For a few years now, Bowen Island’s Youth Services Co-ordinator John Stiver has been setting up skateboard ramps and jumps at the satellite firehall on Adams Road roughly once per month in the summer. This weekend, though, the event is going to feature demonstrations and talks given by world class skateboarders.
“These guys are not only amazing skateboarders, but they have really interesting backgrounds and I know they have a lot of positivity to offer youth,” says Stiver.
Constable Troy Derrik, for example. is a member of the Surrey RCMP and a member of the Gitxsan First Nation.
Stiver is also eager to host Kevin Harris, one of the top freestyle skateboarders in the world.
“Until I picked up a guitar at about the age of 17 I lived and breathed skateboarding, I even competed,” says Stiver. “Harris is about ten years older than me, and we were at a lot of the same competitions. Unless his sidekick, Rodney Mullen was there, he would win every freestyle competition. He’s got the world record for the greatest number of 360s in a row, but I’ll let him tell you that story.”
Stiver says that he has been wanting to bring this kind of event to Bowen to help encourage support for a skate park here.”
Stiver explains that years ago, his predecessor at the Youth Centre tried to get a skate park built, but in the face of community resistance, agreed to having the ramps and jumps instead.
“Back when we could just pull those out onto the parking lot by the youth centre, there were a lot more kids who would come out,” says Stiver. “But that parking lot has degraded making it harder to offer kids the opportunity to skate. Still, any time youth are engaged on what they want to see happen on Bowen, a skate park is always in the top three requests. Now we have two youth, Finn Rainsley and Thomas Pedley, leading a new skate park initiative. Unlike the bike park, they’re doing this without a lot of parental support. We already have in-kind donations, and I am confident they could raise the money required to do the rest.”
This initiative grew through the Bowen Island Community Foundation’s Youth in Action program, which aims to help youth realize they have the power to make things happen.
“These plans are really being led by the youth,” says Stiver. “So far, we have support in the form of in-kind donations, but there is a lot more work to be done. Personally, I would really like to see these young people succeed in their dream of getting a skate park built.”
Youth Centre RAD Demo Day
Sunday August 20 3-5pm Firehall on Grafton
