Go Skateboarding Day (GSD) is an event created by Don Brown, formerly IASC Marketing Director who wanted a day for the global skate community to all ride together and elevate the energy of skateboarding around the world. International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC).
Go Skateboarding Day was created in 2003 by the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) to help make skateboarding more accessible through events held in major cities around the world.
The first event events happened in 2004 where the skate industry got their local communities together to skate BBQ and have fun. Etnies, èS, Emerica, Vans, Birdhouse, and many others all gathered at the etnies skate park in Lake Forest, CA. Tony Hawk, Ryan Sheckler, Heath Kirchart are a few of the top pros that turned up that day to skate together.
In 2004 Emerica footwear set the stage for the first ever “Wild in the Streets” event in Philadelphia, PA where thousands of skateboarders took to the streets.
Emerica continued each year to bring together the largest crowds. In Brazil there was an estimate of 25,000 skateboarders charging through the streets and this energy grew each year.
In 2006, more than 350 events took place in 32 countries.
The following year, the IASC received Special Congressional Recognition from US Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez for its work in promoting skateboarding and encouraging young people to get outside and practice the sport. [1]
Hundreds of people skated in Albany, New York. [2]
In the west country of the UK, Erik Ellington, Spencer Hamilton, Dee Ostrander and Lizard King joined Bristol locals such as Korahn Gayle, Josh Arnott, Paul Carter, and Dave Snaddon to celebrate Go Skateboarding Day in 2014. [3]
Thousands of skaters were present at Hollenbeck Skate Plaza, Louisiana. [4]
North Florida's Hemming Plaza hosts an annual Go Skate Day celebration. [5]
Nike sponsored a large Go Skateboarding Day event in Cologne, Germany. [6]
The charity organisation Skatistan has been celebrating Go Skateboarding Day in Afghanistan since 2009. In 2014, their events also spread to Cambodia and South Africa. More than 150 students and their families and friends joined street parades in Kabul and over 200 attended celebrations in Mazar-e-Sharif. [7]
Vans holds an annual celebration of Go Skate Day in Singapore. In 2014, hundreds of skaters went to Sommerset Skate Park for the event. [8]
Hundreds of skateboarders joined in to celebrate Go Skateboarding Day in Lima, Peru. [9]
Some skaters celebrating Go Skateboarding Day have had conflicts with the law. One of the more notable incidents involved skaters Matt McCormack, Skylar Nalls, Robbie Brindley, Casey Canterbury and several other friends in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where they were involved in an incident with police. Baird and the involved skaters contend that the police used excessive force when they arrested them; the police maintain that the officer was enforcing a city ordinance. [10] The incident made headlines when a YouTube video of the arrest was uploaded, being viewed three million times, followed by intense internet debate over the incident. [11]
Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. Originating in the United States, skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2009 report found that the skateboarding market is worth an estimated $4.8 billion in annual revenue, with 11.08 million active skateboarders in the world. In 2016, it was announced that skateboarding would be represented at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, for both male and female teams.
Josh Kalis is a professional skateboarder who specializes in "street skateboarding". Kalis was sponsored by Alien Workshop for a significant period of time before switching to board sponsor, DGK, in 2009.
Ed Templeton is an American professional skateboarder, contemporary artist, and photographer. He is the founder of the skateboard company, Toy Machine, a company that he continues to own and manage. He is based in Huntington Beach, California.
Etnies is a French-American footwear brand based in Lake Forest, California, United States, and is owned by Sole Technology, Inc. The company sponsors professional skateboarders and BMX riders, LAB more and releases signature shoe models.
Skate shoes or skateboard shoes are a type of footwear specifically designed and manufactured for use in skateboarding. While numerous non-skaters choose to wear skate shoes as they are popular in fashion, the design of the skate shoe includes many features designed especially for use in skateboarding, including a vulcanized rubber or polyurethane sole with minimal tread pattern or no pattern, a composition leather or suede upper, and reinforced stitching to extend the life of the upper material. The most important aspect of skate shoes is that they have flat soles which allow the skater to have better board control.
Ryan Allen Sheckler is an American professional skateboarder and entrepreneur, and the star of the MTV-produced reality television series Life of Ryan, which ran from 2007 to 2009. He also starred in four seasons of the short-format video series Sheckler Sessions on Red Bull TV. Sheckler was listed in Fox Weekly's "15 Most Influential Skateboarders of All-Time" article.
Andrew Reynolds is an American professional skateboarder known for co-founding Baker Skateboards in 2000 with artist Jay Strickland. He is now Baker Skateboard's sole owner. Reynolds established Bakerboys Distribution with Erik Ellington and Jim Greco in 2007. Bakerboys Distribution provides distribution for closely related in-house skateboard companies such as Deathwish Skateboards and Shake Junt. He is also the head of design at Altamont Apparel. Reynolds primarily skates street. He has been called one of the most influential skaters of all time.
Jerry Hsu is a Taiwanese-American skateboarder, photographer and owner/operator of the skate company "Sci-Fi Fantasy".
Nyjah Imani Huston is an American professional skateboarder. With numerous sponsorships and competition prize winnings, Huston is one of the highest paid skateboarders in the world. Huston won gold medals at the SLS Super Crown World Championship in 2014, 2017 to 2019, and has won 12 gold medals at the X Games since 2011.
Kevin 'Spanky' Long is an American professional skateboarder. Long's skateboarding stance is goofy.
Leo Romero is a professional skateboarder whose early skateboarding influences included Heath Kirchart, Jamie Thomas and Andrew Reynolds.
The Wallenberg Set, also known as the Wallenberg Four or simply Wallenberg, is a popular location in the skateboarding community. Located at the Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco, California, it consists of four tiers of pavement and curbing, adjacent to a stairway and next to a parking area. The section notable for skateboarding measures 4 feet 4.8 inches (1.341 m) in height and 16 feet 6 inches (5.03 m) in length.
Jason Lee Jessee Martinez, professionally known as Jason Jessee, is an American professional skateboarder and automotive designer best known for his stint with Santa Cruz Skateboards in the late 1980s. He was identified as the 24th most influential skateboarder of all time by TransWorld SKATEboarding magazine in 2011. The feature documentary Pray for Me: The Jason Jessee Film was released in 2007.
Sean Malto is an American professional skateboarder.
Street skateboarding is a skateboarding discipline which focuses on flat-ground tricks, grinds, slides and aerials within urban environments, and public spaces. Street skateboarders meet, skate, and hang out in and around urban areas referred to as "spots," which are commonly streets, plazas or industrial areas. To add variety and complexity to street skateboarding, obstacles such as handrails, stairs, walls, flower beds, bins, park benches, picnic tables, and other street furniture may be traversed as single tricks or as part of a series of consecutive tricks called a "line."
Brandon Westgate is a professional skateboarder.
Erik Ellington is an American professional skateboarder.
Phil Shao was a goofy-footed professional skateboarder and journalist from Redwood City, California. Before his death, Shao was to be the next editor-in-chief of Thrasher magazine.
A hill bomb is a maneuver in skateboarding in which a rider rides down a big hill. The trick is noted for its particular danger and, sometimes, grace.
The West Los Angeles Courthouse is a street skateboarding spot in Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California. Once an illicit skate spot, this location became a public skatepark. Nike Skateboarding hosted a "Go Skateboarding Day" event in 2014 that led to a chain of events in which local skatepark advocates worked with the city to convert the space into a legal skate spot. Now, it exists as an aesthetically unique and historically rich skatepark, combining both the angular aesthetics of the courthouse's original design with a vibrant paint job that changes occasionally and a mural that also sees changes to mark contests or holidays in the skateboarding community.