22 Annual Jaks Sk8 Team China Creek contest.
People of the earth and alleys, every second Saturday in September rain or shine the Vancouver Jaks Team has put on a skate contest in one of Canada’s oldest skate parks. Twenty two years Jaks have been hooking up music and locating prizes and creating a contest unlike any other. It a down to earth hardcore skateboard contest and the contestants are real people who live the skateboarding life. Snot nose little kids on Wal-mart boards to hardcore mobs like the China Creeps and the Slugs. All the contestants are 100% skateboarders. It’s loose its fun and its one big party. O.K. it ain’t the kinda contest that you’re gonna see covered on the sports channel.
The perimeter of the park fills with local folks from the surrounding apartments as well as punks, drunks and Vancouver funks. Simon Snotface “Jaks Team Chancelouer” struts around getting the contest judges lubed as well as finding the necessary papers and pens to conduct the contest….. The judging forms are ripped up pieces of beer boxes and the pens are liberated from any sweet lady or man carrying a purse. The social atmosphere is a buzz with folks re-uniting and exchanging hugs and beers and smokes. It’s a skate community that I really wish existed in my town. The high noon start time is now 2:00 when Jones Jak finally shows up with a sound system and a back seat full of prizes. Now the prizes for this contest are donated by some of the best. PD’s Hotshop has been the main supplier of prizes for this comp for years and lets face it Skull Skates, even though they are classier, are about as Jak as a skate company can get (no offence PD”). But hey we also had Sluggo who laid some RDS swag down as well as Circa, Inkbomb, Anti Social, Meridian Distributors, Lolitas, Coastline, HTO, Sitka, And TOP Notch Skateboards ……. There was a ton of prizes this year. Remember to support these companies and shops. Twenty years ago, the prizes for this comp where usually a beer, old skate magazine and maybe a used deck or wheels.
Let’s turn our focus to the center of the park and the main reason for this day. China Creek consists of a bath-tub shaped bowl and a tea-cup shaped bowl with no coping. A handful of wooden ramps have been constructed around perimeter but if you fall onto one of these ramps you are guaranteed to have enough slivers to heat your house for a night. Power is located from a house across the street and the Absolute Music begins. Ahhh the music, punk, metal and a dash of reggae is the basic adrenaline builder for the skaters. The drunken judges take their place and MC DDols Jak yells out the names of the first skaters. This is the female category and a handful of women work the park and I seem to think they skate equal to the men so why have a separate category? The next category is the gay men division… But the standing rule at the Jaks contest is that no Jaks may enter this contest… needless to say no men entered the gay category today. The beginners take to the concrete and these little snot-nosers get some well deserved crowd cheers when a trick is attempted and bailed or landed. Intermediate has the most entered with some sick punk stuff as well as hip hop tricks. Then came the heavies…. the advanced. The park was a swill with style and hard looks when these older men started bustin the tricks. The judges had wandered drunkenly off from their duties and Telly Jak was left standing with the microphone, a slip of paper and the final heat. He belted out names and took score…. In the end we saw Punker Matt from the China Creeps come humpin out of the tub to hit this 3 foot wooden death ¼ pipe. The dude left the short ramp and contorted into this crail type lean to tail that looked like we should be phoning an ambulance. The tail of his board slaps the coping and he rides it out to a quality skid row cheer. He walked away with the prized “Deerman of the dark woods” skateboard deck. The contest came to an end with an all out SLUG jam…. “The Slugs”
The sun shone and the contest was over for another year…. It was a perfect day. It’s funny how a contest can be held for twenty two years on unorganization, chaos, anarchy, loud music and drunkenness. Meanwhile The Slam City Jam claims to be the longest running skateboard event….WRONG!
JAKS TEAM T.A. MEMORIAL CHINA CREEK SKATE CONTEST 22 YEARS and still strong mother.
-ricky jak
People of the earth and alleys, every second Saturday in September rain or shine the Vancouver Jaks Team has put on a skate contest in one of Canada’s oldest skate parks. Twenty two years Jaks have been hooking up music and locating prizes and creating a contest unlike any other. It a down to earth hardcore skateboard contest and the contestants are real people who live the skateboarding life. Snot nose little kids on Wal-mart boards to hardcore mobs like the China Creeps and the Slugs. All the contestants are 100% skateboarders. It’s loose its fun and its one big party. O.K. it ain’t the kinda contest that you’re gonna see covered on the sports channel.
The perimeter of the park fills with local folks from the surrounding apartments as well as punks, drunks and Vancouver funks. Simon Snotface “Jaks Team Chancelouer” struts around getting the contest judges lubed as well as finding the necessary papers and pens to conduct the contest….. The judging forms are ripped up pieces of beer boxes and the pens are liberated from any sweet lady or man carrying a purse. The social atmosphere is a buzz with folks re-uniting and exchanging hugs and beers and smokes. It’s a skate community that I really wish existed in my town. The high noon start time is now 2:00 when Jones Jak finally shows up with a sound system and a back seat full of prizes. Now the prizes for this contest are donated by some of the best. PD’s Hotshop has been the main supplier of prizes for this comp for years and lets face it Skull Skates, even though they are classier, are about as Jak as a skate company can get (no offence PD”). But hey we also had Sluggo who laid some RDS swag down as well as Circa, Inkbomb, Anti Social, Meridian Distributors, Lolitas, Coastline, HTO, Sitka, And TOP Notch Skateboards ……. There was a ton of prizes this year. Remember to support these companies and shops. Twenty years ago, the prizes for this comp where usually a beer, old skate magazine and maybe a used deck or wheels.
Let’s turn our focus to the center of the park and the main reason for this day. China Creek consists of a bath-tub shaped bowl and a tea-cup shaped bowl with no coping. A handful of wooden ramps have been constructed around perimeter but if you fall onto one of these ramps you are guaranteed to have enough slivers to heat your house for a night. Power is located from a house across the street and the Absolute Music begins. Ahhh the music, punk, metal and a dash of reggae is the basic adrenaline builder for the skaters. The drunken judges take their place and MC DDols Jak yells out the names of the first skaters. This is the female category and a handful of women work the park and I seem to think they skate equal to the men so why have a separate category? The next category is the gay men division… But the standing rule at the Jaks contest is that no Jaks may enter this contest… needless to say no men entered the gay category today. The beginners take to the concrete and these little snot-nosers get some well deserved crowd cheers when a trick is attempted and bailed or landed. Intermediate has the most entered with some sick punk stuff as well as hip hop tricks. Then came the heavies…. the advanced. The park was a swill with style and hard looks when these older men started bustin the tricks. The judges had wandered drunkenly off from their duties and Telly Jak was left standing with the microphone, a slip of paper and the final heat. He belted out names and took score…. In the end we saw Punker Matt from the China Creeps come humpin out of the tub to hit this 3 foot wooden death ¼ pipe. The dude left the short ramp and contorted into this crail type lean to tail that looked like we should be phoning an ambulance. The tail of his board slaps the coping and he rides it out to a quality skid row cheer. He walked away with the prized “Deerman of the dark woods” skateboard deck. The contest came to an end with an all out SLUG jam…. “The Slugs”
The sun shone and the contest was over for another year…. It was a perfect day. It’s funny how a contest can be held for twenty two years on unorganization, chaos, anarchy, loud music and drunkenness. Meanwhile The Slam City Jam claims to be the longest running skateboard event….WRONG!
JAKS TEAM T.A. MEMORIAL CHINA CREEK SKATE CONTEST 22 YEARS and still strong mother.
-ricky jak
Labels: Jaks team
posted by ricky JaK at 11:58 PM
2 Comments:
we love you ricky long
love it!
br,
pbb
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