Owen Shortt

Owen was 7 when his mom bought him his first skateboard. Luckily for Owen, his uncle Randy is a skateboarder and made a point of teaching him the basics. The other thing Owen has going for him is his mom, who drives him and his younger brother Hunter to their favorite skatepark in Cloverdale. Why last year she even took them on a skateboard road trip to the Bellevue, Washington Indoor Skateboard Park, where she bought both boy’s new skateboards. Although this will be Owen’s first freestyle contest, he did compete this past fall at the Canada Skateboard All-On-Board Contest at Granville Island. “I didn’t place that well, but I won some prizes and got a Participation Certificate.” For the past four years, their family has gone to the World Round-Up, where he was introduced to freestyle. This past year he got to meet lots of the pros, including Isamu Yamamoto. He also got lots of signatures on his skateboard, which now hangs on the wall in his bedroom. He studies Youtube and Instagram videos picking up freestyle tips on how to do tricks.

Owen is In 7th grade at Langley Fine Arts School, his favorite subject, of course, is art. He loves to draw graffiti art and work on his plans for the Ambulance he is going to convert into a home when he is old enough. He was inspired when he saw that one of his idols, Andy Anderson, had an ambulance that he lived in while touring all the California Skateparks. Owen told me, “I am going to hang hammocks from the metal studs in the ambulance, so all my friends can come to, and I have designed a concrete block stove in one corner so we can keep warm on Snowboard Road Trips.” Besides skateboarding and snowboarding Owen also plays Hockey once a week with his friends at the local ice rink. The other thing Owen loves is music, he played the guitar for three year at his school then one day decide he wanted to play the saxophone. Played that for a year, then decided there were too many kids playing the saxophone at his school, so he started playing the Trombone. His mom says he can’t read music at all, but plays by ear, something he does really well, and his teachers agree.

I have a feeling we are going to see big things from Owen in the future, but for now, he is content to skateboard and check out Craig’s List for used Ambulances.