has been developing her super dope and extremely popular vintage clothing business, GenXtravaganza.
“Watching places we had vacationed to burning to the ground on social media, hearing friends stories of being evacuated from their homes & the sounds of koalas screaming became overwhelming. We just had to do something to help our land, people and animals.”
When the homie Poppy Starr jumped into the ocean recently in her hometown of Newcastle, 100 miles north of Sydney in the burning State of New South Wales, she emerged covered in ash. “Felt like an apocalypse, end of the world type stuff.” Like the majority of cities in Australia, Newcastle sits on the coastline & benefits from offshore winds decreasing the accumulation of smoke.
The original four headed for the semi-finals were Christiana Means, Sammaria Brevard, Lacey Baker and Candy Jacobs. Sadly Portland’s hometown hero, Christiana, had to forfeit her spot because of an Olympic team commitment in the Philippines. So previous challengers Monica Torres and Chelsea Castro staged a “redemption round,” with Torres ultimately earning her spot in the final four.
PROS: 1. The event was held on Amy Caron’s birthday. 2. The weather was pristine. 3. Girls & Women from across the globe showed up & ripped. 4. Lots of money was raised for survivors of domestic violence. 5. Many skateboarders won prize money that will contribute to their skateboarding dreams & aspirations.
In case you didn’t catch it on insta, our #ALEX4OLYMPICS campaign was covered in the supremely awesome SKATEISM Magazine by talented author, Maya Henry. We are honored & extremely grateful for the support. Check out Maya’s article and while you’re at it, pick up an issue of Skateism, it rules!
