It was a tease.
One strange, seemingly out of place, photograph at a time, Centretown’s Antique Skate Shop inched closer to the big announcement that was released on its Instagram page.
Then, on Nov. 5, the big drop came. All the photographs finally aligned and it was announced that the Centretown skateboarding store would be sending a team of skateboarders to the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
It had a lot of people in Centretown and beyond talking about what this might mean for the sport, and asking whether a team of local “riders,” as they call themselves, would be the ones to take Canada to the podium four years from now.
But that was before everyone realized the skate shop’s announcement was a joke.
Antique, located on Florence Street, will not be sending a team of riders to the 2020 games.
The build-up and grand announcement were, in fact, part of a promotional stunt to draw attention to the skate shop’s entry in an annual skateboarding video competition. Antique’s short video, titled “Quest For Gold,” made clear the shop’s Olympic aspirations were in jest.
The idea behind the prank, though, is true: for the first time ever, skateboarding will be recognized in the 2020 Olympics.
Adam Wawrzynczak, a longstanding member of the Ottawa skateboarding community — and one of the riders featured in the shop’s video — said that because the Olympics are a hot topic for skateboarders, it made sense to make it the focus of the video.
Since 2010, King Shit Magazine — a popular publication for skateboarders — has hosted a “Connect the Dots” contest in which entries have included things such as spoof movie trailers, rap videos and other creative ideas aimed at promoting skateboarding. The winners receive $10,000 cash and a year’s worth of bragging rights.
Antique, which was a key player in helping to create the Charlie Bowins Skatepark at the McNabb Community Centre, has a history with the contest — having won the first ever “Connect the Dots” competition in 2010.
Its latest video entry was meant to highlight many skateboarders’ critical view that their pastime is being co-opted by the Olympic movement.
“We were all of the opinion that (skateboarding) is a bit of a ridiculous thing to add into the Olympics, and we wanted to play on that opinion and on how goofy of an idea it is,” said Wawrzynczak. He added: “Competition just has no place in skateboarding.”
In the past few years, many skateboarders and others have questioned the wisdom of making skateboarding an Olympic sport. Some say it’s because the community prides itself on being inclusive and open to all skill levels. Others, however, have welcomed its inclusion in the 2020 Games.
“I don’t skateboard, but I think it would be interesting to see it in the Olympics,” said Jaiden Doyle, a Centretown resident who was intrigued by Antique’s announcement. “I feel like it won’t be easy to get skateboarders to participate, though, because I really don’t think the Olympics are the scene that people think about when they think of skateboarding. But it will be interesting for sure.”
For local skateboarder Nolan Saumure, although the Olympics will give skateboarding a lot more exposure, “competition is not really something most skaters want to see considering that skate competitions only make up a very small fraction of skate culture,” said Saumure.