They came to enjoy time together and the wedding of one of their friends, and I just happened upon them after working on a tiny little goal I’ve had this summer – doing one pullover on the bars at the public school.
What’s a pullover? This…
Pullovers used to be so easy when I was a kid, so I gave myself a very do-able goal in order to not get overwhelmed. One. Not a pretty one. Just getting over that bar once. Now I can do 20 (not in a row, and it still takes some time to do them in between the many attempts!).
Watching acrobatic people twirl their bodies easily around rings, bars, and silks has always drawn my attention. I love seeing how people are able to use their athleticism to move fluidly and effortlessly. I think it would be fun to have a casual calisthenics meet-up every weekend for 30 minutes at the bars for anyone who has similar interests. More on that at another time…
Hopping on my bike after working on pullovers, I passed by the skate park and noticed a lot of activity. I’ve been around skateboarding plenty while growing up, but what struck me while watching this big group of friends was how incredibly athletic some of them were, yet they are in a culture that may be viewed from the outside in ways that aren’t as positive. Some of these guys were effortlessly doing things that would hospitalize most of us.
After chatting with Chris Bacon, the smiling man above in a yellow T-shirt and holding a camera, I learned that he and some friends are about to release a book in mid-October called Grit to Grind: Shaping Montana Communities One Skatepark at a Time, “the remarkable true story of how long-time Missoula residents Chris Bacon, Andy Kemmis, Ross Peterson, and a small army of other volunteers, created nearly 50 skateparks in Montana to date.”
It is on Amazon, available for pre-order.
Long before skateboard culture entered mainstream consciousness, for a group of teens growing up in Montana, skateboarding represented the ultimate expression of freedom and creativity. With no dedicated skatepark nearby, skaters sought opportunities several hours or hundreds of miles away—until a core group of childhood friends decided to band together and change the status quo.
This is the remarkable true story of how long-time Missoula residents Chris Bacon, Andy Kemmis, Ross Peterson, and a small army of other volunteers overcame, with perseverance and determination, obstacles like lack of funding, bureaucratic red tape, geographic limitations, and more to create a non-profit organization that has assisted in the funding and creation of nearly fifty skateparks in the state to date.
A BLUEPRINT FOR OTHER COMMUNITIES: The Montana Skatepark Association, a non-profit that started in 2000, has helped fund multiple skateparks throughout the state, including many in remote and/or Native American communities. These parks provide local youth with healthy environments for after-school and weekend activities.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SKATEPARKS IN AMERICA: Skateparks are not only a place where kids (and adults) can practice their latest board tricks, they’ve become thriving community centers where kids of all ages and backgrounds can feel safe and supported, a non-threatening space where they can connect with others and be themselves.
Grit to Grind is a vibrant, uplifting account of how local skateboarders in Missoula, Montana, joined forces to build a world-class skatepark that benefited their city in surprising ways. This achievement was followed by the construction of about 50 (and counting) similarly magnificent skateparks in small towns and on Indian reservations across Montana. The positive impact on these communities has been remarkable.
―Jon Krakauer, New York Times bestselling author
Ten years ago, my friend gave me a sticker from a skate shop in Missoula, Montana then called Edge of the World. To be honest, I couldn’t imagine what kind of place it was. Living in Tokyo, it was unbelievable to me that skateboarders could coexist in this wonderful natural environment where elk roam. My first trip to Montana was in 2014 when I visited Jeff Ament and was able to skate the Treasure Bowl. It was then that I realized an impressive skateboarding scene had taken root in Montana and was going strong. The skateboarding community is made up of people who support each other. I am proud to be a part of that world and to be able to help in any way I can.
―Haroshi, artist
About the Author
Andy Kemmis is a photographer and writer based in his hometown of Missoula, Montana, who has been skating for over forty years and has been involved with the Montana Skatepark Association since its inception. See more at andrewkemmis.com or on Instagram @andrewkemmisphoto.
Chris Bacon, a musician and skateboarder, has worked at Board of Missoula for over thirty years and formed the Montana Skatepark Association with lifelong friends. Chris has dedicated his life to sharing all of skateboarding’s positive life lessons with Montana communities and beyond. See more at boardofmissoula.com or on Instagram @boardofmissoula.
By the way, the other guy above in a yellow shirt and shin-high white socks worked tirelessly to see if he could land a move on a board that is much harder to use than other board choices in going up and over the arched concrete bridge on the inside of the entrance to the skate park. His name is Felix. He is one of Chris Bacon’s sons. Over and over and over, he tried. I must have been watching for about 90 minutes. What was amazing to me was how often these guys don’t land what they are hoping to land, but they never stop trying, all the while landing almost always on two feet, like cats that remarkably reorient themselves mid-air and come down on the concrete with extraordinary scrappiness rather than splatting and needing a gurney. Their fast-twitch muscle fibers must be must be some of the most highly developed in the athletic world. Skateboarders like some of these guys have stunning reflexes, tireless goals, and motivation unflagged by the idea of defeat. I would guess they often don’t give themselves credit for the mental and physical things they are capable of doing.
I know this isn’t working out computations for getting people out in space, or building the next architectural feat, but after watching these guys, I was struck by the idea that they have a combination of both a dogged mental and physical persistence that you don’t often see in people you pass on the street. There is something really special and unique there, that is often overlooked by society. We tend to value certain things in our global computer culture, in which the body is often sacrificed while sitting in front of a screen. But these guys would have been the sailors, explorers, gold miners, and fur traders of bygone days – the ones who knew how to survive in the wild against the myriad physical odds. If you were stranded in the wilderness somewhere with one other person, you might like to have a scrappy, tenacious skateboarder like one of these guys with you. Someone like Felix is never going to give up.
To keep reading more, click here to go to an interview with Chris Bacon…
