THEY KNOW HOW TO PUT ON A SHOW
They are two former skateboarders who still get up and ride. They are guys who took the risk of trying to live their dream, and made it happen. Jamie Kimball and Konrad X Rotermund are partners who make up Mainstream Marketing, the genius organizers behind the Concrete Rodeo.
Few outside the skateboard community have heard of it, but Concrete Rodeo is one of the biggest skateboard tours in the world. It started four years ago with four contests. It now has 37 contests in 17 states, open to skaters of any age or ability. The winners are invited to the Nationals, which will be held in Battleground, Washington August 24-25. Prizes include backpacks, skateboards, Skull Candy earbuds and impressive medals.
Kimball says of the tour, "I think it's in the growth stage, it's not nearly as big as it's going to get."
The duo's timing is perfect. Skateboarding is exploding as a sport; it hasn't been this big since it first emerged in the early '60's. Jaimie says, "It's definitely experiencing a resurgence. Cities are building more skateparks now, and kids are using them. Concrete Rodeo only stops at public skateparks.
The sport was recently helped by the death-defying splat of Jake Brown in the X Games. The elite skater was about 50 feet in the air when he lost his board and fell, flailing, to the hardwood floor of the quarterpipe below. He got up and walked away. The spectacular fall was shown on news shows throughout the country.
Organizing a tour of contests in any sport is difficult. A million details have to be ironed out to make sure everything comes out well.
Jaime describes Mainstream Marketing as a grassroots event management and sports marketing agency, with Concrete Rodeo being its most intensive event. He says, "You have to secure a place (park), you have to work through the venue, create a marketing plan to get the word out, not only to the athletes but the general public. You have to secure partners in the event, provide all the info to athletes. I work with 37 cities in the CR tour. Every single one of them operates differently. Just the simple act of working with a government body is a process in itself."
That's not even counting the required and complicated expense of insurance. Putting the Rodeo together is a year round job. Jaime will begin drafting next summer's schedule in September.
Kimball and Rotermund formed Mainstream Marketing two years ago, but both worked on major ski events for many years before that. Both are instrumental in organizing the annual Deer Valley freestyle World Cup; and both learned their organizing skills at the highest level possible; the Olympics. Konrad has been involved with winter Olympic freestyle skiing since the 1998 Nagano Games; Jaime worked at Salt Lake's 2002 Games freestyle venue at Deer Valley. They each took a risk by abandoning their day jobs to create Mainstream Marketing, but it has paid off.
"Mainstream is our full time business. We make enough to take care of our families; this is what we do to survive. We are into providing opportunities for youth sports," Kimball says.
Whether it's a four-year-old trying his first set of moguls or teenage girl learning to skateboard, Mainstream is involved on every level of both sports.
Kimball explains, "Konrad and I were skateboarding most of our lives, we went to skateparks ever since they started being built. Running the Concrete Rodeo has definitely rejuvenated my passion for skateboarding."
"It's addicting," Kimball says of the sport he loves.
What also must be addicting is the satisfaction that comes from creating a career in that sport, one that pays both the athletes and the organizers and is making a big name for Mainstream Marketing and the two skaters behind it.