Over Labour Day weekend, Sarina and Abbey drove up to Dawson City to run some workshops and put on the 2020 Skate Competition. We had such a great time on Tr’ondek Hwech’in territory and were received so warmly by the community. Parents and community members were enthusiastic to help us set up, and even squeegeed the ashphalt of the park for us to get rid of any water that had accumulated from the nights rainfall. It was so endearing, walking around town and seeing posters up at the school and in the windows of local businesses.

Our original pans were to host a beginners skateboarding workshop on the day before the competition, however the rain and mist threw a bit of a wrench in our plans. We settled on hosting the skateboarding workshop an hour earlier, on the day of the competition with the help of our amazing facilitators, Ashley and Graydon.

On Sunday morning, we arrived at the skate park to jump into setting up for the competition. We had lots of help from the TH Youth Centre staff and a great local youth leader. Many youth had already gathered at the park to practice and skate around before we had set up. Since running the past competitions, we have developed an admiration for how engrained mentorship is within skateboarding culture. It’s wonderful to see youth mentoring their peers and sharing their knowledge and skills with each other.

For its first year, the Dawson City Skate Comp drew a great crowd of roughly fifty spectators. The skate park was surrounded by smiling faces of community members and supporters. In total we had about eight participants enter into the competition. Below are the winners of each category:

Beginners CategoryIntermediate CategoryAdvanced CategoryBest Trick
Rylan, age 7Isaac, age 14Jimi, age 34Anita, age 8

 

Thank you so much to everyone who attended the competition and supported this event and we are excited to see where the Skate Comp takes us next year! Thank you also to all of our partners: Ashley Swinton and Graydon Keenan for being fantastic MCs and judges, the Yukon Government’s Youth Investment Fund, #RisingYouth Community Service Grants, Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Youth Centre staff, and The Franchise for donating some amazing prizes for our winners.

Mahsi Cho