On Go Skateboarding Day 2026, as I was filming kids trying their tricks through countless attempts, Rudolfs Henčels (as if he had read my mind) came up to me and said, “Back in the day, this wouldn’t happen, because Egons would tell every kid, ‘Nemāk skeitot, neskeito’ (Eng. ‘If you can’t skate, don’t’), and they would just go sit in the corner.” Rudolfs’ comment wasn’t really about the kids. It was about a time when Egons set the tone at skate events.
Egons Avots was, as I remember him, the loudest and most intimidating person at skate events. He would cheer people on, but he would also talk shit as loudly as possible. “Nemāk skeitot, neskeito” was his most iconic phrase, one that traumatized the minds of young skaters who didn’t commit. He was passionate about skateboarding and expected you to be just as passionate. If you weren’t, you had to step aside.
Skateboarding today is much more accepting than it was in Egons’ time. On the one hand, some people might say skateboarding has become softer. On the other hand, many of the kids who spent an hour trying a trick eventually landed it. But back then, such gatekeeping filtered people. If you kept skating after being told off, you probably were doing it because you loved skateboarding. A lot of the people who survived that era are still skating today. That’s not to say gatekeeping made them better, but it became part of the culture they grew up in.
Despite his tough-love attitude, Egons remains forever ingrained in the minds of the skaters from his era.
He had his own vision of skateboarding, his own tricks, and his own style. He had a unique personality that made him stand out. He did things his own way. For example, Egons became the first skateboarding coach in Latvia and, moreover, the first one to earn a certification in sports education. My friends and I never went to his training sessions because skate schools weren’t really a thing back then, and they definitely weren’t considered cool. But he did it anyway.
I remember seeing him at the Salaspils skatepark, coaching kids while also working as the park supervisor. One of my strongest memories is of Egons sitting on a bench at the skatepark, reading a book between coaching sessions while keeping an eye on everything around him. That was probably the first time I had ever seen a skateboarder reading a book.
Like many skateboarders of his era, Egons doesn’t have a huge amount of footage online. Some clips are scattered around the internet, and one of his best video parts—from Salaspils Battle—was unfortunately deleted from YouTube. Luckily, his skate buddy Mārcis Ruiķis filmed a sponsor-me tape that we can still enjoy today. In it, Egons skates at Grīziņkalns Skatepark, Salaspils Skatepark, and the legendary flatground at Kronvalda Park.
Enjoy!
P.s. We plan to have a little screening for GSD 2026 vid next Saturday. More info soon