Concrete Skateboarding

words Craig Williams photos Brian Caissie

It is no secret that Jordan Hoffart is one of Canada’s brightest personalities on and off a board. He has long been apart of the Vancouver scene and has loyally stayed true to his first major board sponsor, Powell Skateboards. Over the last few years he has put his nose to the grindstone and inspired his teammates to do the same. The results of all this hard work and dedication have culminated in the highly anticipated Powell FUN! video. Having strung together a number of premieres around the US, it was mandatory that Jordan’s hometown of Vancouver (yes I know he is really from Maple ridge, but its close enough to the big city) be one of these stops. The whole Powell team hosted each of the premieres and Vancouver would be only slightly different, due to customs issues. Only half of the team could make across the border.

Knowing the caliber of skaters traveling with Jordan, it seemed logical to try and organize some sort of skating event before the premier. Port Coquitlam’s Railside park was the designated spot and the boys over at Quiksilver Canada were invited to join in the day’s events. We all woke up to rain and the event looked like a wash out. Trevn from Quiksilver and Jordan were adamant that it would dry up and it was decided to give it a go regardless of the wet cement. As the luck would have it, it dried up just in time for the arrival of the team and stayed dry until the session was already on its last legs. The level of skating was ferocious. Josh Hawkins claimed the picnic table as his own private obstacle, Derek Elmendorf has uncanny backside flip control, Aldrin Garcia and his cat like reflexes ripped the whole park, and Jordan Hoffart’s relentless destruction reminded everyone why he will be Powell’s first new pro in more than a few years. Will ‘Stash’ Durie and Trevn also get honorable mentions for their pure rippingness!….and that Trevn broke his elbow!

After the session was over we took the drive across town to Kevin Kelly’s shop BLVD which hosted the premier with two showings of FUN!. The first was an all ages show at 7pm. The free beer 9pm 19+ show was something else all together. More than 100 people from every spectrum of the local scene showed up and crammed themselves onto BLVDs modest floor space. The free beer only lasted about a ½ an hour but nobody really cared because they were all engrossed in the flick. Everyone cheered for each skater as their parts ended but it was Jordan’s ender that sent the crowd through the roof. It got so loud that the tenants living around the store complained. When the screen went black Jordan thanked everyone for coming, making it a great evening.

Thanks goes out to Kevin at Boulevard Skate Shop for hosting the premier with his casual goodtimes vibe, Trevn Sharp from Quicksilver Canada for helping organize the skate jam and pay for the park, Mark Happeney from Clark’s Audio Visual for the sound system, and Jordan and Powell Skateboards for making such an epic flick.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.