Skateboards, Community, and Culture: Rockstar Energy Open Kicks Off Portland with 200 Boards for Local Kids

Kicking off the action on Friday, the Rockstar Energy Open’s Community Day brought the feel-good vibes with skateboards, helmets and more being given away to local kids. How else would you expect a free event in downtown Portland, Oregon to get underway?

With their efforts combined, Exposure Skate and Super Skate Posse set up tents next to each other, offering 200 complete skateboards and helmets up for grabs. By partnering with the local chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, local kids were given early access wristbands to get into the event and claim a board on a first-come, first-served basis.

Super Skate Posse is a nonprofit on a mission to remove the cost barrier and provide access to skateboarding in underserved communities. In addition to the completes and helmets, they teamed up with adidas and Stance to hook up 100 pairs of shoes and socks for the kids, too. Over the course of a year, Super Skate Posse runs 12 giveaways across the country, reaching at least 1,200 kids!

Also a nonprofit, Exposure Skate is dedicated to empowering women, girls, and nonbinary individuals through skateboarding and education. A well-known name in Southern California, Exposure was tapped by Dave & Buster’s to help organize the assembly of completes and to hand-paint 100 skateboards and helmets as part of their company retreat. Exposure was stoked to coordinate the build session and bring the goods to RSEO.

On Sunday, the nonprofit Boarding for Breast Cancer will host a learn-to-skate session, so every kid who scored a board on Friday can get their first pushes in—with a little help from some friends.

Beyond the giveaways, the Culture Village opened up the venue to the public about two hours after Community Day early access. Local skate shops—Tactics, Rips Co Skate Shop and Cal Skate—all rolled in with their own tents, showing that the local scene was on site and in full support. Cal Skate even had an extra tent set up with instruments for people to jump in and jam at their leisure.

Packed with food trucks, merch tents, and activities to stoke out the masses, the Culture Village was the perfect hangout for locals and pros alike. Wrapping up the day was an autograph signing with Rockstar street pros Chris Joslin, Braden Hoban, Paige Heyn and, last year’s RSEO winner, Lazer Crawford.