Words and photos by Zach Moeller

The second that Slow Impact 2024 was officially announced I bought a ticket to Phoenix and started dreaming of skating curbs while sweating in a tee shirt. What doesn’t sound good about escaping the east coast winter and heading to the desert to meet up with people who are equally as consumed and enamored with skateboarding?

This year was the second time Slow Impact went down, and while it grew in attendance, the general premise remained the same: a group of skate nerds travel from all over the world and meet up in Tempe, AZ to learn from one another, enjoy some sunshine, make new friends, see old ones, and most importantly go skate. 

Hosted and put together by Ryan Lay (with generous support from his friends, family, and a number of sponsors), Slow Impact brought out those of us who are completely and utterly obsessed with skating and everything revolving around it. This event had something for everyone. Panels on various topics were scheduled throughout the weekend and gave spectators the opportunity to hear some of skateboarding’s brightest minds dig into an array of topics through a more academic lens. For those looking to let loose, chants of “see you at Casey’s!” were abundant, and several events were planned at local drinking establishments. And, of course, most of the time was spent skating spots around Tempe. 

The weekend started out with “Skateboarding and Palestine,” a powerful panel hosted by Ruba Akkad that featured members of the Palestinian skateboarding community, including Zaid Arikat, Maen Hammad (everyone should read his Op-Ed piece On skateboarding, solidarity, and Palestine) and Omar Hattab, who was visiting all the way from the occupied West Bank. The panel discussed skateboarding as a radical act under occupation and how it can be used as a tool for liberation.

This was followed by a meetup at Mitchell Skate Park, where welcome dances were performed by members of the Gila River Indian Community before Douglas Miles Sr. of Apache Skateboards gave welcoming remarks and reminded attendees that no matter where in the U.S. we were, we are skating on Native land. The session kicked off, and everyone skated the park until the sun went down.

That night, Sam Kormin hosted The Great Skate Debate, probing some of the most pressing topics in skateboarding discourse. What’s the validity of skatepark skating? Were the ‘90s the golden age of skating? Is it a varial heelflip or a heelflip shove-it? The whole bar quickly became invested as opinions were duked out. 

Following Paper Sessions (an opportunity for emerging academics to share their findings on different topics), the next morning started off with “Sober Skaters,” a panel hosted by Kristin Ebeling that looked at how panel members’ (Chandler Burton, Patrick O’Dell, Rosie Archie, and Neen Williams) lives and skating have improved with sobriety. Irony was not lost that many in the audience were nursing hangovers from the night before, and while brave personal stories were shared, there was no judgement or holier-than-thou attitudes passed onto the more party-inclined in attendance. The panel wrapped up and everyone hit the streets to go skate.

Tempe has an impressive amount of good stuff to skate. Ryan and his crew put together an awesome spot book for participants to reference, and it was rad to see so many crews all over the city. At one point there were so many heads skating ASU’s campus that the cops looked visibly unsure of how to handle the rolling onslaught as they frantically drove around trying to chase us out.

There were two video premieres over the weekend: Ryan Sherman’s Lands End, a documentary in association with the Ben Raemers Foundation that follows Barney Page as he skates across the UK, and a new installment of Patrick O’Dell’s Epicly Later’d series. I won’t spoil who the subject is before the episode comes out, but using context clues from the weekend, you can probably figure it out.

There was also an art show featuring work from Marbie Miller and Jeff Cheung, as well as the release of Mess Mag issue 4, which was received with critical acclaim. 

Day three started with “That’s The One!”, a look into Matt Price’s legendary photography techniques and history behind the lens. Matt did no gatekeeping, sharing his methods, stories, and opinions on photography’s place in the modern skateboarding landscape.

We hit the streets again for a few hours, before a live reading event was hosted by Kyle Beachy that gave nine skaters the opportunity to share their writing with each other and a small audience. 

Everyone reconvened at Cornish Pasty for some live music. Sean Bonnette of AJJ played covers of songs from notable skate parts while artistic renditions of the parts played behind him. Literal tears were shed in the crowd while Bonnette sang “Nights in White Satin” as Heath Kirchart’s silhouette leapt down hubbas on screen. Jokamundo offered some rhythmic bangers during a solid rap set, and then things got funky with Pijama Piyama’s psychedelic groove as the night closed out.

The last day of the event featured Ted Barrow hosting “Creative Destruction,” a panel that explored the ways architecture and urban design influence skateboarding, featuring Chris Giamarino, Michael Barker, and the guys from Skate Ecosystems. Following a fascinating talk on the possibilities (and complexities) that arise when designing and repurposing public space with skateboarding in mind, Ryan announced the weekend’s superlative winners (weekend MVPs, gnarliest slam, the Chris Senn “fast and sketchy” award, etc) and everyone headed out to the Wedge spot in Scottsdale for one final session. People had the option to skate two separate 21-foot ride-on grinds or a manual pad across the famous gap, as well as various other obstacles off to the side if you didn’t want to be in the spotlight. Regardless of skill level, everyone was hyped on each other’s tricks, and smiles were seen all around as the sun went down and the event wrapped up with a massive group photo.

Slow Impact provided a space for enlightening, painful, humbling, and hilarious conversations. Throughout the event, I met some really great people and saw everyone around me do the same. Thank you to Ryan Lay, everyone who spoke on a panel, Cowtown, Skate After School, and the Tempe skate scene (among many, many others) for organizing such an awesome weekend. I can’t be sure Slow Impact will happen again, but if it does one thing is certain – I’ll definitely be there.