Unlocking Memories and Uncovering Mysteries Because These Guys Crushed It
A POV of Polar Skate Co. Portland.
I made an abrupt decision to exit the service industry in the summer of 2018 and make an honest effort to put my journalism degree to use. Exploding with nervous energy after sending the “I quit” text, I laced up some bone-white sneakers and hit the pavement.
As if the internet didn’t exist, I hopped on the train and went downtown looking for a job.
I hit the bricks like someone would be handing out copywriter jobs at a folding table.
That plan failed immediately, and I walked around Portland looking at skate spots. We blew it at some point had recently come out, so I walked the Emile mile from Magic 5 to 5th and Main.
The three-mile walk the rest of the way home took me through the Moda Center. I imagined maybe I could run the Blazer’s social media or something.
I got home and took a look at jobs for the upcoming season. I wasn’t ready for Director of Basketball Communications or Talent Acquisition Partner, but I coasted my way into a box office role.
Selling tickets and taking a peak behind the curtain was fun, but it was part-time work at best. I signed up for another job, which, by some miracle, was across the street from Moda.
The second job was for a non-profit that made meals for other non-profits. My duty involved transporting lunch to senior centers, schools, and sober living houses. I got to drive all over the city and discover more spots. After a month, I closed my window at the box office and set up full-time in the transport van.
Seeing the Polar team on a regular basis was the highlight of that job. It was wild how often I saw Emile climbing a telephone pole or shooting an ad.
Aaron Herrington ollied a bump to bar in a parking lot while I unloaded some coffee Cambros inside for a AA meeting.
Nick Rios clapped for my noseslide once, but I’ve never encountered Dane Brady.
I almost took out Nick Boserio in traffic twice. Eye-witness report: That push after the trick he does is very real.
One of those times, I inched in traffic back to my headquarters. Boserio blazed through cars headed for the Moda area. An hour later, I clocked out and saw him returning to his vehicle with a filmer in tow.
This peak behind the curtain was a bit more somber, and judging by the look of defeat, not the right time to say what up.
Sounds Like You Guys Are Crushing It opens on the Moda Center campus at the Memorial Coliseum’s employee entrance, a.k.a. The Glass Palace.
I had to congratulate Boserio on indeed crushing it. I had to mention this moment I assumed was one of the opening attempts.
“If I was looking defeated, I would have been finishing rehab at the physical therapy place at Moda Center,” says Boserio. “I looked at that drop-in twice a week for like nine months while I recovered from ACL surgery–thinking about how I should do it.”
Man, I was selling tickets to Ja Rule and Ashanti across the hallway from the rehab center. In all my moments of extreme boredom, I never saw the potential of that spot.
“I used to pull up and walk up there or just hang out looking at it from the car park quite often,” says Boserio with a laugh.
In the content juggernaut we live in, it’s encouraging to see a company like Polar take the time to release a proper full-length. After waiting four years for another production, SLYGACI is an event.
Tricks with this much planning and backstory deserve these moments, and Pontus Alv knows how to edit accordingly. I’ve tried to break down what makes a good skate video song, but I’ll go on a limb and say it’s not getting any better than this opener.
There’s a story that the Chicago Bulls announcer heard “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project while sitting in a movie theater. He knew it would bang. It sparked a new standard in introducing an event to a crowd.
After spreading like wildfire through NBA arenas, skateboarding tried to harness the power of the same instrumental anthem within the opening sequence of Street Cinema. It worked for the time being.
However, Alv, a remix and a well-planned trick from Boserio, gave skateboarding in 2022 an event.
It’s reported that this is the last Alv-helmed production. Hopefully, we can get something in the works to get Hjalte out to the PNW. I’m trying to see something.
I work from home now, and I made that degree honest. I don’t get to see skateboarding in the wild casually, but I have the memories. Salute to the guys who crushed it and gave me something to remember.