Another benefit of skateboarders: I've heard some police officers express their appreciation of skateboarders, saying that they are the eyes and ears of a park.

I don't understand how your channel isn't really 250k subs. The quality is unmatched and I'm always learning something new about the city

This is the part that I like about Vancouver: the stance of "If you can't ban it, embrace it". I know that not everything in the city is like this, but it's great that there parts where the city allows for liberty - not all places in the world are so open to new ideas Also: First!

As a skater, this literally gave me goosebumps! After years of kick-outs and hate from police and security to see cities including skateboarding in future plans is life-changing for us.

When other skaters ask me why I think this Olympics was a good thing, this. This is why. It's helped change so many opinions on the validity of skateboarding and skateboarder along with all the peripheral sports. It made a big difference ince that was announced. Now a lot of city officials view it as a means of bringing positive attention to their community rather than just as a hindrance. Helped change some attitudes.

I've always admired the community aspect of action sports as a whole. That's what made bouldering so appealing to me

Super insightful video! Did not know Vancouver had such rich skate history. Very interesting because in Korea, there was a whole drama recently where the city was trying to tear down one of the most iconic street skate spot, ‘Cult’ and obviously skaters were not happy about it. They should share this video to the city 🙂

1000% thank you for making this. Jane Jacobs called for eyes on the street way back in 1961. If skateboarding had been a thing in NYC then she would have been talking about skateboarders too. They make the often underutilized city centers of places like my hometown in Ohio safer and better.

Someone finally realized that if they encourage street skating, you'll actually stop people from skating street

Being a skater in Van in the 90's i knew all those street spots well, you could often see those exact same spots in 411 video magazine and other pro skater VHS tapes. Best memories were doing the biggest rail at Commerce Place.. would have been 15 at time! Another one a friend and i went to the first slam city jam, on day two we made fake wrist bands and we managed to sneak onto the main floor where the pros were hanging out... good times! Thanks for the memories.

You didn't mention it but slam city jam back in the 90s was an event every single teen/preteen wanted to be at back in the day. It's too bad there isn't events like that anymore.

Really awesome video! You should definitely try to Ollie some more or even just ride around more! Skating is a wonderful activity

Skateboarding encourages positive social bonds, personal development and creativity. Its is a wonderful global community to be a part of. As a skate rat of the 90s sub culture, to see so many young people engaging it for those reasons is amazing. It is not a sport, as no one is completing in anything, Skaters support each other. We understand one persons personal achievements is as valuable as someone else's. Who cares if its to land your first ollie, or lip-slide a handrail for the first time. It is all just setting your own goals and enjoying it with friends.

Uytae for mayor!

Vancouver is home to all my fave skaters, something in the water over there obviously. You might be interested in the work of Alexis Sablone, olympic skateboarder with a masters in architecture, she designed a skateable plaza that went up in Mälmo, Sweden, that doesn't actually look like a skate park. Also in Sweden there's a school that runs skateboarding classes in lieu of gym, there's an episode of Post Radical about that hosted by Vancouver's finest, Rick McCrank

Amazing video like always Uytae. I feel like I have close connection to the Hastings skatepark even though I barely can Ollie. Working at the PNE id usually go sit while on my lunch and watch the skaters, always awed me. Keep up the great content dude

Dam, that hardflip back 50 was clean af...

man i knew vancouver had done history with skateboarding what with it being a level in a tony hawk game, but didn't know it was that big. awesome videos, new sub here ^^

Props for using so many local Vancouver skater clips!

The fact that I know where these places are makes this video even better to enjoy

Turned out so great! Thanks for helping amplify our stories!!

I lived next to plaza back in 2012-2014, I skated all the time as much as I could! I miss it soooo much, Van is the shit!!shout out to Tyler Burke love you dude!

I love how your videos randomly appeal to me. I live in North Carolina, USA. I teach and skate so somehow your videos happen to have information I enjoy even though I live far from Vancouver.

I have been a subscriber and fan of these videos for a good while now, and very much appreciate the content. As a skateboarder in Vancouver I am grateful for this representation and portrayal of our community. Thank you!!

This is very cool, I recently moved to Rhode Island and I saw that providence has a mini skate park in the heart of the city next to a parking garage, it’s a pretty neat idea and there are usually a few people doing tricks

Vancouver has always been a skateboard Mecca. This video brought back some serious memories

Nothing makes me happier to see Vancouver partnering with you. This is so great

This is such quality content! I love your videos and will always be excited for the next ones

Really well done video on the history and future of Skateboarding in Vancouver! As someone who recently fell back in love with the sport, its really great to see the city embrace it once again and can't help but appreciate those amazing clips of the 80s and 90s era of skateboarding. Keep up the amazing work dude!

Every one of your videos is just so good! I hope this channel keeps going for a long time! Bravo man

Fascinating video, I didn't know this much about my own city's skate culture! Always a treat when you upload. Great work!

Love your channel! Amazing high quality stuff. And this topic hits home for me as a skater in his mid 30’s

Love your videos man!!!!!

I remember getting hassled by cops for skateboarding on the way to slamcity jam 99; so cool that in 22 years the city is now thinking about ‘ how can we encourage public skateboarding instead of preventing it’ - more mini parks like the one at Strathcona please!

I’m glad we’re finally accepted. But……….I’ll never forget all those years when we were treated like shit, like criminal hoodlums, like nothing but a nuisance. My life as a skater-and for most people who’ve been skating for close to 20 or more years-has been molded and shaped by all the abuse we received for just wanting to practice our sport, create our art, and have fun. I’ll never get those images out of my mind, from watching videos of other fellow skaters around the world also getting abused by cops, security, and Karens. Skaters have had to fight for our existence in one way or another, the whole time up until recently. The OGs fought in the 70’s and 80’s. The 90’s rippers fought. The Y2Kers (myself included) fought. The 10ers fought, and were the ones to finally see the tide turn. Now it’s so “mainstream” that we’re in the Olympics. It’s been such a long battle, and I salute those that fought alongside me, and those that fought before my time.

If you haven't already, you should really check out what Copenhagen and some other Scandinavian cities are doing on this front. Not only is street skating encouraged there, but new spaces and infrastructure are designed so as to actually facilitate street skating as well as other creative and community-centric uses. There is a good video on it on youtube. I know the downtown of Sydney, Cape Breton for one is beginning to adopt the same approach in Canada.

Great to see. I really didn't enjoy running from security as a kid in the 90s haha.

3:25 I feel one of the most underrated aspects of skateboarding, is that it is essentially the only sport where you can do it where ever you like, whenever you like, however you like, at which speed/rate of progression you like. There are no coaches, opponents, score boards, time limits, expensive barriers to entry, or direct paths of progression. It doesn't matter if you want to learn transition, rails, flat ground, freestyle, etc. whatever interests you, whenever it interests you, is what you choose to do when you choose to do it. There is really no other sport like that, and I think that's why I was drawn to it as a teenager when I was playing competitive hockey 10 times a week, and why many other people are as well.

another great video as always. Looking forward to you next video Uytae

This is an amazing video man!

Nice to see you supporting skateboarding! Great video.

Great piece, thank you.

Great video, first one of yours I’ve seen, surprised you don’t got more subs, I’ll give you one cause I can tell you put a lot of effort into this

I live in New York and have zero connection to Vancouver, but these videos are such great quality and informative. Keep up the great work!

Nice video! I’m excited for the future of skating in Vancouver.

I'm not from Vancouver but I watch your videos because I appreciate your communication style and because many of the things you choose to focus on reach beyond Vancouver's borders. I AM however, a longboarder - so I'm now interested in keeping tabs on Vancouver's skate scene to see how these new laws pan out. I think it's a step in the right direction compared to my town where all skating is illegal on streets.

Hey I’m a scooter rider from Melbourne and they are doing a similar thing here by making street spots it good to see that the change is world wide

Really great quality!!!

This channel is amazing!

You're content is amazing!

Something in me says "masking the lack of cycling infrastructure and human centered spaces with some nice edges". Hopefully these efforts will lead to more than that and return the shared space to people rather than cars

Amazing editing!!!

Hey I just found this channel and it makes me think of Johnny Harris. Very slick editing.

Epic new video and seeing you ride a skateboard!

Fantastic video about a policy I had no idea was being drawn up. Let's just say that I'm pleasantly surprised.

This was a really well put together video. I grew up skating, got chased away from every single one of those spots you mentioned, worked for Slam City Jam, and now at 44 have a daughter, sit on a professional Board of directors, and own a tech company. There's lots of people like me who are all pulling for the expansion of safe harassment free spaces now that we're of the demographic influencing things from the top down. I would suggest that the about face is a little less miraculous and more that the older demographic of our parents generation have just aged out being able to shake their sticks at those little tyrants on boards! ;) Appreciate your content! Keep it coming!

Such good videos mate even as a local the video was super interesting

cannot talk about the Vancouver skate scene wo mentioning Skulls Skates and Red Dragons

The popular skate spot you showed in the beginning of your video was called ‘sweet spot’ and was one the best spot back in the early 90’s you could see the local Vancouver pros like Moses, Colin and Slugo. Don’t forget the Clubhouse a few blocks from main and terminal for those old school skaters in the 604

The greatest positive impact is a connection to people!!! Of course it’s a sport activity but to be socialised and to get more friends and to communicates the crucial thing! This is a real life! Not that one in your cellphones or computer games and social media!!!

Love your videos

This video was very well put together, I really often see video about skating without the terminology of skating.

I live and skate in Vancouver. A few years back, the VPD stopped me from bombing the hill at east Hastings and commercial drive to inform me it was illegal to skate on the road, sidewalks and all public property. They told me to CARRY my board to the skate park hahahahaha i skated off in defiance. As if im going to walk my board, i wasn't even going to the skate park lol guess no one told the VPD about the amendment to the bylaw or they straight up lied to me!

Montreal, and most suburbs around Montreal, banned skateboarding on public streets and sidewalks in the 1960s. I grew up in a Montreal suburb the 1970s, and had no idea what a skateboard was. When I was 7 or 8, I found one of my friend's older brother's old skateboard, and we had no idea what it was. In the 1970s, people were into speed bikes, and the more gears the better. I had a 10-speed bike, and some people had 18-speed bikes. By the 80s people were into mountain biking. Skateboarding made a modest revival in the 1980s, but was really popular from the 1990s on. I think it was because of the introduction of monthly student passes and the switch of many school boards from using yellow school buses for their high school student to just supplying them with monthly student transit passes instead. Then teenagers could get around the city any time anywhere by combining public transit with skateboards, and it was much easier to bring a skateboard onto a metro or bus than a bike. I've noticed in the past 2 years scooters have become popular. I'm talking about the kind of scooters that my generation used when we were 3 to 5 years old, before we learned to ride a bike, except that modern scooters have the same wheels as skateboards and they fold up. They seem to be especially popular with pre-teens, who haven't yet fully mastered the art of skateboarding.

As a skateboarder. Thank you.

it's wild how people can overblow the dangers of skateboarding while totally ignoring the danger of cars

Wish my city had more parks and street stuff to skate, we got like 4 parks in my city

Great video. Cheers

I never connected the hostile architecture of those little notches on rails/benches to skating. I wonder what other things things are out there to dissuade groups of people?

I have the sneaking suspicion that you said skateholders on purpose!

Fantastic video

can tell you did a lot of research before this video, props mate enjoyin the content

ok I think you coined a new term: "Skateholder" a stakeholder who skates. Great video BTW for a non sk8er

Seriously good story telling. Fuck yeah for citizen journalism!!

Awesome video and great intentions! Whoever I wish Vancouver’s government respected this by keeping the “Vans” sponsored permanent skate ledges longer than two weeks. I get that people complained about noise but it’s a city there’s noise. If you live anywhere near gastown or Hastings you’ve come quite accustomed to the herion howls and odd night fireworks but it’s not as simple as pulling the plug on a cool skate spot that benefits the community. Again not wanting to be a negative Nancy. I enjoyed the vid and retro footage cheers!

that is very true, an area with skateboarders are usually a great indication that the area/neighborhood is alive and thriving.

well done.

Awesome video as always, I was losing hope when they skate stopped the art gal but you showed me how that’s not really the case

The Vancouver Skateboard Coalition is why.

man, i could colour grade this awesome video and it would be 20/10

Having spent the majority of my 41 years in and around Vancouver as well as skating for 30+ of those years it has always confused the heck out of me when I see architecture/obstacles built in parks or out of the way areas that would be perfect for skateboarding but are skate stopped? What does this accomplish? For the most part skateboarders and the culture is respectful to neighborhoods and those who live there. Continually pushing youth farther and farther away from the public eye doesn't benefit anyone in the long run. Creating multi use/multi purpose areas in and around Vancouver should be our goal going forward.

Spencer Hamilton made the video! Hell yeah.

Can you do a piece on the Vancouver Community Network. It's a part of the city's history providing Internet access to those who are on a budget. They started in the early 90s (I was a volunteer back at the very beginning) and they are are still going. They still provide a dial-up service if you can believe it.

Vancouver: "Dude" capital of the world. Gotta love it!

Very Nice Video :)

No mention of the indoor Richmond Skate Ranch that opened in the 80s and hosted the 86' competition.

Good spenny footage

Woh, very cool. :)

Great video as always! I know you briefly touched on it, but I think there should be a tad more emphasis on the fact that it recently became an olympic sport, further legitimizing it as an activity that governments should nurture.

Skateboarding is so strongly tied to my idea of Vancouver as a city. It would be so much poorer culture wise without a vibrant skate scene.

Uytae Lee for Vancouver City Major!!! You have my vote.

I lived in Vancouver for a couple of years around 2012. The impression I got of the society there was you were allowed to do anything you like as long as you were not being a dick about it. I remember one time they shut down Granville St on a wendsday so they could run a Skateboard competition. A wendsday! I miss that place

my two fav things

I grew up skateboarding in my teens in the 90's. People sure hated skaters for the most part because of where we would skate but there was barely any skateparks back then and a lot of the ones that were there sucked because they would be bowls but we just wanted to skate "Street" People got it easy nowadays who skate.

Everytime you upload, I miss it in my sub box :(

Not sure how much you know about Robson square and how the hip hop and street dance community has used the covered rink area for decades as a communal area for dancers to gather, practice, and session. It has a long vibrant history for the Van dance community.....and the City of Van is trying to shut it down now. I see parallels with this story - a hub for community to gather and engage in a healthy activity....why on earth is the city trying to stop that now??? Maybe a story for you to explore? Let me know if that interests you. I can put you in touch with the people who are organizing against the city's actions.

Forward thinking!

Uytae doesn't miss!!!

IT HIM ✨

It's also worth noting demographic changes. As time goes on, more of us from the 80s and 90s who grew up with skating as a normal thing are no well into the ages of voting and holding office or influence. More ppl in power just didn't grow up with the negative stigma against skateboarding, snowboarding, rollerblading, BMX, etc.