I’ll be the first person to tell you that I am no skateboarder. I don’t have the sense of balance or style to just keep myself on the deck (at least I know the terminology), let alone pull off any kind of tricks. That said, I do enjoy watching the competitions on television, and I attended the Slam City Jam North American Skateboard Championships for the last two years. That’s why it pained me to find out that they are abandoning the Vancouver venue and heading over to our neighbours to the East in Calgary, the same city with which Canuck fans typically have not so favorable a relationship… but that’s a different issue altogether.

You see, for the 2006 championships, the SCJ organizers are moving the show to Stampede Park in Calgary. I’m going to miss watching Bucky Lasek, Sandro Diaz, Jereme Rogers, and other giants in the industry “do their thing.”

I haven’t been over to Alberta in over a decade, so I can’t speak as to how Calgary, Edmonton and the other cities are looking these days, but what I can comment on is the proliferation of skateboard interest here in Vancouver. Heck, during last year’s competition, then-Mayor Larry
Campbell declared that the week of the competition would be “Skateboarding Week.” With the skate park set up on the PNE fairgrounds at Hastings Park and another set up near Science World, we know that the sport is huge here in Vancouver.

Maybe they’re just hoping to make the same kind of impact in Calgary as they have here in Vancouver.

If you’re going to be over that way, or don’t mind the short-ish road trip, the Slam City Jam Skateboard Championships will be in Calgary from Friday, August 25 to Sunday the 27th, complete with 150 competitors, and capacity for 7500 spectators for the street course set
up at The Corral.

Note: My reviews of the 2004 and 2005 events can be found through the archives of The Commentary.