Thrasher Magazine

When Chloe and Mahfuz from Architecture asked me to help put on the First Annual Abloh Skateboard Invitational, I was so down. Virgil loved skating and he always let the world know this, whether it was in his footwear/apparel designs or getting Lucien Clarke a shoe on Louis Vuitton. I also recall him having Ishod Wair, Stevie Williams, Evan Mock and Kareem Campbell walking a runway and helping with the build of Ghana’s first skatepark. The list goes on and on. So we got the Virgil dream team to put on a demo at Lot 11 in Miami with pros like Eric Koston, P-Rod, Alphonzo Rawls, Sal Barbier, Ishod Wair and so many more A-listers. Leading up it, his friends all agreed that Virgil would be freaking out about this, and I know somewhere he is. Inviting the people of Miami to hang and watch some of the best skateboarding on Earth only made it that much better. Scroll through to see the magic from this year’s event. —Atiba Jefferson

Just a small sample of the line walking in

Love seeing Virgil’s son Grey on a skateboard

First up, we got Eric Koston rocking the mic       photo: O’Connor

Then it's straight to the course. P-Rod warms it up with a nosegrind      photo O’Connor

Great turnout for Virgil

Marcos Montoya gets a back Smith on the Abloh ledge

Bringing worlds together, we got Pedro, Dashawn, Mahfuz, Benji, Bita and his amazing wife Shannon

Lowe, Grey and Shannon enjoying the demo

Community organizer and ripper in her own right, Briana King gets her roll on

Dashawn hits it with a long front feeble

Koston made sure everyone got paid for their tricks

The masterminds behind today's occasion—Chloe, Mahfuz and Benji

Local homie with a $20 varial heelflip

Nikolai pop shoves through the crowd

Over in the bowl, it was great to see the legend Sal Barbier scooping some backside airs

The always-stylish and not-so-superstitious Alf with a red-topped back Smith

Keeping the session stoked, we had Miami’s finest DJ DZA on the ones and twos

Gettin' in on the action, Koston Smiths the deep end in his Sandy Bodecker eBay Dunks. Bid on this!

P-Rod is for the kids

Nichole Hause catches a fakie stalefish

Some great kids got free shirts

Florida legend Blake Carpenter with a big nollie 180 into the replica triangle 

Good vibes all day with Mahfuz and Koston

Let's take a skate break to catch up with some familiar faces. Looks like we got switch gods Blake and P-Rod 

H-Street reunion—Alf, Koston and Sal

Honored to have Jim Thiebaud in the building

A lot of positive energy with these two—Jim and Theotis

The homies in the green room, Sal, NAK, P-Rod, Theotis and KB

The green room party continues—Glen, Lui, Koston, Jolly and Dashawn

So many dope shirts for the invitational

KB, Thomas and Ishod catch a hang before the stair session

Put on your jumping boots...

"Let's get it, let's get it, let's go!"

Chris Blake with a big 50-50 over the whole thing

Ishod coasts through a smooth nollie crooks

Florida man Jamie Foy always finds his front crooks

Switch heel was just one of the many tricks Robert Neal did down the set

So many homies itchin' to skate

Ish with the smooth fakie flip

Malto switch flipping for the people’s phones

"You wanna skate this thing, Eric?"

Dashawn with the kickflip demo ender, fatty to flatty

Theotis and Sal, all they need next time is two mics

Let's close it out with the group photo. Grey and Lowe, ya’ll got a lot of pro skater friends now!

Thanks to all the skaters, Chloe, Mahfuz, Architecture, Jolly, Kasper, everyone at Nike, Lot 11, the Andrew crew, Shanon, Grey, Lowe and the whole Abloh family. I can’t wait to do it again next year.