Local skateboarding prodigy-turned-professional Joey Jett spent the last year traveling the world and filming with two skateboarding icons. This Saturday, Jett will unveil their finished work at a fundraiser for a new skatepark at Rash Field.
Jett, a 19-year-old Towson native, will appear with with skating legend (and current Black Flag lead singer) Mike Vallely at Bustin Boards inside the Port Covington incubator space City Garage for an art show/film premiere/fundraiser for Jake’s Skatepark. The pair will premiere their new film, “The Dream: The Art of Skateboarding,” and show more than 20 unreleased photos of them skating spots around the world with another skateboarding legend, Mark “Gonz” Gonzales. Jett directed and edited the film, in addition to skating in his own part for it.
The skatepark, to be constructed during the $20 million renovation of Rash Field across from Federal Hill, is named in honor of Jake Owen, a 5-year-old killed in a rear-end accident in 2011 caused by a distracted driver. Stephanie Murdock, president of the nonprofit group Skatepark of Baltimore, told Baltimore Fishbowl last year the design will “incorporate Baltimore street features that kids and young adults are already skating in the city.” The concrete park would be around 8,000 square feet and sit right on the edge of the Inner Harbor, she said.
This weekend’s fundraiser will also include food, beer, DJ sets and a silent auction of special-edition and hand-painted skate decks from Bustin Boards and Vallely himself.
Key Brewing Co., Brewer’s Art and Waverly and Union Craft Brewing will be on-site serving brews, and Pinch Dumplings, Sobo Café, Madame BBQ, Bistro Lunchbox, Mingrub Café and Share Kitchen will support the effort with food. Spike Owen, Jake’s father and a partner in Key Brewing Co., already teamed up with Checkerspot Brewing in South Baltimore and Stillwater Artisanal in Canton to create a specialty India pale lager, with proceeds funding Jake’s Skatepark.
The fundraiser runs from 6-10 p.m. on Saturday at Bustin Boards in City Garage, located at 101 W. Dickman Street. Admission costs $11.53, including one drink ticket; additional drink tickets $6.27.
