To hear Braden Allee tell it, the first time he stepped on a longboard, he knew it was the sport for him.
A few years later, a devastating longboard accident nearly took his life. Even so, his mother, Bonnie Allee, recalled his first two goals for his physical therapist: raising his right arm and getting back on his board.
“I thought I wasn’t even going to be able to board again, that was the main priority I had,” Braden said.
Three years after that life-changing accident, Braden, 22, is still living his passion for that sport by opening, with the help of his family, the Kraken Board Shop and concession stand at the Rob Fuller Twin City Skate Park in Centralia. Located at Centralia’s Rotary Riverside Park, the skate shop location has been vacant since it was built in about 2005 or 2006. Local skaters say the new shop and the Allee family’s work at the skate park is a welcome sight.
“It’s everything for kids and for adults. It’s fun for all ages,” said skate park regular Ray Arellanes of the value of the local skate park. “And it’s phenomenal to have a local skate shop because the closest skate shop is up north — Olympia, Seattle, Tacoma.”
Kraken Board Shop was started as an online store by Braden in 2018 after getting involved with the longboarding sport and community. But in May 2019, just one month shy of Braden’s high school graduation, he was injured in a longboarding crash on Centralia Alpha Road near the Allee home. He went out that morning to make a “hill bomb,” one of many longboard techniques which involves going downhill very fast. Braden’s brother, Bryce, now 20, was following Braden in his car, a protocol downhill (also sometimes called DH) longboarders use both for safety as well as to clock their speed and sometimes to catch video of their descent. In this case, the family is grateful the brothers were not filming because the speed caused Braden to wobble and he fell off the board.
“They said it was comparable to a motor bike accident because he was going so fast,” Bonnie recalled.
Bryce was able to summon help immediately and Braden was first taken to Providence Centralia Hospital, where he was then sent by helicopter to Providence St. Peter in Olympia. Bonnie explained that he was not sent to a larger trauma hospital in Seattle because his doctors thought he might not survive a longer flight.
“It went really quickly from I thought he might have broken ribs and maybe a concussion to, ‘Oh gosh, this is really bad,’” recalled Bonnie.
Braden underwent a three-hour brain surgery, after which he was given only a 10 percent chance of waking up. He spent 13 days in a coma and then a total of a month at St. Peter and then another several weeks at Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle. Later, he had another surgery and two more months in the hospital. While Braden steadily improved, his doctors often warned the family that there were so many uncertainties with his recovery.
“With brain injuries, you take it minute by minute, breath by breath,” Bonnie said.
Braden was wearing a helmet, something he always insisted on, but it was meant for skydiving rather than downhill longboarding. Still, the family credits the helmet with Braden’s survival and they have worked in the years following the accident to spread the word about the importance of helmets. Bonnie also pointed out that Bryce’s presence at the crash and quick thinking was also another miracle that day.
“That saved his life, Bryce and the helmet,” Bonnie said.
Braden will always live with brain damage and has some lasting physical effects from the crash, most notably decreased motor functions on his right side. After his injury, his father, James Allee, took over the management of Kraken Board Shop with the goal of keeping the business running in order to provide long-term employment and income for Braden. Neither Bonnie nor James had backgrounds in skateboarding before their sons got involved with the sport but they said they both are invested in supporting both of them in any passion.
Earlier this year, James and Braden began looking for a physical location for the business when Arellanes suggested they check out the skate shop location at Rob Fuller Twin City Skate Park. The skate park was spearheaded by the Twin Cities Rotary and the City of Centralia and officially opened to the public in 2004. The two-story building across from the skate park was planned to house the non-profit Skate Key, which aimed to offer a skate shop, lounge and locker rooms for skaters, but it was never able to open.
In April, the Allees signed a $100-per-month rental agreement with the City of Centralia, which owns the park and facility, to house a concession stand in the bottom part and the Kraken Skate Shop on the top floor. The two have been unofficially open on weekends for about a month but have their official grand opening this Saturday, June 18, at noon. After that date, the shop and concession stand will be open Wednesdays through Sundays.
The lease agreement also requires the Allees to perform general maintenance on the skate park property. On a recent Saturday, Braden picked up trash in the park while James added a fresh coat of paint to some of the skate ramps. One of Braden’s long-term goals for the venture is to eventually raise the money and manpower to replace the current ramps, which are made from wood frames covered in a plastic material called Skatelite, with concrete ramps that are better suited and safer for skateboarders.
“My main goal for the shop is to have it here so we’ll have a place for the community of longboarders and skateboarders,” Braden said.
Another goal of Braden’s is to get back on his board. That’s also a work in progress with his physical therapist. Using a tool called a Braapstik, a land paddle made to mimic those used by standup paddleboarders, Braden can now ride his longboard again, though no longer on the big hills. Braden now takes part in another longboarding technique called long distance push. His new longboarding passion is focused more on getting from point A to point B rather than daredevil speeds.
