written by Guitar Doug
photo by RJB photos - model: Courtney

Bomb Shelter went on to throw several benefit shows for the Marginal Way Skate Park and raised over $4,000. Those shows featured the bands Wizards of War, Syndios, The Kept, Javelin Reign, and several others. The Sunset and Bomb Shelter have continued working together on various charity events since the shop opened.

The Sunset is a Ballard Ave rock venue that hosts nightly rock shows and a Sunday series called 4 O’CLOCK ROCK. That weekly event has recently been featuring a lot of cool Seattle area rock bands like Mos Generator, The Whore Moans and The Valley.

I first heard of Bomb Shelter when I walked out to my motorcycle one day and found someone had stuck a weird sticker on the fender. The black sticker with white lettering read only the cryptic words, Bomb Shelter, Ballard WA. I figured some kids in a Ballard band were playing a practical joke, but I left the sticker on for several months because I liked the artwork and the name. The guerrilla and commando advertising worked, because when I saw the shop I stopped in to check it out and knew it was definitely cool enough for a feature Sinner story.

Bomb Shelter is open 12 p.m-7p.m seven days a week and is located at 2325 N.W Market Street. It’s right below where Matt’s Hot Dogs used to be, until a Seattle Police officer decided to drive his cop car through the front window rather than just simply using the front door like the rest of us. Ryan was in the shop at the time of the crash and said it sounded like a bomb had gone off. Thankfully, none of the skateboards were killed or injured.

The store carries boards by companies such as Monster, Manik, Bacon, MM, Powell, Creature, Scum, Black Label and Anti-Hero. A large selection of trucks are also on hand from companies like Independent, Spitfire, Hubba and Conspiracy. They also have all kinds of current skater apparel and helmets. With Christmas coming soon, the owners hope business will pick up slightly over the holiday season.

The shop is owned by Ryan Edel, Jammer and Leo Salazar. The three owners are all around 30 years old. When I asked Ryan what the guys like to do in their free time, his answer was quickly, “Pretty much, we like to party all the time”. I asked where he and his friends go to “party all the time” when they are not running the shop. Every bar he mentioned was in Ballard and within moments of the shops. He says some of his favorites are the Smoke Shop, Lock and Keel, Kings Hardware, and The Hazlewood. The men’s lives seem to center around a 1 mile radius which is the case for most of us who live in Ballard.

I have noticed motorcycles parked outside Bomb Shelter, and I was curious if the owners were bikers along with being skaters and professional partiers. Ryan says all three of the owners are into motorcycles, particularly Harleys. Ryan, who is covered with tattoos from Anchor Tattoo, which is practically above the shop, says the owners all grew up skateboarding, partying and listening to rock music. During the interview, the shop boom box was playing a Merciful Fate CD, so we began talking about rock music, rather than skateboards. Ryan and the guys in the shop knew all sorts of details about the music of King Diamond, Merciful Fate and a bunch of other rock, punk and metal bands. When it comes to rock music, these guys know what they are talking about. They plan on putting together more rock benefit concerts in the coming months.

The guys hanging out at Bomb Shelter that day also seem to know a lot about woman, or at least liked to talk about woman a lot. They were all just milling around checking out sexy woman on-line and asking what the model pictured in this article looked like. They originally had a whole list of female friends they wanted in the photo shoot, but never actually got around to lining any up. I can confirm that Ryan had a host of women’s phone numbers programmed into his cell phone because he was calling them throughout the entire interview. Come to think of it, not much of this interview had anything do with skateboarding. It was nearly impossible to keep the guys in the shop on the subject of skateboards. The conversation kept returning to rock and roll, partying, motorcycles and woman, but we managed to scrape together a skate shop story anyway.

As we talked about music and future Bomb Shelter sponsored rock shows, Ryan insisted this story mention David Slim McCarroll, lead singer of the vaccines, who sadly just passed away. He and the guys in the shop were pretty broken up over the passing and were heading over to the memorial service at Golden Gardens the following evening. I agreed to mention David in this story, but after thinking it over, decided to write a whole separate story as well. That story also appears in this issue of the Seattle Sinner magazine. Thank you Steve Turner of Mudhoney and Donny Paycheck of Zeke for help in putting that story together.

Bomb Shelter packs a lot of boards, wheels, trucks and apparel into its small shop. The entire shop is only 550 square feet and you must walk down some strange stairs to get into the place. It actually feels like you are in some sort of actual Bomb Shelter. Ryan says the shop is there for good and he has no desire to expand or move. The location, size and clientele is exactly what he wants and business has steadily climbed with each passing month. The shop is only five blocks from the new Ballard Skate Bowl, so there’s a pretty steady stream of skaters walking through the door. There are also a steady stream of guys showing up just to hang out and talk about rock and roll, partying, motorcycles and woman. In fact, the place was full of people the entire time I was there.

Most days the shop is manned by pro skater Jesse Nelson. He is one of the top skaters around and is sponsored by many skate companies including Bacon, Sessions clothing, Dekline, Bones Wheels and Independent. He knows his stuff and is a pleasant and rather long haired young fellow who can answer just about any question a skater might throw his way. Stop by the Bomb Shelter Skate Shop the next time you’re in Ballard. With Christmas right around the corner, you may want to pick your kid up something cool, like a new board or a set of trucks, rather than something completely useless like a book or some school clothes.