The good people in skateboarding are some of the best people on earth. Kinetic Skateboarding is owned and operated by just those people: true skaters supporting their local scene. Kinetic shines with the positivity that comes from lives dedicated to skating. Ben and Brannon (Kinetic’s owners) are diehards that want nothing more than to see skating thrive and to keep you rolling. Whether you’re a sponsored am or a grom coming in for your first setup you’ll get the same warm greeting and the same quality attention to all your needs. Skaters looking out for skaters, that’s what makes Kinetic so special. That’s as real as it gets and that’s what you’ll notice the second you walk in the door.
- Adam Salo

What’s up with the pic of the people making out in a car? Got a good caption for that one?
Brannon: We were driving to a spot the other day to try and shoot some photos and the couple starts getting hot and heavy, I guess our sticker really gets them going.

 

 

 

 

 

How did the idea to do a shop come about?
Ben: Brannon and I have been skating together since we were 16 we also worked at a shop in Newark Delaware together called Switch. We would always talk about how awesome it would be if we opened up a shop of our own and how we would do things differently than other shops in the area. We both graduated from college and Brannon moved to North Wilmington on the same street the shop is located now. He kept talking about how their were a bunch of kids who lived around him that skated and the only place they had to get skate stuff was a ski shop. So spring of 2002 we started working on getting Kinetic going. We wrote a business plan got a loan found a space and made it happen.

 

What has changed the most since then?
As far as the shop goes, three years ago we expanded into the space next door and made the shop twice as big. And all of the kids who started hanging out at the shop when they were 11 or 12 are bigger then us and graduating from High School. We also started kineticskateboarding.com in hopes to prevent kids from supporting stores or websites that are not run by skateboarders.

What was your first skateboard?
Ben: My first board was a hand me down Blockhead deck I got from my friend Kevin with blue Tracker Ultra Lights and some red wheels that I bought off some kid with a dirt stash for $10.
Brannon: I started skating when I was 5 so my dad got me a Nash Sawblade from Toys’R’Us, I broke 8 of them so I got a upgrade to Variflex. I bought a Hosoi hammerhead used for $10 and rode it with Variflex trucks and wheels for several years, until I got in trouble and my dad sawed it in half.

Where is the ramp with the brick coping and when do I get to skate it?
Ben: It’s in a secret location in Philadelphia. When ever you come and visit we’ll take you skating. That place is so good to have in the winter.
Brannon: It is 5 blocks from my house come out with Tony T. and Hewitt, I want to see some destruction.

Give me some info about the Wilmington/Delaware skate scene. What’s going on with your team? How is the video coming?
The scene here is good in some ways not so good in other ways just like any other town. There are lots of kids that skate unfortunately we have almost nothing in the way of decent skate parks and a lot of the best spots especially in downtown have been ripped out. Fortunately skateboarders are resourceful, there are always new spots to be found or built. Our team is amazing I think everyone on it brings something unique to the table. The core of the team is Adam Benson, Anthony Tomasetti, Mark Del Negro, and of course Willy Akers. They are who are going to have the main parts in the video. We want to try and have it out by the end of October.

How is the fundraising coming for the new plaza?
We are working hard on it but it is slow. We aren’t professional fundraisers so we have been winging it trying to learn as we go. But we have a lot of events planned and are trying to go after some bigger companies to get larger donations. Its just tough trying to make non-skaters understand how amazing the Wilmington Skate Plaza will be for our community. Please visit www.wilmingtonskateproject.org and donate a couple bucks.

What’s in the future for Kinetic?
We want to make the skate scene in our area as good as it can be. Get parks and spots built make sure the kids are as psyched on skating as everyone at the shop is. We have started WWW.KINETICSKATEBOARDING.COM because we feel the skateboarding industry should be run by skaters, so kids that don’t have a real shop near them don’t have to support corporate chain stores or random websites which give nothing back to skateboarding.

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Any last words?
We just want to thank all of the skateboarders who have supported us over the years and all of our current and former employees. Thanks to Salo for all of the secret Skateboarder coverage. We really feel privileged to be running a skate shop and that we get to be involved in skateboarding as our jobs.

Just found a new spot..