Words by Offspring Community member Rob Illingworth aka @rob_illi
So, we hear you went to the Olympics. Whas this your first time? How did you get tickets? What did you see?
First time and it was incredible. Getting tickets was stressful as it was done with a ballot system so getting access to tickets was just the first step and pot luck, as if that wasn’t stressful enough you had to select 3 events you were hoping to see and then it was a case of smashing the refresh key on the keyboard and hoping you checked out fast enough, which I’m sure a lot of us are familiar with when it comes to the panic of online first come first serve sneaker drops. When the dust settled and I stopped sweating, I walked away with two tickets to the Olympic men’s street skateboarding final. All that was left after this was the 14 months of anticipation until it was finally time for the event.
So, you’re a skateboarder, did you pick this up as a kid? Do you still do it now?
It was something I was always interested in but had never actually tried it so I can't claim I was into it when I was younger, I was too much of a geek growing up. My love of sneakers, particularly Nike SB dunks put skateboarding back on the map for me, seeing footage along with releases leading me down rabbit holes of skateboarding videos on Youtube etc. I eventually plucked up courage (being a bit nervous in my late 20s that I was starting to late) to ask a certain Scottish skate shop to help build my first board in early 2020 during lockdown and I fell in love with it. I can't count the number of boards and dunks I've gone through over the hours of trick attempts since then. But the parts of skateboarding I value the most and why I'd encourage anyone thinking about it to get on with it is:
- The community, I have met some amazing people through the years and no matter what skill level you’re at everyone just wants to see each other succeed.
- It is incredible for mental health, a few hours focusing purely on landing a trick and the rest of the world falls away for that time and it's just you and your board.
Going back to the Olympics, what’s your earliest memory of them? Do you remember watching them on TV?
The Olympics, especially the athletics and martial arts have always fascinated me I’d probably say my strongest memory was working in a pub in Croydon during the London Olympics torch relay and seeing how it brought everyone together. Apart from that I of course remember tuning in to watch Usain Bolt do his thing, but I also did taekwondo growing up and rowed at university (don't be fooled we were an 8 man crew thrown together and we were lucky if we ended going the right way up the river and not ending up in it) so they are events I always like to catch.
Aside from the skateboarding what else did you manage to see, or will you be watching in particular?
I feel extremely lucky to have been able to see the skateboarding final, so no I didn’t manage to catch any other events but it is a trip that will stay with me for life (a personal highlight being fist bumping the one and only Tony Hawk because he was sitting watching the final behind us doesn’t get much better than that).
One of the highlights for sneakerheads is the footwear worn there. We remember watching the Dream team coming out trying to peep what they were wearing on their feet. Do you do the same? Any interesting skating silhouettes?
I love catching the pro’s wearing their signature colourways or exclusive Nike silhouettes, prime examples of this being Yuto Horigome and Nyjah Huston doing their thing wearing either colourways designed around them (Yuto) or in Nyjahs case his own silhouette he’s developed with Nike SB.
It’s been a few years now that SB has been introduced to Olympics. How did you feel about this?
Paris makes it the 2nd year it's been in the Olympics, and I think this question splits the camp. My opinion would be its amazing for the sport and brings great exposure to skateboarding, if it encourages anyone watching to pick up a board and give it a go then I feel like it can only be a good thing. Where I see the argument against skateboarding is about expression, style, heart and soul. It's very difficult to see this kind of sport quantified, scored and judged in the Olympic style for a lot of skateboarders but my hope would be it continues to be in the Olympics for years to come and have a positive impact on the culture.
Any other sports you would love to see make the roaster?
Not really, as a nerdy gamer it could be pretty cool to see Esports enter the ring.
How was Paris as a city over this period? What was the Olympic vibe?
The city was beautiful, loads of free opportunities to get sucked in and involved whether it was public view areas just outside Hotel De Ville where you could try out a number of Olympic sports in front of huge viewing screens or for me the standout set up was the skateable sculpture designed by Raphael Zarka outside the iconic Centre Pompidou watching the local skaters do their thing was awesome and just added to the anticipation of the finals event.
Would you recommend a place to eat and drink?
Have to say the only proper meal I had out was at a restaurant called Café Leonard which featured a beautiful steak but the piece de resistance was the gorgeous Creme Brule – I feel like being in Paris this was the only option. Other than that, it was a lot of street food and small snacks along the way. Keeping fueled up ready to jump on the public bicycles and check out the next spot.
Quick fire:
If you were competing in the skate team, what shoe out of your collection would you wear?
It would probably be my Nike SB Chunky Dunky’s because assuming I was able to land any kind of decent trick, I feel like they would look crazy fun and goofy in the footage. I went with my gut reaction to a very hard question to ask, but it’s definitely a low over a high if I was ever selected.
Other than SB what would you compete in?
Having done 6+ years of taekwondo I would absolutely love doing that on centre stage, the buzz of hitting a clean head shot and hearing the crowd's reaction would just be a pure adrenaline journey.
Who’s the best SB nation?
I think it would be hard to argue anywhere but Japan at the moment if we are focusing purely on Olympic performance. Yuto has won gold for both years that Skateboarding has been in the Olympics but also has incredible team mates in Sora Shirai coming 4th, and the 13 year old Olympian Gin Woo, who looks like an amazing future prospect. USA were also amazing to watch this year, crazy to think that only a few points separated everyone.
