Vancouver is something of a skateboarding mecca. Concrete Powder magazine (circulation 33,000) claims there are 200,000 boarders between here and Chilliwack in the Fraser Valley.
4th Avenue between Burrard Street and Pine Street (Kitsilano) houses a good chunk of the board-related businesses. The stores are filled with boards ofevery type (summer and winter) and make, along with bikes designed for extreme sport. Beware Boxing Day lineups.
On the south side of the street, Westbeach (1766 West 4th Avenue, 604-731-6449) sells clothes and snowboards — from the plain to the elaborately laminated — and skateboards; on a ramp at the back of the premises, boarders show how it’s done. At Thriller (1710 West 4th Avenue, 604-736-565’), owner Mike Jackson designs some of his own clothes and boards.
Both ends of the north side of this block boast bike shops. Ride On Sports (1709 West 4th Avenue, 604-738-7734, www.rideon.com) specializes in BMX (trick) bikes. Westside Sport & Ski (1980 Burrard Street, 604-739-4425) sells all types of extreme bikes, from the recrea¬tional hybrid to a “monster downhill,” as well as snowboards — and outerwear that may, or may not, help you survive.
Between these block ends sit two snowboard giants: The Boardroom (1745 West 4th Avenue, 604-734-7669, www.boardroomboardshop.com) sells all kinds of snowboards and skateboards, helmets, sun-glasses, even bikinis — if you can handle the rap music. Slightly calmer is Pacific Boarder (1793 West 4th Avenue, 604-734-7245, www.pacificboarder.com).
Serious boarders also head to PD’S Hot Shop (2868 West 4th Avenue, 604-739-7796, www.skullskates.com). One of the oldest board shops in Canada, PD’S claims to have the largest selection of longboards in the country — great, apparently, for cruising the streets. Another mecca is Level, with four stores and a clearance house (1795 Powell Street, Downtown, 604-258-2709).
To see boarders in action, you need go no further than the plaza at Robson Square. Vancouver also hosts what’s dubbed the oldest and largest (we’re big on superlatives) skateboarding event in North America. The Slam City Jam, with a purse of $ioo,ooo in us funds
— major bucks for boarders who, it appears, live in penury — is held in early May at the Pacific Coliseum in Hastings Park. Hastings Park ( East Vancouver) has its own outdoor skate bowl. Skullskates.com, which lists regional skate parks, describes Hastings as “(a) weird, hard to describe ‘pit’ (street) area, two mini-horseshoe bowls leading into snake run/half pipe, leading into ten-foot-deep bowl with two feet of vert, continuos [sic] metal coping everywhere.” Another option is Cooper’s Park (Downtown South), under the north end of the Cambie Street Bridge.
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