As some of you know, I took a staycation last week to celebrate my birthday on Canada Day and do some major cleanup of the Beauty Room. I also had a crown done which made me very grumpy as even today my gums are still sore from the procedure. In addition to all of the things I HAD to do, I also decided it was time for my husband and I to take a day out in Steveston, Richmond which is where TV show "Once Upon a Time" and the new Power Rangers movie were shot (FYI!). I don't often visit Richmond as I despise driving in the area and by transit, Steveston is exactly 1.5 hours of Seabus, Skytrain and Bus. It's a trek, but we had one goal in mind and that was to finally visit my mom's store - Steve's Board & Apparel Shop!
I was posting on IG stories the whole day about our visit and the number of DMs I got about how much cooler I became because of my mom, Jenny, were quite sweet and amazing. I guess because I'm fairly conservative-looking, many of you thought my mom would be as well! Now, my mom did not always have tattoo sleeves and did the traditional mom things when I was growing up so I think people expect a little, traditional Asian mom, but no Sirree!
My mom used to run her own wedding dress business where my teachers and friends often had their gowns made by her and growing up, always having the prettiest formal gowns from any magazine was awesome! My mom decided to go back to school at UBC to get her Master's Degree and though she had stopped the wedding dress business at this point due to time restraints, she had always wanted to be a business owner again. With a couple of things happening at the right time, she became the owner of Steve's Board & Apparel Shop a couple of years ago and honestly, I didn't know what to think! Never did I think that my mom would learn to ride ANY form of board in her 50s let alone become one of THE go-to people in Vancouver for skateboards of all kinds!
The store itself was small, but every inch of it was covered in skateboards of every size, style and colour! There was a ton of inventory in there! My favourite to LOOK at were the Penny Boards because they were small and had all of these cute designs, but my mom referred to them as "mean" because they are hard to ride due to their short length and if you fall, it hurts A LOT!
I almost bought this rose gold one just to hang on the wall, but we ended up buying a longer board so that the space on our wall wouldn't be so empty.
I also wanted a board perhaps with a cat on it because...well...CAT, but again we decided that a board hanging on the wall as ART should look a little artsy and not have Dragon Ball Z on it (yes, this was an option too).
This sign may look mean, but my mom actually has demo boards you can try so that when it is time for you to pick up a skateboard, it will be virgin and untouched!
It's possible I may have bought 4 pairs of Stance socks since I could not resist the call of Hello Kitty and Star Wars. The Force was quite strong.
Hubs nixed this My Little Pony board right away. It's his loss!
My mom does carry some apparel as well like shoes, sweatshirts and t-shirts, but the bulk of her inventory is definitely dedicated to a wide selection of boards.
And wheels!
We took a quick break to visit the homemade donut shop next door (I cannot remember the name!) and walk around as hubs had not been to Steveston before and honestly I hadn't been in about 20 years!
As you can tell, I'm not a fashion blogger so just focus on the pretty sky. It was a gorgeous day with the sun being out, but the breeze being cool. I'm glad we went when we did because the next day was almost 10 degrees hotter!
I don't know a lot about skate life, but I read so many reviews about this store and all of them had nothing but positive things to say about the service. My mom even builds custom boards in the store!
Steve's Board & Apparel may sound incredibly niche and it is, but even for two people like my husband and I who really don't know much about the culture, we found the store interesting to browse in and explore. We came out with a new board, socks and skateboard decals (for my bullet journal LOL) so I think ANYONE can get some serious shopping done here! My mom is of course super cool and one DM I got was from an old work colleague who had already chatted with her for an hour in the past and was only now finding out that Jenny was my mom!
So, even if you're not a skater and are just visiting Steveston this summer, go say hi to my mom and check out her store!
.JPG)
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