I couldn’t have been more of a “Proud Dad” than I was at this event. Helping kids to learn and grow is something that I have passion for and I love to see natural progress, but when it’s your own kid it’s almost tearjerking sometimes. Kaelen Faux loves skateboarding, he is definitely my kid, but we definitely do not force it on him to be good at, skateboarding is supposed to be fun. But living at a house full of skateboards and mini ramps and always having so many people over skating he tends to learn a lot. This contest was awesome to see Kaelen come out at 4 ½ years old with full confidence to try new tricks at a place he’s never really skated and show off the tricks he knows in new places, but when he rolled in the deepend of Griffen and popped an Ollie ¾’s of the way up the wall it blew me away, and to see the smile on his face when he ended up in 2nd place was pure to the heart….
Griffen is always a great event, one of the coolest places around and the crowd was in it to have a good time this day. It was the day after the Van Doren Invitational and Emmanuel Guzman, Barry Walsh, Raj Mehra and a few other dudes were hanging out. The beginners were awesome and Django took first place by shredding hard in the whole bowl like only he knows how. Intermediates were lead by the East Van locals and there was actually a good turnout for the ladies section, but the show was all in Advanced. Andy Anderson dominated the bowl with pure style, creativity and big blasters. No one can get the crowd cheering like this kid throwing casper stalls, 1620 kickturns, bluntslides and 360 airs up and down the entire bowl. Shane Hunter, Eve Feaver, Bushman, and a few others were hitting mad lines and showcasing their years of experience at the Griffen Bowl but no one could catch Andy this day. Rene Rene tossed him a hundred bucks before the Finals even started for one of the most mindblowing lines ever done there.
This is year #20 for Bowl Series and honestly if you don’t know what it’s about yet then you are missing out hugely. This is true skateboarding at its best. It isn’t about being the best, it isn’t about being the coolest, it isn’t about who wins, it’s about hanging out with friends and having fun all day together and I couldn’t be more proud to have something like this around for my own child to be a part of….
Next stop – White Rock July 27th
Check out little Kaelen’s big run!