Denver skate community celebrated by local artists on Go Skate Day
By Herman Guzman-Ibarra
3 min readPublished on
On Wednesday, June 21, Denver residents came together to celebrate Go Skate Day (GSD), a gathering of skate and street culture and the camaraderie between skaters everywhere. The symphony of wheels rolling against pavement and the scent of aerosol cans spraying fresh designs onto boards filled the downtown Denver Skatepark as people came out to honor every aspect of the lifestyle.
GSD is a global phenomenon, cleverly tied to the longest day of the year on the summer solstice. And while the sun beat down on the thousands of skaters who rolled through the streets, it promoted creativity and community of a past time that long has existed on the fringes. Local skate shop 303 Boards, also a recent contestant of Red Bull Terminal Takeover, put on their annual trick competition and slid through the city from Morey Middle School - where a massive swarm of people rode through the city to the downtown skatepark. It was at this local skate staple that new murals were unveiled from local street artists Chris Haven and Jolt of the GuerillaGarden studios, both of which have been a part of the skate and street culture in Denver for decades.
"I've been skating this park since it was created 20 years ago. I've been a big part of the Denver art and graffiti scene, so it was definitely a blessing to be able to put my art here."
Haven said, speaking on the opportunity to put his work at the park. “We’ve had a lot of people that have been part of the skate community who’ve passed away, so I wanted to memorialize those people on one of the columns. I also put the names of the people that are still in our skate community that are big influences to the Denver Skatepark scene.”
Haven added his murals near the entry pillars to the park, and Jolt worked on the mural on the central planter walls in the middle of the skatepark. Both pieces focus on the influential people who have made an impact on the scene. Every minute detail has purpose behind it and everyone that sees it knows that on sight, and anyone involved in the lifestyle can point out every acknowledgement there.
“Even knowing the community and all that, I still brought on some of the O.G’s, the pros, and I hired them as consultants for me to make sure I wasn’t making any mistakes. I put in a lot of work before beginning to draw the design,” Jolt mentioned when talking about his work process. “Even if you don't know, you know. Slug from Atmosphere was down here watching me while I painted, and he came up to me and was talking to me about how he could get a whole sense of this community without even knowing any of it, just from the wall."
Both artists pointed out the close-knit community of Denver Skatepark, pointing out the parallels between skate and street culture, how it’s open to everyone who wants to give it a shot, and how if you showed up, you were welcome. The scene is chill, it’s growing, and everyone comes together for the love of skateboarding and respecting the art on display. Jolt closed it out with a simple succinct message about it all: “The work speaks for itself.”
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