Kilauea, the skateshop/newsstand.

Kilauea, the skateshop/newsstand.

Written by Luca Rizzotto

“The daily dose of fresh news, crossword, skateboard decks, pens, pencils,
notebooks, old vinyls, people’s hangout and a cold beer together” .

Always evolved during the time, this is the natural dna of skateboarding.
Skateboarding is a sponge, it’s capable to take inspiration from everything
around, a perspective that manages to capture even the most hidden nuances.

Globalization has meant that the market has changed permanently over the last 15 to 20 years. Different technologies and the unbridled rush to buy, everyone can have everything and in a very short time, sometimes at the expense of the quality of the products and not least of the experiences.
Now it has become very rare to find something really special and that is fully supported by a particular interested niche and that this is also sustainable for those who have the initiative.

Skateboarding definitely has a blood connection with art, creativity and
subcultures in general, skateboarding is a synonym for community.
In normal times, I really love to discover new interesting places during a trip, a bit hidden, frequented by particular niches in which to be and with which to exchange experiences. Skateshops are born for this to create aggregation, without difference of cultures, sex, sexual orientation or “social class” – Surely skateshops are made for skateboarders but they open their arms to any person on this planet earth and also from the extraterrestrial world, this is skateboarding.

In recent years the sense of community has been lost, and the local shops have been seen, by the new generations, as outdated, everything turns like a wheel, many things return to their origins and it is right that it is so.

If, by a side, skateboarding has become an Olympic discipline, a “recognized sport” with the Olympics Games in Tokyo 2020 with “big players” interested in squeezing it to make the most of it, on the other side, there are small realities that return and small masses that return to have a “sense of belonging to a certain community”

In recent years, abandoned by the skaters themselves, it is not nice the thing I just said but it represents reality, the real core skateshops have evolved by also offering other products, others instead have “dived” into the most extreme fashion addiction.
Personally it was a long time that I did not feel the “sense of community” and i lived it, it is not every day that you enter a classic newsstand that is also a classic core skateshop at the service of skaters, this skateshop is not located in Amsterdam, Berlin, New York or Los Angeles, is located in Sassari, Sardinia Island – Italy and is called Kilauea skate & surf shop.

There are several examples of skateshops that also offer other products and services to their customers, just to name a few: the really loved Benny Gold Shop offering skateboarding, apparel, coffee and chai tea (now permanently closed) that was active in the S.Francisco area, Stitch in Grafenwohr – Germany, offering skateboarding and vapes, Quonset Hut in Ohio selling Records, disc golf, darts, gifts and vapes, Sanantonio 42 in Pisa – Italy, offering books, djs accessories, graffiti cans, vinyls, Folks in Verona – Italy, selling skateboarding and vinyls.
Not least I name South Central, a store I owned, that has been physically active for about ten years offering, skateboarding, niche streetwear brands like Reeson, Lobster, cool brands like Stussy, A Quiet Life, Undefeated, Brixton and many more. South Central it was a place to meet like minded persons, offering also events, books, craft products and a fresh coffee corner inside the shop.

So, can it be real that in 2023 there is a 60 sqm newsstand that is also a core skateshop? yes, it has existed since the 70s as a classic newsstand and family business of Vito Porcu (the owner) and is called Kilauea. Last Saturday I was really surprised by the air that I breathed inside the space, meeting point for skateboarders.
Just to be honest I would say

“more places of aggregation and less social
networks”.