Georgie Tsushima Memorial Skate Park

Georgie Alan Tsushima
December 11, 1988 - July 18, 2015

A Reflection on Georgie's Life and His Contributions to Ames and Beyond
Georgie was born in Seattle, Washington on December 11, 1988, to Masahiro and Teresa Tsushima (now Teresa Downing-Matibag). Having moved to Ames in 2004, Georgie understood the importance of feeling welcomed, as well as the importance of kids having healthy venues for recreation. While the skate park was his favorite place to be, he also spent countless hours in the woods and parks surrounding Ames, creating gorgeous photographs and videos of the natural landscape.

Georgie lived his life cognizant of his footprint. Rather than drive, he skateboarded or rode his bike. He also took environmental concerns into account with the food and products he consumed. He mentored and tutored youth to invest in things that mattered, encouraging them to focus on their futures and steer clear of drugs and reckless alcohol use. He was always interested in kids who needed a helping hand at the park, making himself available to show them new tricks, encourage them in school, and offer friendly advice on making a positive impact in the community. As an Ames High School honors student, Georgie was conscientious about completing his homework on a daily basis and maintaining good grades.

Georgie opened the first skate shop in town, Focus Skateshop, and worked at the Flame & Skewer in North Grand Mall, waiting tables and doing dishes to fund his business. The shop was successfully managed through his high school graduation and the two years he spent studying at Iowa State University, after which he moved to California, where Georgie landed a position as a skateboard videographer for VOX Footwear. He traveled with the Stereo Sound Agency team, filming across the county and had aspirations of joining the team himself. He was living the life he dreamed of as a kid and working with the professionals he watched videos of and read about. Georgie had become a well-known and respected skateboarder among some of the nation’s best, including his friends and fellow skateboarders Jordan Hoffart and Makenzie Moss. Georgie’s artful skateboarding videography was also featured on leading websites and in the best magazines in the industry.

Georgie suffered a life-threatening brain injury while skateboarding in California in August 2014. Family and friends gathered around him in support, raising funds for his recovery, and coming to visit him in the hospital in California during his two months in the ICU. Georgie’s injury was so severe that when he finally awoke from the induced coma, he could hardly move or speak, and had lost his memory. Skateboarders from all walks of life, whether professional or semi-pro were there, bearing love, gifts, and inspiration for the journey ahead.

In October 2014, Georgie returned to Ames to live with his family and committed himself to regaining his skills. Over the course of nearly a year, he dedicated countless hours to recover his mobility, speech, short-term memory, and cognition skills. Unable to remember even two words spoken to him when he first returned home, he was ready to return to work and school in California. Georgie loved Ames and had plans to return and raise a family one day after seeing more of the world by traveling overseas with the professional skateboarders. 

Georgie, who said he never wore a helmet, was in the hospital for months with a traumatic brain injury. As of September 2016, Iowa did not have a law requiring bicyclists or skateboarders to wear helmets. Georgie’s therapists at On With Life, who see the results of injuries that could have been prevented by helmets, said they would support a helmet law for young bikers and skateboarders. The American Academy of Pediatrics lists several states (e.g., New York, Florida, Georgia, California) with laws requiring youth to wear helmets when skateboarding.

Even knowing he had a long road of recovery ahead of him, Georgie’s tenacity for life never waned.

Georgie created a short video during a couple of rainy days back home entitled “The Little Things Add Up” in which he said:

“I’ve been living back in Ames for the past eight months [recovering] from a serious injury I had skating back in San Diego. For the first six months, I couldn’t speak English anymore, wound up temporarily losing my short-term memory, and had to reconfigure logical reasoning. During the past ten months since my injury, I couldn’t be more thankful for everyone’s help, fantastic support, and kind reasoning. It was a struggle to relearn many things or properly coordinate a flexible schedule.

Nonetheless, if I was going to be anywhere comfortable during this process, Ames would do the trick. It recognizes the basic things around town which my roommates and I enjoyed during the last couple years I’d lived here. Pieces of film from this edit tend to feel somewhat generic on a day-to-day basis, but for many of us these items have a special story to share from the past. In general, if you enjoy the ordinary and simple times throughout the day, you’ll be surprised at the load of reflections you can make from them down the road.” 

And so, it turns out, Georgie was wise beyond his years.

“Georgie did his best to inspire everyone he knew to be their best. He was a contagious spirit, and nothing captures his spirit better than to see him soaring on his skateboard as his testimony of loving life and living it with love. In honoring Georgie’s spirit, you honor the best in the human spirit. A life may be cut short, but it can still be admirably lived in loving rapture.”
– John Forssman, Ames High School English Teacher

In 2015, one year after his life-threatening skateboarding accident, at the peak of his recovery, Georgie opened FLC Skateshop in Campustown to serve the community and welcome kids of all ages to enjoy the sport. Thrilled to witness his remarkable recovery, people volunteered their time cleaning up, making repairs, and beautifying the space for business. Kids he mentored volunteered and the parents whose kids Georgie had mentored volunteered. His friends volunteered. People he didn’t even know stopped by to lend a hand. By this time, he had already made his first month’s rent as people had been coming to the store day after day to buy product even before Georgie could get it out of the boxes. On July 18, 2015, Georgie held his grand opening, officially announcing the store to the public, and invited everyone to share the accomplishment.

The story of his incredible journey was featured on Humans of Ames:

"I was handed a skateboard towards the middle of eighth grade. It changed me forever, I was hooked. I'm originally from Pullman, Washington but my mom got a job teaching sociology at Iowa State, so I moved here since high school. Most of my friends I've met in my life were from skateboarding. I have been skating, filming, and editing for about 15 years. I filmed out in California professionally for two years and met so many famous skateboarders. I had a skating accident out there and I was in a coma for about three weeks because of it. I'm still recovering.

I opened FLC Skateshop for it to be a community center, especially for artists and skateboarders. I want to break down the stereotypes that people have when they see some skateboarders. People think skateboarders abuse drugs and alcohol when in reality it’s the opposite. The professional athletes from other sports are more likely to do that because they have the money to sustain those habits. Skateboarding is an art, every skater expresses himself/herself differently. From the design and size of their board, to the way they skate on it. It's a positive escape, you forget about your problems, and you focus on learning new things.  

I don’t care if the skate shop makes a profit. I just want to serve the community and make people happy. I want the shop to be a place where everyone feels welcome, no matter who they are.” -- Georgie Tsushima