Interview by Daniel Nodzak

Joshua Goldberg’s “Gold Comp” is set to kick off its second event on Saturday, September 11th in San Jose, California. The Nor Cal competition hosted its inaugural event in 2019 but unfortunately saw the 2020 follow up cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19. However, Gold Comp is back this year and better than ever. Between upgrading to a better skatepark and becoming a Blading Cup Qualifier this year’s contest promises to be one of the most exciting events of the year and a perfect way to close out the summer.

Hey Joshua thanks for agreeing to chat today. For anyone out of the loop, can you give us a general overview of what Gold Comp's all about?

Definitely and thank you too Daniel for talking with me. Gold Comp is all about bringing our community together to showcase their talents and to reward athletes for the work they put into it. At any Gold Comp you can expect to see insane talent and high energy.

What do you think separates Gold Comp from other park contests?

The energy and talent that Gold Comp creates and attracts is what separates us from other park competitions. This is a high energy competition with competitors of all skill levels from all over the country. The first park comp really set the tone and the talent didn't disappoint. Gold Comp is a comp that allows our community to showcase its talents and we expect this coming comp's energy and talent to be even better!

Gold Comp's inaugural event took place in 2019 but unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic came along and led to the cancellation of nearly the entire 2020 competition season. But that gave you an additional year to work out any kinks in the event or come up with new ideas to introduce in 2021. What, if anything, should people expect this year?

Yeah, it was a bummer that everything had to go on pause, but you're right this gave me time to develop some of the event plans. One major change is the location. This years comp will be at Roosevelt Skatepark, which is one of my favorite parks in San Jose. The park will give competitors and viewers another in-your-face competition and it has a bowl at its center that competitors can use. Probably the most important change is the addition of the Bladies Comp. Both men and Bladies will place up to top 3 this year. Both men's and bladies' first place winners will get $1000. In addition to "best trick" we are also adding a "big air" award. DJ Eternal will also be this year's DJ! We also partnered with Blading Cup and are now an official Blading Cup Qualifier. There's been a lot of changes and I'm stoked to see it in action!

Okay, since I brought up COVID-19, will you be implementing any safety measures related to COVID-19, such as mask requirements, proof of vaccination, or negative test results?

Nothing will be enforced, although social distancing and wearing a mask is recommended. If you have any symptoms the day of or have been exposed we ask that you please stay away from the competition. We will also have limited sanitizer and masks available day of.

2019's top five was stacked. You had Sascha Simms, Damon Franklin, Koey Waikiki, Chris Calkins, and Chad Hornish rounding out the contest results in your first year. That's setting the bar pretty high for the level of competition. But now that Gold Comp is a Blading Cup qualifier event I imagine things are going to be even crazier. Can you tell us a bit about how GC managed to partner with Blading Cup this year?

It was amazing to see such incredible talent at the 2019 comp and I think that ultimately helped the Blading Cup family make their decision to partner with us. What happened was soon after the 2019 comp people started asking me if the next one would be a qualifier. Once I saw the demand for it I reached out to Jon Julio to see if he'd be interested in a partnership and he was. We can now officially say we are a Blading Cup Qualifier and I'm grateful we can call them a partner of ours.