Four Peekskill pastimes are coming together the evening of Saturday, June 28, in a local first – skateboarding on Highland Avenue, fine food from Benny’s Brown Bag, competitive video games, and ten cannabis growers displaying their wares.
“The Kolektor and Sensei’s Skate & Smoke!” happening June 28 is a unique event pairing talented New York pro- and semi-pro skateboarders with some of New York state’s finest cannabis cultivators in a smoke-friendly skate park on Highland Avenue in Peekskill.
“During these events we just want people to have a really good time when they’re there,” TSK Sensei CEO Matt Kachmar told the Peekskill Herald in an interview. “For everyone who comes, the vibe’s amazing. The people are welcoming with open arms. I think that’s what the whole cannabis community is about.”
TKS Sensei NY LLC, based on John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill, received its microbusiness cannabis license from New York state in September of 2024. Microbusinesses can cultivate, process, distribute, sell retail products, deliver and organize cannabis events. The company is presenting this event.
Saturday’s Skate & Smoke, open to people 21 and older, will take place at 2nd Nature Skate Park at 1 Highland Industrial Park from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Skateboarders come from New York City and points north of Peekskill to 2nd Nature Skate Park and training facility. The park has a great variety of ramps, rails, and obstacles to challenge skaters of all skill levels.
Good pot, good food, good times with friends
Ten craft pot growers, including Fela’s, New Roots Gardens, North Fork, The Kolektor, Sensei Cultivation, and Umami will be on hand to showcase samples. Many smokers like to learn about their favorite brands, how the product is grown, and the people who grow it. They’ll get that chance to meet growers face-to-face at Skate & Smoke.
Cannabis Realm of New York, a New York-licensed retailer based in White Plains, will take orders onsite for flower from those attending the event and then bring the product to smoke via delivery cars every half-hour, in compliance with the law.
Peekskill’s own Benny’s Brown Bag will provide the food in a “Mall Grab” style. Rather than sandwiches, guests will enjoy a variety of mall-style treats, including Terayaki chicken skewers done Panda Express-style. The food is part of the $15 admission fee, as long as it lasts.
Combining skateboarding and smoking seemed a natural fit to Kachmar. “The skateboard part is extremely exciting,” he said. “For me it’s new. And the thing about Peekskill is we’re close enough to everyone. If you’re in the city you’re not going to go upstate. You have hardcore skaters in New York City who will travel up here.”
The first two hours will be open skating, where skaters can do their own thing on the ramps, rails and obstacles. The remainder of the night will host the best-trick competition with a $1,000 cash prize and t-shirts, merchandise and other giveaways.
While combining skate and smoke might seem challenging to those unfamiliar with those two worlds, Kachmar explains why it works. “If you’re not used to smoking and you skateboard you’re not going to have the best experience. People who smoke on a daily basis – daily tokers – are able to do that for sure.”
They’ll also be a competitive, tournament-style Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game contest presented by High-Score League of New York City. High-Score hosts “weed video games” with multiple consoles in a tournament-style platform. Gamers smoke, play competitively and hang out together. The Saturday event will offer prizes for the winners.
“It’s a networking event also at the end of the day,” Kachmar said. “It’s not just skaters, and not just growers. People in the cannabis industry who do a whole bunch of ancillary businesses will be there. And it’s just fun.”
Making the leap from black market to street legal
Kachmar and his partners in TKS Sensei cultivated craft-brand pot for more than a decade before New York state legalized the industry. They separately built huge followings with their Kolektor and Sensei brands respectively and came together to win a license to go legit.
TKS Sensei is starting to build out their space at 8 John Walsh Boulevard, which will eventually include 20,000-square-feet of industrial space to cultivate, grow and process product. A retail dispensary and adjacent consumption lounge separated by a wall will open on the ground floor entrance of the Atrium building.
Kachmar brings a varied background and business skills to the task. He worked for 10 years in construction in New York City and ran his own Ju Jitsu business in White Plains, where he originated the “Roll and Smoke” event model. “The roll was a play on words – in ju jitsu you roll on mats.” Just last month they held their first “legal” Roll and Smoke event on mats at the famed Copacabana Club in Manhattan with several hundred people in attendance.
As a player – first in the black market pot cultivator world and now making the transition to licensed pot businessman – Kachmar has an informed opinion about where the legal industry might be headed in New York state.
“Call me too positive, but I feel like New York will be a little different than in other states. New York smokes the most weed in the entire country. We’re the top two or three in the world. Pot smokers are ingrained in the New York City culture,” he said.
A market willing to pay top dollar for quality products should be fertile ground for craft cannabis growers.
“New York has the best chance to succeed in the licensed legal market,” Kachmar said. “Generally speaking, the weed in the [legal] market now is not very good. These [craft] brands are going to change that aspect because the weed that grows at the Budweiser scale from the bigger guys is trash.
“Over the next year or two, as all these micros come online and craft cannabis comes online, the difference will be night and day. It’s like drinking a Budweiser that costs $2 a beer or getting that 10% Pilsner craft that costs $6 for a can. People go and buy it because they know the quality and everything about it.”
To pre-register for Skate & Smoke, go to this eventbrite page
Walk-ins will be accepted at the door.
