Go Skate Day 2021
The UK may not be out of lock down, but 21st June is still Go Skateboarding Day! This year our teams in Bath, Bristol, Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton closed their stores early to go down to the local spot to skate.
Here's what they got up to:
Bath
Yeah, sure it rained on the 21st, but we made up for it on the Tuesday, meeting everyone at Victoria with our pals Bogus.jpg, Defeated Skateboarding and Uncles Top Shelf for a big old prize jam. Skate team members Tom and Zach killing it in the comps and even an appearance from the illusive Sox. Considering the guys had a microphone, all that could be heard from the park was the screams of "Send the set!" from our team who probably couldn't speak the next day. Shout out the guys that helped the young ones learn to drop into the bowl for the first time, reminding us what Go Skateboarding Day is all about. Champs.
Bristol
Blessed with the same raincloud as Bath, the Bristol boys gathered the team on Tuesday for a session at St Georges. These guys did not come to play and were here for one thing- prizes. Special mentions to @leaky_bonjela bleeding us dry on all the comps, including the cash for tricks and walking away with plenty of $wag.
Brighton
Taking advantage of the space in Brighton Hove Lagoon Skatepark before its big facelift this summer, the guys took their airhorn and a pile of prizes for a series of comps including a very literal death race around the park where I'm pretty sure I saw a kid strapped to his skatepark being pulled around the park by pals. Quality. National team member Diggs came by throw down some hammers 🔨
Cardiff
Starting the day off at Central train station with burritos and flatland comps, putting on a show for the locals and staff at the BBC Wales building (send us your clips from your office if you're reading this!!) Team member Marcelino nailing a game of skate without even realising it was a comp shows us why we love him so much. The team taught our store assistant manager Mia how to skateboard for the first time which is probably the most (and only) wholesome thing of the day. Then a cycle down to Cardiff Bay Barrage Skatepark for b2b kickflips over the china gap from our youngest pals 🤯
Edinburgh
There's a real community vibe in Edinburgh and it showed with Go Skate Day, with shops and teams joining forces at Dalmeny DIY for a big old party. Its pretty cool to see the age range and levels of skaters hanging out and skating together, it was pretty damn wholesome.
Glasgow
Gathering at the iconic Transport Museum spot for this year's session, these guys are pro at this kind of thing. I knew it got weird when I got a message from a friend saying "I've just seen a load of skateboarders ragging it around Glasgow, is that your doing?" thanks to store manager Danny for doing the good work there. Special mentions to the full team turning up to stack clips that we'll be showing you all next week.
Also this is probably my favourite photo of the whole day 👹
Southampton
One thing I think we've all learned from Go Skateboarding Day is that if you give skateboarders a budget there's a 100% chance they will buy stupid stuff. That said, congratulations to the lads who won the pineapples and the giant cake; who when asked "what advice would you give to skate who want to win cake" replied "yeah, just get a fork!" and its probably my favourite clip from the day. Obviously there was plenty of excellent skating but I was very distracted by the pineapples. So great to introduce our new team skaters Sammy and James to the Route One family this week too.
Head image by @artofthevalleyboy