Interview by Jenkin Au
Words by Jenkin Au
Photography by Patrick Giang
Out on Commercial Drive is a rare sight: a skateshop. That skateshop is BLVD Skateshop, opened and owned by Kevin Kelly, a long time skater in the scene. Kevin realized that pro skateboarding was not something that he wanted to get into. Looking at a grander scheme of things, Kevin stayed within the scene, dipping into many things related to skateboarding including skatepark designing and more. Finally, Kevin opened up the shop out in Kerrisdale, but was faced with a lot of negative stereotypes related to skating. Then, BLVD was relocated to Commercial Drive, where it still stands today. Kevin tells us more about the creation of the BLVD and it’s involvement with the community.
Please tell us a little more about yourself.
I’m 5’7”, 160 pounds and I like long walks, bottles of wine and I cry sometimes. I’m born and raised locally and I’ve been skateboarding for 25 years. I’ve been involved in skateboarding for about 15 years and I’ve had the shop for about two years now.
Where did your liking for skateboarding come from?
Geeze, that’s kind of a mixed bag. It started when I was a little kid and it was a combination of things. Punk rockers down the street used to skateboard by my street on their lunch break and when I was a little kid, I used to go to the Selynn Bowl out in North Vancouver to watch some BMXing – I was into that as a kid. Then, the whole Bones Brigade showed up because they were here for a contest in 1985 called Border Wars and that’s probably what got me hooked because I got to see Tony Hawk and those guys skate.
How did this love for skateboarding turn into the creation of a skateshop?
I was always into the business side of things. I knew I was never going to be the sponsored guy and I never wanted to be. I started doing contests and did events, promoting skateparks and that kind of stuff about 10 or 15 years ago. That grew into lessons and then consulting and then skatepark design and then a million things. I never really wanted to open a shop, to be honest with you. I thought it would be boring just sitting there every day. A couple years ago, I started getting older and I still wanted skateboarding in my life. I tried a bunch of other jobs, working in the film industry and other stuff and no matter what, I still loved skateboarding so I just decided to open up a shop. In my mind, I saw a gap between the shops that existed and saw room for another shop.
Your first shop wasn’t here -
It was in Kerrisdale.
Right. Was this location here at Commercial Drive the ideal choice?
It’s like night and day. I’m so glad I’m here.
What did you see was missing at the old location?
Before, I just assumed that because Kerrisdale was an affluent area, people would spend money and want to support it – that wasn’t the case. It was too slow up there and there was just too much competition from all the snowboard shops. The kids up there didn’t give a shit about a skateboard shop and a snowboard shop – they didn’t care. So fuck ‘em. I live on this side of town and I grew up on this side of town so East Vancouver was just where I needed to be. Commercial Drive is just the best street in town and there has never been a skateshop on it, which is ridiculous.
Can you tell us about this skateshop in particular?
I checked out this first Car Free Day and I saw a billion people on the street. It was nice and my shop was having a terrible day that day. I saw a for-lease sign here and I called and it was basically a knee-jerk reaction. I ran two stores for a couple months and then I just closed the other.
How are people different on this side of town?
People here are real on this side of town. Whether it’s skateboarding, socialism, politics, soccer, or food, people here are just real and you don’t get the egos. People are genuine on this side of town and people on this street don’t tend to judge you. Everything goes.
Were you hit with that kind of judging over at Kerrisdale?
Absolutely. I had people turning their nose at me the moment they saw a skateboard shop opening.
You started off with the events and lessons. You support the community in various ways. Can you tell us more about your support for the community?
There are the contests and the video premiers. It always changes…sometimes, we do free barbeques for kids, and then on Christmas, we did a board drive where we gave people for coupons for stuff here, fixed them up and then gave boards out to the foster kids. We’re always coming up with new ways to do stuff like that. The lessons are the biggest way we support the community.
How do you reach out to the people?
We partner with community centers. We provide the instructors and they do all the registration.
Were there any events that you couldn’t pull off?
None that I’ll talk about. Pretty much, if I say I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it.
Can you tell us more about the team of skaters that you have?
They are a great bunch of guys. The oldest guy is in his late 40’s and the youngest is in his late teens. They are guys that skateboard well and represent skateboarding in a good way. If some guy is super good but he’s cocky, I don’t want him near my team. The guys are great ambassadors for skateboarding and great ambassadors for my shop. They are good for the community, too. For example, if we’re doing lessons, they are the kind of people I want hanging around.
To be skateboarding for 25 years, how do you feel the skateboarding scene has changed from what it was before to what it is now?
Oh man, it peaks and valleys from time to time as it does in pop culture. The good people have always been the good people in skateboarding. I still skateboard with the same people I’ve been skating with 25 years ago. Those of us that are the originals are down for skateboarding just for skateboarding’s sake. It’ll always be around, just like anything else that’s popular. There will always be the real people and then there will always be the people that just ride the wave. Right now, it seems to have levelled off and it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the fact that it’s popular – it’s just accepted now. It exists and it’s not going to be gone.
Does BLVD intend on staying as one boutique or does it plan on opening other locations?
Who knows? I might outgrow this space but I don’t have any intentions on becoming a chain.
What are some of the products that you are proud to be carrying?
I don’t deal too much with the corporate stuff, brands that are involved in skateboarding but are involved with a million other things, like Hurly or Billabong or D.C. I try to stick with some of the core brands and some of the local brands. It changes every once in a while. I’ll be honest, I just carry whatever I like to carry.
What’s coming up next for the shop?
We just took part in a Vans contest last Saturday and it went pretty well. We’ll probably be doing a team camping trip later on – shoot some videos, drink lots of beer, and do some demos – and we got an event coming up at the Hastings Bowl called “The Battle of Hastings”.
What is HYPE?
HYPE is when things are popular without people knowing why.