Ledges to Legacy

These were their roots, and Jango and Paul grew passionate toward the culture and the locality. They exist within the pulse of Rockaway, proudly. They’ve been skating for around two decades, and their love for the exhilaration and freedom is still strong in motion. This passion for community is exactly what drove the duo to invent solutions when none were present. “There aren’t very many things going on in the Rockaways,” says co-founder Paul. “It’s very far away from the city, and what we see is the centre of events and the centre of attention. Most of the skate events were located in Manhattan.” With that, they were empowered to bring the Rockaway community together for its own annual Battle At The Beach skate event.

They set out to form a collective, a group that could treasure and emphasise the energy of experiencing a rush. Clipmode was a manifesto. One that spoke on much more than skateboarding. It was also a way of declaring that we need not wait around for space to be created for us; we can carve it out for ourselves. An endeavour that could itself be a source of inspiration for a larger community. The skateboarding collective is about kinship and connection, but it’s also about individuality and independence. Clipmode fosters this by including categories in their events for skaters under thirteen, non-binary skaters, and a women’s division. Annually, Clipmode organises a skateboarding contest titled “Battle at the Beach,” where an amalgamation of food, culture, art, music, and skateboarding can be enjoyed off the wide coast of New York. It is an event to be enjoyed not only by Rockaway residents, but also by anyone from any of the five boroughs, or even New Jersey, to attend. The initiative that began in Rockaway Beach ripples outward, drawing in people from all areas and widening the shoreline.

Since its founding, Clipmode has expanded beyond the confines of physical sport and stepped into the world of video creation, media classes, art classes, and events that invite the larger East Coast community to join in. “We’re growing as people, so Clipmode is evolving,” says Jango. “We started off skateboarding, but now Paul runs an art class, and he's expanding into surfing. I do a lot of film and media. And my little brother, he’s coming up and doing sports events like basketball and volleyball. So, it’s growing very organically as we grow as people.”

What makes Clipmode meaningful to Jango is not the skateboarding itself, but the effect that gathering can have on a group of people. During our conversation, he keeps returning to one word: impact. When asked what keeps him motivated to further such a demanding project, the answer is simple: the response. Little kids whisper over their excitement. People laugh and bond over their common interests. He even recounts a moment when a DJ cancelled one of their events at the last minute, and he allowed a 12-year-old to fill in. It was the young boy’s first gig, and a catalyst for what he’d spend the next few years dedicating himself to. “If we weren’t doing what we were doing, he wouldn’t have been able to do that,” Paul says. “And that impacted his life because he’s still doing it.”

If one thing is certain, Clipmode has never been stagnant. In every sense of the word, they are kinetic. They continue to grow and expand with each passing day and have no restrictions on what that growth might look like.