What a gorgeous day on June 21st 2015 – International Go Skateboard Day, combined with Father’s Day!! It was beautiful outside and Protest Skateboards was part of something very special this year as Hippie Mike joined forces with Kristen O’Keefe of DC Shoes and Ryan McGlashan of Heritage BoardShop to bring a long overdue event to The Westshore Skate Park in Langford BC. This park has been around since the early 2000’s and has produced some awesome skateboarders in it’s time, but it is all coming to an end soon as the land was recently sold to Sobey’s so they can put another Thrifty’s Grocery Store in the area and the park is supposed to be removed in September. Skate Park deconstruction is always a sad thing and no one likes it, but what’s worse in this situation is there is still no plan for a replacement park anywhere. There are issues with the surrounding areas not showing the support they should be in today’s world to keep the kids off the streets and in a positive place. So the idea was to get out there to Langford and give these people something to talk about. As you will see in the video tons of kids and skateboarders of all ages came out to have a fun time together, and lots of parents were present as well showing their support. Everyone had a great time, they skated, they ate free hot dogs, they jammed out to awesome tunes, and they proved that there is a large skateboard community in there town that needs a place to go. This is the second event we have hosted in Langford in the last 2 months and there has been over 100 people present at both. It is very important that everyone around sees the how much this type of facility is needed. There is a big meeting this Saturday night June 27th at The Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre around 6pm. Please show up, show them photos, show them videos, make them aware of what you need and why…
Big thanks to Ty Williamson for coming out to Langford on Go Skate Day and filming this video of the event we put on in collaboration with DC Shoes, Heritage Boardshop, Vulcan Bolts, Burn Bros and Fury Trucks. The Westshore skate park is on the cutting block to be removed after summer and there is no replacement plan so this video really helps to show how many people in the community utilize this facility, how many of them are young kids and are supported by their parents, and how a little support can go a long long way. Please share this video far and wide to get lots of recognition that can be used to promote the fact that this community needs to step up and help these skaters and their peers to have a place to spend their time positively expanding their minds in the future.