About 21 skaters came to the Jaseboards-sponsored skate competition at Banzai Skate Park on Saturday, July 25, to show their skill and win prizes.
Jaseboards store supervisor Jordan Bivings originally had the idea to have a skate competition. “I wanted to create awareness and just have a good time,” he said.
Friends, family and skate-aficionados lined the fence around the park to watch the skaters. Eric Rackley, who teaches literacy classes in the School of Education at BYUH, was there with his two sons who skateboard.
He said he supports their skating. “It’s fun for them to do. They get to go outside and play hard. They get to hang out with their friends and just have fun.”
His 11-year-old son Joshua started skating at age 8 and was competing at the event. Rackley said his wife saw a flyer advertising the competition. Joshua Rackley said a variety of tricks separates the mediocre from the great. “To be a good skater,” he said, “you should try riding the whole park and have really good runs – where you’re not just doing the same thing.”
The 12-year-old and under category had the most competitors, with 16 children using two 60-second runs to show their skateboarding skills in the warm light of the setting sun.
As the sun set behind palm trees on the other side of the road and into the ocean, the winners were announced. The first-place winner for the 12-and-under group was Makana Franzmann, an 11-year-old from Rocky Point. He said he has been skating for 6 and a half years.
Andrew Boswell, a sophomore in finance from Missouri and one of Jaseboards’ project managers, was one of the judges for the competition. Franzmann was awarded first place, said Boswell, because “he did a combination of difficult tricks and kept his style—really clean landings.” Boswell added, “We judge them on a combination of style and difficulty.”
The other judge, a father who skated in his youth and now accompanies his children to the skate park, said what makes a great skater is, “Speed, flow and radicalness. It matters how they make it look. If they’re kind of clanky, you count them down on style.” He added but if skaters are radical, or have an awesome run, then they gain style points.
The 12-to-25-age group had four contestants. The winner was Knyte Bennett-Jeremiah. He said, “I just came here to goof around and have fun. I didn’t expect to win, so that’s cool.”
Contributing to the atmosphere, a band of BYU–Hawaii students and graduates Hugh Wong, Jasper Mills, Johnny Diaz, and Joseph Bengal played alternative rock songs from bands such as Blink 182 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for nearly the entire duration of the event.
Jaseboards gave away T-shirts, and skateboard prizes to the winners. There were no entrance fees. They also provided coolers of free water and Red Bull drinks.
Boswell said the expense to the company is justified because it helps to “build an audience,” he said, and “make sure they know where we are and what we do.”
Kenji Sato is also a project manager and he helped set up the event. He said they put up flyers and posters and used social media to spread the word about the competition.
The skateboard company was started by BYUH alumnus Jase Bennett and it has grown by leaps and bounds. Bennett got into the skateboard-making business after he ran over a board in the friend’s driveway crushing it beneath the wheel of his car.
Bennett said in a previous Ke Alaka‘i story, “I was too cheap to buy him a new board. So I built him a new one.” From that accident, he built a new career and an international business.
“I started researching videos looking it up and started making some demos out of my garage trying to replace his board for him, and all my friends would come into the garage and be like, ‘Dude, sick. Look at these boards. I want one. I want one. I want one’.”