Coming to the Pontiac hoping to make a business out of his passion, Alex Boivin faced many roadblocks. But rather than walking away from it, he decided to create a federation to allow him to teach and build a skateboarding business.
It all started for Boivin when he moved to the region in 2021, with his wife Jade Desroches. He met her while . . .
studying carpentry and construction estimating at CEGEP Drummondville, and when the couple were looking to buy their first home together they chose the Pontiac because his wife was originally from here. But what made them take the leap was the great prices, he said. They went on to buy their home in Chichester.
His love for skateboarding started at the young age of 15 getting involved in building his local skatepark in his hometown of Princeville, and since then the 25-year-old has had big ambitions to take his passion for skateboarding and turn it into a business.
When they moved to the Pontiac his initial plan was to look for a construction job, as it had been his main occupation. He figured he would work 40 hours a week and make his living and do his hobby on the side, but slowly he realized that’s not the life he wanted for himself.
“I guess growing up, I’m learning that it’s important to do something that you love. Here I’m finding the opportunity to do that. So I’m just putting all my efforts into it,” said Boivin.
Boivin explained that he often had to drive an hour and a half outside of town just to find a skate park. Going to areas like Pembroke and Renfrew just to skate. He explained that Pembroke has one of the only concrete skate parks and through that, he’s met people from Ottawa, Quebec and even Toronto who gather there because they don’t have anywhere else to go.
Soon after he arrived in the Pontiac he chose to live off his savings and discover the area instead and get to know the community.
Taking the time to get to know the region, the self-taught skateboarder quickly noticed there was a lack of a skateboarding community. A few months in he met with the SADC who offered him an autonomous Worker Program, which allows him to get paid a minimum wage to work 35 hours a week to start his own business.
To offer workshops in the province or give skateboarding lessons, a person needs to be licenced but in trying to get that accreditation he was faced with the lack of recognition of the sport itself.
Currently in the province skateboarding is not recognized as a sport, which led him to start the process of creating the Quebec Skateboarding Federation in March 2022.
“Creating the federation, we’re now recognized by the government and we can have better insurance and certifications for training. So this is the biggest thing I’ve done this winter,” said Boivin.
The creation of the federation opens the door to opportunities like providing insurance to people that want to start local clubs or skateparks. This will also give them the opportunity to support different businesses to train their staff and host official competitions and events. And down the line, Quebec can participate and be part of Canada’s skateboarding team and compete in the Olympics, he pointed out.
“At the last Olympics Canada was there but Quebec could not participate because it was not recognized as a sport yet,” said Boivin.
Boivin and a team of nine board members from all over Quebec are in the process of building the foundation by creating the different bylaws, “as of right now it’s just a lot of paperwork,” he said. His position on the board is secretary, which he’s enjoying because it allows him to know the ins and outs of what is going on, he said.
When asked what sparked the creation of the federation, he said it was through wanting to build his own indoor skate park, which would be a great attraction to the area he added. But soon realized it would be impossible because he was unable to get insured as skateboarding wasn’t a recognized sport. When that happened he thought he could just give skateboarding lessons, but quickly realized that was also impossible because he was unable to get a coaching certificate.
“I’m building the system to be able to create my own job basically,” laughed Boivin.
He is currently doing the training necessary to obtain his certificate and in doing so he’s able to offer workshops in the community. Les maisons des jeunes du Pontiac offered him his first paid opportunity. He is now offering a total of 12 classes, about three hours each from May to June.
“I like the smaller communities, I find there’s more opportunity to build stuff, I tried starting an indoor skatepark in Drummondville but over there, it’s kind of a big city. So the rent was really high. It’s really hard to start as a first project,” said Boivin.
Knowing he didn’t want to be stuck working an office job, he took the chance to be in a new region to try to find a job in something he loved. Whether it was organizing events or teaching, Boivin knew whatever he did had to involve skateboarding.
“It’s really for everyone, honestly, it’s a super fun sport because there are no rules. And no one’s really better than the other. Even the best skaters still learn from each other every day,” he said.
Growing up he participated in competitions but came to terms with the fact that in order to compete professionally he needed to do it 24/7 and with long winters it was a huge disadvantage. That’s why he hopes to teach, and host events instead. Because although he has been skateboarding for 11 years now he doesn’t believe he is at the same level as people competing.
He hopes to continue to offer workshops, he has already been contacted by a few mayors who want to consult him on building skateparks in their municipalities he said. Being invited to the recent Council of Mayors meeting and introducing himself allowed him to get recognized.
With his background in carpentry and construction estimation, he believes he can be an asset to the community because he not only can help build but can also provide the municipality with a cost analysis and materials needed for a project like a skatepark.
He is currently looking to buy a truck to use as a mobile skate shop and as a way to store his equipment and transport them to different workshops, which will allow him to offer lessons this summer. Not only that but he also hopes to get skateboarding known around the Pontiac.
When asked why the sport is not as popular, he explained that skateboarding has somewhat of a negative connotation being a street sport and associating it with vandalism. But he hopes to bring a positive spin to it in this region and offer up more spaces for kids and adults to gather outdoors.
“Turn vandalism into art,” he said.
“My lifelong goal is having an indoor skatepark and I think building one in the Pontiac will be really reasonable. That was my starting goal, and I think that’ll be the end goal,” said Boivin.
