I’ve known Alison “Nugget” Matasi for probably 7 or 8 years, which means I met her when she was 13 or 14. When we first met she and our friend Monica Shaw used to be little twinsies- these skinny, cute, hilarious little blonde girls who both shredded out of control and I couldn’t really tell apart.
A few years ago I got the horrible news that Nugget’s brother, Lee Matasi was shot and killed. Apparently it was a super fun night- some kind of industry party at a club in Downtown Vancouver. Usually Lee wasn’t so down with little Nugzy’s partying with all the older folks, but she said they had a really great time together that night until she left early to go crash out. Some dude with a gun shot him fatally as he left the club later that night.
I never had the chance to meet Lee, but his reputation proceeds him. A talented, well-known Vancouver local skater, he obviously shared in the vitality of life that I know so well in Nugget and was coming up fast in the art scene at the time of his death. Nugz and Lee’s father Leo, who is an adventurist and tug boat captain, told me that one time the little bugger made him seriously sweat when one time when, while crossing the boarder into California from Tijuana, in a perfect Mexican accent, Lee volunteered to the boarder agent “My name is Jose and I want to live in your country.” Golden!
Nugz and Lee’s father Leo told me on a recent visit about how he used to take Lee and Nugz to Burnside Skate Park all the time. Inspired by his visits, Lee discovered this unusual tunnel, which is some kind of evacuation route, and started building stuff to skate in it. Now officially deemed “Leeside” it was the site of a memorial that hundreds of people attended after Lee’s death.
I’ve been to a lot of skate spots and very little compares to this place. There’s lights on all night and and it is enormous. When we got there this summer there were some punkers chillin’ out in the corner drinking 40s. Even though they annoyed me by getting in my shot of Nugget, (below, which I was trying to shoot with low batts in my flash) they were rad and very enthused by the skateboarding taking place. The place has a unique atmosphere that is very hard to match.
One of the major spearheads of this effort is Michelle, owner of Vancouver’s Anti Social skate shop. She is a master organizer, and has done countless selfless acts for not only the Matasi family, also for the skaters of Vancouver.
It would be so rad to see this place grow and flourish, as Burnside has and how Lee didn’t get the chance to. It’s already pretty damn cool, but miles (and truckloads) of potential.
