Gatorade Canada Ambush Tour with Chaz Ortiz
byThe Gatorade Canada Ambush Tour passed through Vancouver earlier this month featuring professional skateboarder Chaz Ortiz. In each city on the tour, professional skateboarders spend their day hanging out at skate parks with locals. 16 year old Ortiz spent some time at the Vancouver Skate Park at the beginning of the month where the Vancouver Observer caught up with him:
Photo by Jeff Vinnick for the Vancouver Observer
He may have several sponsorship deals and major contests under his belt, but Ortiz is really just another kid who loves to skate. Ortiz, who turned pro two weeks ago, caught the eye of the skateboarding world in 2008 when he entered and won the Free Flow Tour, a top amateur contest. Riding on his success, the prodigy was offered a wildcard entry to the PlayStation Pro preliminaries, where he placed sixth overall, outperforming top pros like Greg Lutzka.
Ortiz also spent time at Skate Parks in Abbotsford, Port Coquitlam, North Vancouver and Port Moody.
While the tour has moved on, you can still catch it in Calgary July 16th and 17th then it’s on to Montreal August 13th where Sean Malto will be out and about.
To commemorate the tour, Gatorade has come out with a limited edition skateboard deck. I happen to have the opportunity to give one away to a reader.
To enter to win, please leave a comment on this post about skateboard culture in BC. This can be from your own experiences, how involved your kids might be, or perhaps a comment if you made it out to one of the Ambush Tour events. You can also enter by posting the following on Twitter:
I will draw a winner this coming Tuesday, July 20th.
Update The winner of the deck is Pat, congratulations!
18 Comments — Comments Are Closed
I’ve always enjoyed skateboarding but fear always gets in the way of dropping into a half pipe. I like to keep it on the streets. There are some cool skate parks around langley where the kids flock to, not to mention some cool bike parks to boot. Would love to win a new deck.
didn’t get the chance to make it out to the tour but it looked like it would have been lots of fun!
If you want to see passion and dedication in our city, just stop by your local skatepark and watch. They have the bruises and scars to show for it. Who falls and crashes on concrete and decides to get back up and try it again and again until its perfect? Definitely, not me.
My 7 year old is getting interested in skateboarding and loves to watch the “big boys” at the skatepark. He’d love a chance to win the board. Thank you!
BC is truly the skate capital of Canada, if not the world (sorry California). With parks the 70s and every decade afterward, Vancouver is truly a progressive, skate-friendly city.
This is excellent exercise for the mind and the body. Sure wish I could do it.
I like the way the local skateboard army smoke lots and lots of dope, throw their trash on the ground where ever they congregate and for tipping me off as to the latest trends in underwear fashion.
I remember skateboarding as a young girl many, many moons ago… it was the early 80’s and my brothers were getting into it after being influenced by Californian dudes. I remember the cool slip-on Vans that I bought in San Francisco, and at that time you couldn’t find them up here in Canada. I felt so hip.
And after all these years, skateboarding is still around and they have this huge subculture. It’s great to see the progression of the sport. I’d love to get my nephew his very first skateboard.
Would like to win!
It is awesome to see Vancouver and many other BC cities add additional skateboard parks over the years… this shows the growth and acceptance of the sport! I went out and checked out the new Kensington Park bowl the other day and it looks rad.
Vancouver has a rich skateboarding history with skate parks (China Creek and the Seylynn snake run), shops (Skull Skates and RDS) and skateboarders (Sluggo Boyce) and continues to be a leader in skate park development. I moved to Vancouver from Halifax 12 years ago and have always felt welcome no matter what park I visited with everyone cheering each other on. The history is most evident as you see people ripping it up from age 4 to 40. If only it rained a little less.
I think it’s unfortunate when people get killed from skateboarding.
My future bro-in-law has been skateboarding for years – I love watching his videos, seeing him do tricks like he’s dancing on air…
Skateboard culture has really evolved in BC, I remember back in the day using the old Sears on Granville using the stairs to do tricks and now there’s a skate park every where you go… I love it!!
I have been a long time fan of skateboarding and the culture. I think it’s great that there is now designated places for people to participate in the sport.
this looks great! thanks for the chance! I think my boyfriend would love this since i’m not into skateboarding
So talented! I have someone close to me that would love the opportunity to treasure one
I like to hang out in Strathcona Park and check out the skateboarders. My best friend has a nephew who would love a new board.