Skate and create

>> Skateboard entrepreneur gives back to the sport that breaks his body

by PATRICK LEJTENYIENOR

Danny Vezina has been skateboarding half his life and his body probably hates him for it. When asked about his injuries, he counts his current plagues off-handedly: “I’ve got a shoulder that keeps popping out, both my ankles are swollen, I have a hipper, which is a hip full of cartilage and bursitis and blood, and a masonite burn that hasn’t had time to heal.” Because he keeps landing on it.
At 30, the Greenfield Park native has seen a lot of skateboarding. It’s his life, passion and career. He owns Spin Board Shop, a skate store on St-Denis just above Ontario, but has visions beyond retail. If Vezina gets his way, Montreal will soon have a year-round indoor skate park, filling a need made all the more acute by the collapse and fall of the Taz Mahal this summer.
“I’m trying to find an inexpensive, 6,000 square foot space,” he says. Which, as Montreal tenants know, is easier said than done. “There’s so little rent space in the city,” he sighs. “I’ve seen 30 or 40 sites in the last few months,” none of which were right, either because of insurance reasons, ceiling space, or leasing agreements.
Vezina knows the ins and outs of building a park. He thinks he’s built about 30 private and public ones in his 15 years of riding, including the St-Ambroise and Jean-Talon parks. “There’s a long history of carpentry in my family, so I’ve picked up on some family skills,” he says. Given the right space, he thinks that with his fleet of ramps he can get a skate park up and running in four days.
With the Taz’s demise, Vezina feels the needs of local skaters are being pinched, and “wants to give a shout-out to any architects, lawyers, real estate agents, whoever is interested in this project to just get in touch with me through Spin.” They’re in the book. :