Skateboard shop opens on Pier 12
Jeff Chase and Jen Cain, the owners Cypress Skate+Supply, are looking to grow the skateboarding community in Astoria.
The pair’s new shop on Pier 12 blends boards and fashion.
Cypress Skate+Supply
Cypress Skate+Supply has joined the lineup of shops on Pier 12.
A large display of boards has designs from different companies, but the pair are looking to collaborate with local artists, as well, to create skateboard art. The clothes help draw in customers who may not have skated before.
“(We) hang a couple of those things in the window, so they can see that it’s not just skateboarding,” Chase said of Cain’s curated thrift.
Chase, who began skating when he was young, spent a decade teaching at Lake Owen, a summer camp in Wisconsin that emphasized skateboarding, BMX, inline skating and gymnastics. Now closed, the camp drew in young people from around the globe to practice their sports. The skaters had an activity where they would create the art on their boards, something Chase and Cain might bring into camps of their own.
They are also looking to bring awareness to what they say is Astoria’s need for a new skate park, one where beginners and pros can feel comfortable. Astoria has a skate park at Tapiola Park.
“You’re better off going to a parking lot or a tennis court, which is what a lot of skateboard parks are moving to these days,” Chase said. “Kind of seeming like they’re just skate spaces. They’re not 12-foot deep pits that were built 25 years ago, right, you don’t need that stuff so much.”
Both Chase and Cain are originally from Nebraska and have a huge support system there of friends and family. They want to build the skateboarding community in Astoria from the ground up, starting with camps for local skaters.
“Normally with skateboarding, you can go anywhere, and ... either you know somebody because of skateboarding or you meet someone and then you immediately know that person well because they skateboard,” Chase said. “There isn’t a real good place to skate. There is a skatepark and it is big, but it’s old. And it’s not very inviting.”