Heimana Reynolds likes puzzles, especially the Rubik’s Cube.
“I just found it interesting and decided to learn myself,” Reynolds said. “It’s just a fun thing to do.”
How quickly can he solve it?
“Not too fast, maybe 45 seconds.”
Hmm, 45 seconds. That just so happens to be the same amount of time Reynolds and the other inaugural Olympic skateboarders get to show their stuff in each round when the men’s park competition is held Aug. 5.
So … maybe?
Reynolds laughs. Still, as far as he knows, it wouldn’t be against the rules to solve the cube while performing the fearless acrobatics associated with his sport.
Reynolds, a 2017 Mid-Pacific graduate from Aina Haina, is among the 80 skateboarders from around the world headed for Tokyo, split into park and street categories. Jordyn Barratt, whose hometown is Haleiwa, is also a Team USA member, competing in women’s park.
Unlike other sports where competitors are judged, there aren’t a lot of “compulsories,” Reynolds said in a phone interview last week from San Diego, where he now lives part-time.
“We have 45 seconds to do whatever we want, to show our best tricks, what sets us apart from our competition,” he said. “The judges want to see how well we connect each trick with the others, but at the same time they love to see what we personally have to offer.”
With the extra year to prepare, there’s no telling what the best skateboarders in the world might come up with, said Reynolds, who added that the pandemic helped him reload his creative juices.
“Everything was all closed the first couple of months, so I was forced to go and skate on whatever I had, including the coffee table in my living room, or out in the garage,” Reynolds said. “It was an eye-opener, it made me feel like a kid again, when I’d be skating in the driveway til 10 at night until my dad was telling me to get in the house. It was really cool to fall in love with it all over again.”
Skateboarding has evolved over the decades from what mainstream society perceived as a rebellious counterculture pursuit to an “extreme sport” enjoyed by millions. It gained a lot of momentum in the 1990s with the X Games and icons like Tony Hawk and later Shaun White — childhood idols of Reynolds.
“Competing in big events was always my goal as a kid, and I really looked up to those guys,” he said. “I really wanted to be in their shoes one day and I worked my butt off.”
Reynolds wants people to understand skateboarding is his profession, not just an “activity” he will someday grow out of.
“It’s a sport I’ve been so extremely passionate about since I was 6 or 7 years old. What people don’t see or understand is how much work I put into it. I’m up at 6:30 a.m. and at the skate park eight hours a day. Of course it’s fun, but it’s a career. Sometimes in careers you put hard work in for years before you master parts of it, and that is a great feeling. I get that feeling because there are tricks I worked on for years.”
Although he did make sure Heimana didn’t skate all night as mentioned above, Matt Reynolds nurtured his son’s passion; actually, he got him started, and then built a successful business around it.
Matt has been a skateboarder himself for 35 years. The former lifeguard taught Heimana to surf at age 6. Heimana liked it (he still does, and competed on Mid-Pac’s surfing team), but he liked skateboarding more.
The Reynolds family opened Proper Ride Shop in Kalihi when Heimana was 10, he said. Heimana said his mom, Samantha, “is the brains behind everything,” and his sister, Raiatea, works at the shop, too.
“I’ve been an instructor there from the beginning,” he said. “There are so many ways to teach and learn skateboarding. There’s no incorrect way, but there’s a proper way to learn so you can progress. So we came up with almost an algorithm for it.”
The instruction includes the proper way to fall and try to avoid serious injuries. Falling is a fact of life for most athletes, as are injuries. It’s more than most at the highest level of skateboarding, where Reynolds is among the elite pushing boundaries and risking visits to the emergency room.
“So many. A few concussions, AC joints in my shoulders. collarbone, wrist. It goes on and on,” he said. “It’s about how many times you’re willing to fall down and get back up.”
It’s worth it to him, and it’s part of his job — and his calling.
“The thing that makes it beautiful is the creativity aspect,” Reynolds said. “There’s no rules, and that’s why I think it will be an amazing add (to the Olympics).
“It’s like painting. The paintbrush is your skateboard, the canvas is the park, and we are the painters.”
HEIMANA REYNOLDS FILE
>> Position: United States Olympic Skateboarding Team
>> Height/Weight: 5 feet 9 / 155 pounds
>> Born: Honolulu, 1998
>> High School: Mid-Pacific Institute 2017
>> Club Affiliation: Proper Ride Shop
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
>> 2019 World Skate Park Champ, Gold,
>>2018 World Skate Park Champ, Silver
>>2018 Americas Continental Champ, 2nd
>> 2018 Air + Style Pro, 1st
>> 2010 Disney XD “Next X” champion
