Andrew Grabowski grew up around the Syracuse skate scene. He’d been skating since he was a toddler, and eventually became an established professional skateboarder in central New York.

After Grabowski passed away in June, Flower Skate Shop along with the non-profit Skate4Drew, created by Grabowski’s father, held a skate competition and video presentation Sunday in honor of his life. Skate4Drew aims to raise funds and spend them in a way Grabowski would’ve supported.

The original plan for the event was to hold a competition and raffles at the Ormand Spencer Park before the congregation of skateboarders would ride downtown to the Everson Museum of Art to watch a video celebrating Grabowski’s life.

But in true central New York fashion, rain moved the competition inside.

“Events like this, it’s kind of bittersweet. It’s a bummer that we can’t go to the original idea, but we make the best of it,” said Charlie Giancola, a co-owner of Flower. “A bunch of dudes came from Rochester and Albany, so I’m glad they still came out rain or shine.”

Syracuse skateboarders played a game of SKATE — the skateboarding equivalent to the basketball game HORSE — in front of Flower Skate Shop on Sunday. Skaters threw down all kinds of tricks, such as backside flips, fakeyflips and nollie shuvs.

While the organizers tried to find a new place to skate at Flower, the skaters decided to stay right there in McCarthy Mercantile, where the shop is located. For John More, one of the owners of Flower, the feeling of community is exactly what Grabowski, whose birthday is on Sept. 27, was all about.

“This is what (Drew) would be down for,” More said. “He would want this sh*t to be happy. He had such an impact on people that we’re skating in a basement. If that doesn’t say something, this is dope for what it is.”

Cris Moore, the secretary of Skate4Drew, first met Grabowski when they were teenagers and said he wants to try to benefit the skate community as best he can in Grabowski’s honor.

“One thing that Drew’s tunnel vision was on was improving the skateboard scene in Syracuse and just giving back to the skate community,” Moore said. “He almost had this anger about him when anybody in Syracuse seemed to be making a profit off of skateboarding, ‘cause he wanted it back into the community.”

At the event, vendors from within the skate community set up their products and art outside the shop, and Skate4Drew sold merchandise that said “Drew Forever.”

Moore, with the help of members of the community, produced a video that spanned Grabowski’s decades-long skating career, showcasing how his style developed over the years. Organizers also included clips from a skate sesh among local skaters a few days prior to the event.

Reed Schuster, a local skater, said that while the event for Grabowski was a great time, he wished the circumstances could be different.

“We don’t always just come together like this and it sucks that everybody comes together when something terrible like this happens instead of just out of love skateboarding,” Schuster said. “At the end of the day, I’m just grateful that we’re doing this.”

After skating at Flower, the attendees relocated to the Everson Museum of Art, a well known skate spot for locals because of its layout and architecture. Skate4Drew projected the video of Grabowski onto the north facade of the museum, allowing for a large congregation of viewers to gather on the pavilion to reminisce on the impact Grabowski had on the community.

Skate4Drew plans on having more events in the future and wants to continue improving the Syracuse skate community.

“We’re doing it as a way to primarily celebrate Drew’s life,” Moore said. “But also as a way to have events that we can raise capital to spend in the way that Drew would have wanted.”

Published on September 26, 2022 at 10:38 pm