Skateboarding summit takes place in Costa Mesa

For three days, skateboarding will take center stage in Costa Mesa.

The three-day International Assn. of Skateboard Companies Skateboarding Summit, which features the Skateboarding Hall of Fame ceremony, takes place in Costa Mesa starting Wednesday.

Gary Vaynerchuk is the keynote speaker at the summit, which takes place at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel. Vaynerchuk, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author who is a self-trained wine and social media expert, speaks on Friday, from 1 to 4 p.m. He is attending for his speech, Q&A, and signing of his latest book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.”

For those not attending the full summit, a limited number of tickets will be available for Vaynerchuk’s session online at https://garyvee.eventbrite.com.

The three-day summit brings skateboard industry leaders together in a non-competitive environment in order to educate, connect, inspire and broaden perspectives.

Among the summit sessions, a presentation, “Skateboarding Rolls Toward the Olympics,” will take place Thursday. Gary Ream, president of the International Skateboarding Federation, has been in the trenches for over a decade trying to make sure that skateboarding is on the Olympic stage. He will give a full review of the process and path forward as skateboarding is on track to debut at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The Skateboarding Hall of Fame and Icon Awards ceremony will be held Thursday night and is open to the public. The 2014 inductees include: Gregg Carroll, Jim Muir, Steve Olson, Lance Mountain, Natas Kaupas, Laurie Turner DeMott and Ellen Oneal Deason

For tickets to the hall of fame event, visit https://2014shof.eventbrite.com.

Summit registration information can be found at https://bit.ly/2014iascsummit.

— Steve Virgen