[This just in from our fine friend Lizzie at  Nor Cal's Premiere Skate Shop, Purple Skunk , the following is solid coverage from the ALL Skate Jam hosted by Purple Skunk Board Shop, Plank Skateboards and Sk8Kings.com on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA]

 

 

 The Purple Skunk All Skate Jam

8:30 a.m. Amidst the typical San Francisco fog the Skunk gang (Lizzie, Rodney, Timmy and Jeff) got the thumbs up from Park and Rec to break through the barricades of JFK Drive to unload 2 vans of the rail, fun box, table top, tent, table, snacks, drinks, swag galore and skateboards.  9 a.m. the Plank crew (Dave and Sandy) show up with a carload full of hot coffee, juice, muffins, sandwiches, table, longboards and a crazy CO2 charged t-shirt bazooka gun.  9:30 a.m. Sk8King Maria and Richy arrive with gear ready to go.  9:45 a.m. Gary Holl has the slalom course set up.  The tent, sponsor banners and tables are up, food and drinks are out and the clock strikes 10 a.m.  It’s showtime!

First stop – show up with a skateboard at the Purple Skunk welcome tent and get your hand stamped. This was the carte blanche for complimentary food, drink, a Skunk discount buck and a free raffle ticket.  A petition for a skatepark in Golden Gate Park was also at the welcome desk.

Over 150 skaters (as young as 3 to ahhhhh young 60), families and spectators showed up from as far east as Stockton, south from San Jose and north in Sonoma to spend the day jammin’ and hangin’.  The Sk8King team (Richy “360 King”Carrasco, Gary Holl, Jon Bunn and Christian) blew everybody away with their freestyle and slalom moves.  Skaters attempted to emulate the moves for the first time.  The Sk8King team and Skunk crew taught the curious how to do tricks and moves.  It was a day of hard skating, cruising, show and tell, sharing different rides, demoing new setups and community awareness.  Inquisitive spectators skated for the first time.  By end of the day, all levels of skaters where going through the cones … crazy fun!  

Thanks to generous donations there was plenty of food and drink so the group was energized.  At 1 p.m. it was time for Dave Plank to play with his new toy… the CO2 charged t-shirt gun!  Ka-boom!  Dozens of t-shirts were shot into the air, stickers and hats were flung and skaters scrambled for their luck of grabbing cool swag.  After a quick clean up the crowd made the short trip to the Purple Skunk Board Shop for the appreciation raffle.  Gary Holl was the master of ceremony for the raffle while Lizzie was his Vanna White.  It was one insane hour!  

Kudos to SF Park and Rec for allowing us to jam, knuckles to Travis Jensen for the SF Chronicle writeup and our heartfelt thanks to all of our generous sponsors (3dm/Seismic, Arbor, Black Label, Fury, Flowlab, Gravity Skateboards, Marilyn Hendron, Hurley, Jack Coyle Catering, Ladera Longboards, Landyachtz, Loaded, Bob Mackay, Never Summer, NHS, Nixon, Ollie Pop, Plank, Pleasure Tools, Pocket Pistol, Sk8Kings, Powell, Purple Skunk Board Shop, S-One, Steve Meyer, Tracker, Vans, G&S Fibreflex, GFH Boards, Randal Trucks, San Diego Speed and Sector 9) who donated product for our killer raffle.  It was a great turnout and a lot of fun. We’ll do it again. See you next year!

~Lizzie, Rodney, Timmy & Jeffrey Skunk, Dave and Sandy Plank, Richy, Maria, Gary, Jon and Christian Sk8Kings~