Go Skateboarding Day (aka GSD) falls on 21st June and coincides with the longest day in the northern hemisphere. In the tradition of previous GSDs, Nike SB organized an event at the West Los Angeles Courthouse to coincide with the unveiling of the newly rebuilt courthouse fountain. First of, the very existence of the courthouse legal skate spot is due to the tireless efforts of Alec Beck and Aaron Snyder. So if you ever run into these guys, you owe them a HUGE high five!! They’ve both been instrumental in persuading the city that this OG spot should be liberated as a legal skate spot as well as working a lot behind the scenes to keep the spot clean and presentable, so that we can continue to skate there. Thank you guys!
As part of this year’s Go Skateboarding Day 2015 festivities, the courthouse ledges were also given a new coat of red paint to mark the occasion, and you can bet that scores turned out to the event. Of course, the event was graced by the skating of Eric Koston, Shane O’Neill, Blake Carpenter, Nick Boserio, Carlos Ribeiro, Sean Malto and many more (including winners of the Nike SB app “Best Day Ever contest”). Starting at 3pm, participants checked in to receive their event t-shirts and wristbands before a best trick contest went down on the courthouse Stage, the courthouse ledges, and the 4 stair (4 up 4 down). Needless to say, it was total chaos but with some heavy tricks going down.
Antonio Evan was in the (Court)house!!!
Pat Cannon (in blue) with a 50-50 treflip out in the ledge best trick contest.
Alexander Loren with a nollie flip off the stage in the stage best trick contest.
The highlight of the day really of course belonged to the newly rebuilt courthouse fountain 2.0, with an update of banked inside walls, angled iron on the edges and recessed into the ground so that the exterior outside walls are a little lower than the original fountain. Definitely a fun addition to an already amazing spot.
Eric Koston at the inauguration of the new fountain.
Of course Eric Koston got to properly inaugurate the new courthouse feature with a backside flip into the fountain as the first trick. The Nike SB team then proceeded to put on a little demo with a loop line from the fountain, by the inside ledges, to the courthouse stage and back into the fountain. Carlos Ribeiro was a definite standout at the demo with a huge popped nollie front heel into the fountain. Another standout was Yuri Facchini with a massive fakie flip into the fountain. Shane O’Neill of course landed everything with ease and even peppered each of his lines with a couple of flatground tricks in the fountain between tricks into and out of the fountain. And of course, courthouse OG Eric Koston also nailed a pretty sweet switch heel into the fountain showing the young bucks that you can be more than 20 years deep in your pro career and still put it down. Once the demo ended at 6.30pm, it was a free for all for all present to get a little session in the fountain. Lots of fun was had by all, and this new addition to the courthouse marks another new page in courthouse skateboarding history. Get there and skate this amazing feature already!! If you haven’t already, you should really check out Trilogy for some of the sickest Courthouse footage from back in the day. By the way, Manolo (of Manolo’s tapes) will also be putting out a Courthouse video later this year, so be sure to keep an eye out for that.
And special shout out goes to #StonerLoc Pat Cannon (aka sk8erpat) for killing it in the best trick contest. He landed a backside 50-50 treflip out on the ledge a total of 3 times but didn’t get any love from the judges! C’mon guys!?! Watch out for this kid, he rips! – HK
