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Nice Kicks: Focusing on the event, how did the All Nations Skate Jam come about?
Todd Harder: I started the All Nations Skate Jam and this will be our seventh year. The reason I got it started was to try to help inspire, motivate, and give direction to some our Native American kids around the country and use skateboarding as a tool to reach them. I’ve been a skateboarder my entire life and I know all the benefits that it did for me. I got a hold of one of my buddies, Bill Danforth, and we decided to do this event.
Nice Kicks: Why Albuquerque?
Todd Harder: The All Nations Skate Jam is the same weekend as the Gathering of the Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque. This Pow Wow draws over 200,000 people. We knew that a lot of kids that were skating on the reserves probably couldn’t get a ride to the Skate Jam if there wasn’t something else to piggyback on. It’s just taken off like crazy. We have over 300 kids each year competing and five to six thousand people roaming around for the two days. That’s not too bad for an amateur skateboarding event.
Steve Van Doren & Todd Harder (far right) at the All Nations Skate JamNice Kicks: What makes skateboarding such a great activity for the youth?
Todd Harder: It tests your personal strengths and will power. It’s not a team sport, so you can’t depend on someone else to pick up the slack for you. If you’re gonna do it in skateboarding, you’ve gotta do it. Skateboarding also provides opportunities that these other sports don’t. You don’t see many formal players in basketball or football that own a team. In skateboarding, the majority of teams or companies are owned by old skateboarders. We build from within and around our sport. For our kids, skateboarding really helps test that warrior spirit in them. Our kids used to be taught how to hunt and survive. That warrior spirit is still in their blood memory. We believe they have that DNA in their blood but we don’t have such ways to be tested. When the kids and their families were put on the reservation the government didn’t let them do any of that. Well now, we see it as a different age. This is a new beginning, that Morning Star for our people. Skateboarding has taken off like crazy in this country, because of those factors. It really tests these kids. You’ve gotta be fit, you’ve gotta be healthy, and you’ve gotta have that mental control. That’s what a lot of our old warrior ways were. I really see a lot of similarities between the two. These kids need it, they long for it.
Nice Kicks: At an event like the All Nations Skate Jam, what’s the competitive atmosphere like?
Todd Harder: Skateboarding always has been a sport where there were always guys that were going to beat you and you wanted to beat them next contest. But, you where there cheering them on or hitting the board on the coping when they would bust out a sweet trip. You were always in support of them. No one’s sitting there begrudging them, it’s just never been the way our sport’s been. You were cheering them on as much as the crowd was even if you were competing against them. It’s very evident in our contest that the groups that come aren’t like organized teams but in skateboarding they’re almost family. They come and they cheer everybody on. That’s one of the unique things about skateboarding that I’ve always loved. If you miss a trick, everybody’s cheering for you to try it again because they want to see you nail it. It’s a cool, unique thing about our sport and our way of life.
Nice Kicks: What do you want kids to take from the Nibwaakaawin x Vans collection and the All Nations Skate Jam?
Todd Harder: It’s a lot to just keep getting inspired. ‘Keep moving forward.’ That’s my biggest phrase in life. That’s one of the messages that we teach those kids there. Keep moving forward. Find your goals and make your goals a reality. We let them know that anything can happen. When you think back to how big Vans shoes are, it was just a couple of guys that started it and wanted to make some shoes. So I always tell the kids, you can do anything, these guys just wanted to make shoes. Look at what they’re doing now? They’re still making shoes! [Laughs] They’re making a lot more shoes, but they’ve developed a way of life. They’ve helped build industries. They’ve done huge things. Even the help that they’ve given us. For Vans, it’s a little drop in the bucket, a pebble in the ocean. But the ripple effect that it’s made not just for our organization but all across Indian country has tribal leaders looking at it more and thinking maybe we should build a skate park for our kids. It’s really added some weight that’s made us legitimate. That’s one of those messages that I like the kids to know: all it takes is one little pebble, you’ve gotta be that person to throw that pebble in the water.
Nibwaakaawin x Vans 2013 CollectionThe Nibwaakaawin x Vans 2013 Capsule Collection will launch this weekend at the All Nations Skate Jam.
