Notes From The “Ithaca Skate Jam” (2015 Event Recap)

WORDS Marcus Bandy

JOURNAL NOTE 1: Ithaca, New York is really green right now—hella vibrant! The Spring is visible in every thing and every one; bright colors and contented smiles adorn each visage, bough, and hillock far and wide.

Ithaca Skate Jam, 2015 – Event Recap Video:

JOURNAL NOTE 2: I’m here for the fourth annual Comet Skateboards’ presented Ithaca Skate Jam, and although Wheelbase is in attendance at the event each year, it’s been a few years since I’ve personally been able to visit the Comet crew in upstate New York. The stoke to hangout with old friends on their turf is palpable! As previously mentioned, the place & people here are as radical and alive as ever. The surrounding energy is utterly contagious.

JOURNAL NOTE 3: As I lower the camera from my eye—so as to better scan the hill for my next subject—I can’t help but note just how many skaters and spectator’s are actually in attendance here at this event—hundreds upon hundreds of ‘em: hard-wheel rippers, freeriders sliders, coping shalpers, various packs of mother-hens and thier chics, dads chilling curb-side in lawn chairs with sweating cups of ice tea, dense packs of college students clogging raised porches, rooftops, and second-story windows; khaki-clad professors watching (“critically thinking”) , packs of tweenies giggling and making their way frenetically up and down the hillside—all the while, under a backdrop of ballooning GREEN, cherry blossoms, and a whole lot of warm sunshine.

JOURNAL NOTE 4: Sitting here under the shady canopy of huge willow trees, sipping a cold locally-crafted brewski and with a full memory card of images from the day’s event, I am feeling contented. Not so much because of anything I have done, but more so because of what I have witnessed others do here in Ithaca today. To be completely frank, I have not seen this much raw stoke from skaters, spectators, and the local community in a while now. It is events and communities such as these that remind me that skateboarding is what ya make of it. If you want skateboarding to be about fun, community, creativity, and inclusion then you just need to visualize that and put it into action. As I see it, ya get what ya give. Thank you Comet Skateboards and the Ithaca community for giving good things to skateboarding via this year’s Ithaca Skate Jam. Gratitude.

Thank You’s: