A NIGHT AT '2019 SKATEBOARDING HALL OF FAME CEREMONY'
We hit downtown LA in the late afternoon. Our favorite road trip-song (click here, Air Tonight, Emil Kruse) is still loud in my head – I guess we heard it about eight times since leaving Yosemite National Park this morning.
Don’t get me wrong – I like wild nature and really big trees are really awesome to look at, but the certified stench of piss + smog and the warm sun rays between the highrises of downtown LA just always gets me hyped – its like coming home from a holiday abroad and things are just as they always were. I love it even if it stinks a little more every time I come back (I’m from Denmark but 30y ago I used to live here) so it feels like home.
Frank pulls the car up to the curb outside NOMAD, that is our hotel for the night. Kim, Lars, Frank and I go straight to the rooftop terrace and the pool-area and boom the smell of piss is gone – I guess as we got older, we slowly upgraded a lot compared to the Motel6 we usually could afford back in the mid-80s.
Walking just one block, we arrive at the GLOBE theatre that will host this year's Hall of Fame (SHOF) inductions ceremony that same night. There is a long line of grey/red/green-haired mid-aged skaters waiting to get in or hanging out outside the entrance. We get in line, and I see Nicky and Rune way up there – I snake pass half the line of people waiting, pretending that I just have to say hello to the Swedish delegation hanging with Nicky/Rune… nobody was complaining… and it hits me they are all skateboarders so they are totally used to being snaked trying to drop in on a crowded session at a backyard-ramp or pool haha
Anyway, I see famous skaters I know and don’t know left and right - and I actually feel at home with this snaking-maneuver. I call the other guys up to me. I see George Powell over there, Muir and Hackett, the Swedes Puttis, Jansson, Patrick and Jonas and there is my buddy Saiz (who tried to push me street skating when vert died in ´91-92), and a bunch of super cool older dudes I don’t even remember the names of, were in the lineup also.
After 20y in the US my best friend Frank knows people in the industry - so he had fixed a 10people table in the middle of the ballroom for all the Danes and Swedes. It's funny when we look around we are by far the youngest skaters in the entire ballroom (not counting bar-personnel) … and we average 50+ … anyway happens we are the only table that is filled with empty beer cans. All other tables had water bottles and coffee – we could not really figure this out? I thought that the HOF ceremony was a big party to celebrate the icons of our fine community called skateboarding… but the normally rowdy American skaters were all quiet and humble during the entire show.
Except for Mr. Steve Olson who was the host of the night, he was cool, funny and rowdy – and it was really hard to understand what he was mumbling between smokes and drinks on stage J So I realized that SHOF is not a crazy party, as the youngest in the crowd, the average age was pretty high, to say the least – older guys young at heart, wondering what the hell happened?
The ceremony was long… very long. The Euro-table kept filling up with beers and drinks – I wonder if that was the main reason why notables like Lance, Bod, Spidey, Ben10, Saiz, DD, Salba, Welinder, Magnusson, Hosoi, etc. kept coming by our table to chat?
But what I do know is that SHOF in the states is a big deal – especially for the inductees/inducted – they are with reason really proud of the appreciation of their contribution to the evolution of skateboarding – all icons are treated like royalty and SHOF boss Mark Waters + crew put a lot of effort into finding the right skaters, some cool stills and rad footage of them all.
This year SHOF inductees were:
60s era: Chris Dawson
70s era: Kevin “the worm” Anderson + Tom “wally” Inouye + Ray “bones” Rodriguez
80s era: Micke Alba + Jeff Phillips (RIP)
90s era: Jason Lee
Women’s: Edie Robertson + Desiree von Essen Harrington
Congrats – all were much deserved, and all were very happy and humble with being honored.
Jason’s acceptance speech was really long and really funny
I fucking love this shit… and during the night we did a serious effort on making the Americans aware of the Euro-trash-delegation in the house this night! Tons of old friends, new friends, funny dude- and girl-skaters that paved the way for us all in the 60-70s – several of them having a tough time getting from the chair to the stage. Ending the night, I believe that the HOF people will remember that the Euros were there this year.
So, I wonder when will Nicky be inducted?
Later skater,
Søren Aaby
Links:
http://www.skateboardinghalloffame.org
https://www.facebook.com/SkateboardingHallofFame/
Video:
https://www.facebook.com/SkateboardingHallofFame/videos/2228945653886173/?v=2228945653886173