CLEAR THE DECKS
Dannick Ouellette flies off a ramp during the annual Rollout de Montréal on Sunday. The event helps promote skateboarding as a sport, an organizer tells Jacob Serebrin.
Louka Proulx has scrapes on his right knee and elbow — the results of missed landings while attempting to execute a jump on his skateboard.
That doesn’t slow him down. “It makes me want to do the trick even more,” Proulx says.
Proulx was one of more than 40 skateboarders who participated in the third annual Rollout de Montréal, a skateboard ride along city streets that ended in Peace Park, in the Quartier des Spectacles, where skateboarders had the chance to show off their moves.
Organizer David “Boots” Bouthillier says the event is important because organizers work with city police to have streets blocked.
“It’s really important because we’re building bridges and we’re strengthening our relationship with them,” Bouthillier said.
It’s a different relationship than police and skateboarders have traditionally had.
“We have a long history of skateboarders getting tickets in the park,” said Bouthillier who spent years lobbying the city to legalize skateboarding in Peace Park. In 2014, the city allowed skateboarding in the park temporarily, a year later that change was made permanent. Bouthillier organized the first Rollout as a way to celebrate that victory. Bouthillier has been skateboarding in the park since 1994. In 2001, he started making a documentary about the park, which was released in 2011.
“Peace Park is the heart and soul of skateboarding in Montreal,” he said.
For Todd Henderson, the secretary and treasurer of the Association Skateboard Montréal, building bridges between skateboarders and city officials is a way to improve the skateboarding infrastructure in Montreal.
“We’re all grown up a little bit now and we’re trying to push for better skateboarding, better skateboarding parks in the city, more legalized areas where you can skate,” he said.
While there are about 30 skate parks in the city, Henderson said they’re not as good as those in many other cities.
“For the most part, they’re of a very inferior quality,” he said. “More kids skate in North America than play Little League Baseball now, this is a big thing, this is what kids want to do.”
Pablo Vasquez brought his two children to event, he says he came for the chance to skate on city streets legally and because he wants to pass his passion for skateboarding on to his children.
His 11-year-old son, Manolo, started skateboarding three years ago, while nine-year-old Maya started last year.
Manolo said he likes to do skateboard tricks and likes the Rollout because he can skate fast.
With skateboarding being added to the Olympics in 2020, Bouthillier said it’s important to create spaces for young people to get into the sport.
“These are the kind of events that are going to be fostering our next Olympic athletes,” he said.
For Proulx, the feeling he gets from skateboarding is almost indescribable.
“While you’re skateboarding, you’re free,” Proulx said. “If you try a trick for an hour, or two hours, or even three, then you land it, you get it, it’s so, I don’t know how to say it, it’s a very good feeling.”