A $4 Billion Dollar Reason Why Your City's Innovation District Needs a Skate (and Bike) Park

Does your city have an Innovation District, a place where high tech start-ups and a hip urban lifestyle come together?   Dozens of cities around the U.S. and the world have built them, including the city I'm now living in.  But I bet none of them look like the place above.  In this clip you see my long time friend Pierre, skating below the Huntington Beach Pier in Southern California in 1989.  This is what the area looked like on weekdays and during the winter then.  On summer weekends it was packed with people.  Surfers came every morning to surf by the pier.  Skateboarders and BMX freestylers, like myself, hung out and drew crowds every weekend in this spot.  The police didn't like us there, and told us to stop skating and riding every time our crowds blocked the walk/bike path.  It was a good place to practice, hang out, meet girls, and grab a slice of pizza at Papa Joe's or a burger at Wimpi's afterwards. 

So what does a skate and bike spot from the 1980's and 1990's have to do with the rise of  "Innovation Districts" around the world.  To most people, there appears to be no economic development happening at this spot in the video above.  But an article I just read in Transworld Skateboarding brought the two together, in my mind, at least. 

First, let me tell you that I got into the sport of BMX racing, and then the emerging sport of BMX freestyle in high school.  It was the early 1980's, and I lived in Boise, Idaho.  I graduated high school and couldn't afford college.  Much to EVERYONE's dismay, I kept learning tricks on my little bike, and my life took a far different path than anyone imagined.  I met a lot of weird young people, and wound up working  in the BMX, and then the skateboard industry. 

One day, in the fall of 1986, while working at the offices of FREESTYLIN' magazine,  four of us were standing outside on break when pro freestyle Ron Wilkerson rode up on his motorcycle.  On the back, he had a young blond kid.  It was the first time any of us met that kid.  When I got laid off a few months later (mostly because I didn't like the band Skinny Puppy), that kid was hired for my old job.  He wound up fitting in well there.

In January of 1987, I took a job in Huntington Beach, and I started hanging out at the H.B. Pier every weekend, and I met a bunch of local skaters and BMXers, as well as others who stopped by while in the area.  I was at the pier nearly every weekend for several years.  Pierre, the skater above, was one of the first people I met, along with a skater named Don and many others.  One of those kids, one I don't specifically remember, but know was part of the local scene, is mentioned in the Transworld article I just read.  He was just one of the kids that skated by the pier now and then, and sessioned Huntington High and other places I often rode my bike.

Years later, in about 1997 or so, local BMXer John Paul Rogers invited me to his "Loser Christmas" at his house in H.B.  There were a bunch of  BMX industry guys from other parts of the country who didn't have family in the area.  So we all got together, drank a few beers, played pool, rode the mini ramp, and watched really crazy videos.  I wound up spending much of the day on the backyard trampoline doing some tramp boarding.  That's where you have a skateboard deck (no trucks or wheels) and jump on it on the trampoline and try to do tricks.  There was another bike/skate industry guy there who I'd heard of, but never met before.  We took turns on the board on the trampoline much of the day.  He was trying to pull a solid method air, and I was working on a 720 shove-it.  We both landed our tricks that day, and got to know each other. 

Hang in there, I'm pulling it all together.  I met those guys because I did what everyone in my life thought was crazy, and focused on learning tricks on "a little kids bike."  If I had gone to college, it wouldn't have happened.  If I had spent my time learning computer coding, it wouldn't have happened.  If I had moved to a 1980's version of today's "innovation districts," it never would have happened. 

The guy I met on the back of the motorcycle in 1986 was a 17-year-old named Spike Jonze.  The kid I don't specifically remember from the H.B. street skating scene was Jason Lee.  The guy I hung out with on the trampoline at the Loser Christmas was Jeff Tremaine.  The article I just read in Transworld Skateboarding figured up the box office revenues of the movies those three guys have either directed or starred in.  The total comes to $3,692,000,000.  That's not a typo.  Yes, those three guys have gone on from skateboarding and helped bring in nearly 3.7 BILLION DOLLARS in worldwide box office revenues.  Really.

Wait, you want to call me out for round that number up to $4 billion, right?  I mean, rounding up $300 million dollars is a big jump.  That's not pocket change, unless you're Bill Gates, maybe.  Remember Pierre, the skater in the video above?  Pierre Andre Senizergues is now best know as the founder of Sole Technologies, the parent company of Etnies and E's shoes, 32 snowboard boots, and Altamont clothing.  Our mutal good friend from the pier, Don Brown, is the vice-president of marketing there.  While I don't know exactly how much Sole Tech has grossed over the years, I know it's way over the $300 million needed to bring the total up to a nice round $4 billion. 

If you build a skate and bike park in your city's Innovation District, it's unlikely that those skaters will create billions in sales over the years.  But, then again, it was really unlikely in 1986 that Spike, Jason, and Jeff would either. 

The Innovation District in the city I now live in outlawed skateboarding in that area.  I love irony.  Maybe they should read this article in Transworld.