When Jared Rainey was a teenager, he turned to skateboarding to help him get through tough times.
So it makes sense that Rainey, who owns Crazy 8 Vapors in Petal, is paying it back by using his shop to sponsor a group of Petal teens – including Remi Smith, JoJo Patton and Jacob Patton – to help form a small skate team in the Friendly City.
“I’ve noticed a big change in that (skating) industry and community – it just kind of feels like there’s not enough passion there, there’s not enough people mentoring and being and example to that community,” Rainey said. “It’s just mainly the kids having to fend for themselves.
“We just want to be able to have a team of more stable guys that just want to skate. I want to get behind those kids and just really show them how to do things, and let people mentor them into that lifestyle, rather than them falling into a bad reputation or drugs or something like that.”
Through the sponsorship, Rainey is able to offer the teens discounts on merchandise and free video services, which are headed up by Petal High School student Kory Ball.
“So (with the videos), they’re basically able to have something marketed to the community that says, ‘Hey, this is my video and this is me skating,’” Rainey said. “They can show some of the things that they’re able to do without having to go and pay somebody to (make a video).
“Also, if we do an event or something like that, they’ll be a part of the skate team and they’ll get out there and have something to represent and be a part of something.”
While taking the videos, Ball hypes up the skate team members while they perform tricks, and later edits the videos down to a final cut.
“I’ve been into skating for a while now, and I’ve lived in Petal my whole life, and I’ve seen how the skate scene in Petal kind of went through a downhill slope in the past 10 years,” Ball said. “What motivates me to get out there and take videos, is that I see how they want skating to come back and how they want to live a lifestyle that’s mainly skating, because that’s all they have.
“It motivates me seeing guys like that put so much effort into it, that want to put their heart and soul into it and just do it.”
Rainey said he considers Smith, who also attends PHS, as a kind of de facto leader of the skate team.
"We're trying to let people know that we're out here," Smith said. "People perceive skateboarding in Petal as being bad kids who do wrong, but most of the times it's not like that. Seven out of 10 times, we're not the people that we're perceived to be.
"I hold a 3.5 GPA, I'm an A and B honor student, but it seems like skating has brought me that persona and that label that I'm a bad kid. But in reality, it's really not like that. So Crazy 8's goal right now is to let people know that we're not what a lot of people think us to be."
Although the team isn’t necessarily official, it’s Rainey’s goal to be able to use his business to push the team forward and make the skating community in Petal a little larger.
“It’s kind of a slow transition at this point,” he said. “The skating community is not that large in Petal – it’s not really something that’s going to take off any time soon.
“It’s really just something that I’m more passionate about on a personal level.”
