We had been hearing rumors that a “new skate shop” might open up somewhere in Hammond, and it turns out that chatter was correct, partially. Although the shop that plans on moving in does indeed sell skateboards, they’re anything but a skate shop… they’re an “Action Sports” store, meaning that they sell blades, bikes, pogo sticks, dildos, or whatever else happens to be trendy at the moment.

     Let me back up for a second… I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll put out some facts first. Kerry at one time worked for the shop in question, and I myself was sponsored by them after my old local sponsor here in Hammond went out of business (Bike Zone). We always knew that the store was cheesy (catering to the !!!XTREME SPORTS!!! MTV-style retardedness), and we knew the owner was pretty harmless; he was a non skateboarding kook, but he was harmless. I say that because his shop, as corny as the place was, served its purpose… It was the only place close by to purchase skateboard equipment, so most locals skaters really didn’t have a choice… you had to drive all the way to New Orleans or Baton Rouge to get equipment (which I actually started doing after I realized that being sponsored by “that shop” was like being sponsored by K-Mart).

     After a long stretch, Kerry and Chris decided to go on their own and make something happen in Hammond… not to make money, but to support and maintain a healthy skate scene. They started off with Hammond’s first real skatepark with a full-on pro shop (no offense to Ribando’s, but they only had one real ramp). Not too long after that, Kerry and Chris busted their asses again to set up a kick ass shop in downtown Hammond… again, not to turn a big profit, but to invest into the skate scene… and that’s exactly what they did.

     Kerry, with the support of local skaters, started a program of sorts to get used skateboards and skate other gear in the hands of underprivileged kids and other skaters who were just down on their luck. I got news for you… skateshops don’t give away boards to kids because they’re trying to get rich, they do it because they want kids to skate. The same mentality went into the ‘Coop (Small Time’s Skatepark)… if you really wanted to skate but you were broke, you skated anyway. Why would a business do this? Because Kerry and Chris are skaters, and they don’t give a shit about anything but skateboarding, skateboarders and keeping the scene alive.

      As all of you already know, Small Time Skates had a direct role in getting the Dreamland park designed and built. The shop partnered with the city and got the job done, not once, but twice (with the inclusion of the street section). Now sit down and think about this… a skate shop that has a pay-at-the-door based skatepark fought to get a free skatepark built? Yes, yes they did. Everyone knew that a free skatepark would put a dent in the small amount of money generated by the ‘Coop, but like I said before, it wasn’t about money… it was about the skating. Since the Dreamland park opening, Hammond has become a haven for skateboarders… we have the places to ride, and the one shop in town wasn’t there to screw you over.

     All of this leads me to the point of this post… you know the cheesy-ass Action Sports shop I mentioned earlier? Well, they’ve decided to rent out the old Boy’s club building across the street from Dreamland and open a shop. Yes, you heard me correctly… a non skater-owned company is setting up a shop three blocks away from not only a skater-owned business, but a business that’s responsible for everything you like about skating in Hammond. By doing what they’re about to do, they’re not the harmless company that they used to be… now they’re here, stepping on our toes, and spitting in our faces. Make no mistake, not one dime of the money made by this new shop will go back into promoting skating. They’re parasites, they suck, and quite frankly, if you decide to use them as your local shop, then you suck too.

To the new shop in town, this is all I have to say: