Terrified of what the other kids might think of him, Zac cowered, stuck in a stare-down with a jump ramp. For one day only, the students of North Middle School in Everett were allowed to bring their skateboards to school. The teachers had miraculously agreed to let their wood shop class craft a ramp for the skaters to try out for the field day.
Zac had been skating for a few years at that point, but still felt small next to the “cool” kids. He came from a broken family and was dirt poor. His meals sometimes consisted of boxes of milk his father would bring home from jail. Though Zac’s self-esteem was minuscule, he couldn’t stand the stillness for another second. He took a sharp breath in and threw down his board, picking up speed towards the ramp. For a moment, the barreling of wheels on rough concrete paused. Zac flew up the plywood, floating through the air before the wheels hit the ground, his feet planted firmly over them.
“Skateboarding saved my life,” says Zac Garza, owner of Unknown Board Shop.
That field day in 1988, Zac realized that it didn’t matter how put together or well-off the other kids were—the only thing that can make a better skater is practice. Garza loves how all he needs are street clothes, a street, and a board with four wheels to enjoy skateboarding.
Now that Garza has his own skate shop, he makes an effort to minimize financial barriers to skateboarding. Retired skaters often donate boards that Garza is able to give to kids who need help starting out. Andrew Rohlfing, a local skater, says Garza loaned him trucks and wheels until he could pay him back. Rohlfing loves how Garza will sit with customers to show them skate videos and let them know about cool skating spots around town.
“He’s probably one of the most positively impactful people that I’ve had on my skating journey,” Rohlfing says.
Another local skater, Kevin Arellano-Yanez, says he often finds himself talking with Garza for hours at his shop.
“Zac is like every skater’s dad, honestly, everyone in town goes to him,” Arellano-Yanez says. “He always gives you the best advice.”
Along with skate videos and good conversation, Garza offers local artists the opportunity to design board decks. Throughout his 20 years of owning the skate shop, he has worked with hundreds of artists to showcase their work, meeting many of them in his shop. Garza sees the act of skating as an art form that each skater interprets differently.
“Your fashion or your sense of who you are just comes out, you skate that way. You can’t change it,” Garza says. “Everyone’s so different, and it comes out in your skateboarding.”
Garza also designs many of the hoodies, t-shirts, and hats that he sells, mirroring skater fashion trends while staying true to local history and identity. Although, as Garza sees it, to have style as a skater, shoes, clothes, and board decks don’t matter much.
“The cool thing about skateboarding is not giving a crap what people think about you. When you have your own passion and your own skill,” Garza says, “you just don’t give a crap about what other people think, cause you’re doing you.”
302 W. Champion St., Bellingham, 360.306.8780, unknownboardshop.weebly.com
Photograph by Malia Fraser
