What started as a simple idea to give skaters in Sacramento a place to be themselves has grown into a full-fledged, community-run event where people can create, perform and build their own lanes.
Popoutnine16 is a community platform that started at the Granite Skateboard Park off of Power Inn Road and 14th Avenue in South Sacramento. The group organizes free skate competitions and live performances around the region.
Founder Jordan Baker — an artist, musician and skateboarder — wanted to turn the park where he grew up skating into a platform for skaters, artists and local musicians.
The first community event took place during the pandemic in 2020, when Baker brought a Bluetooth speaker for live performances and merch to give to skate contest winners.
“We wanted to promote our music and promote what we had going on,” Baker said. “We also wanted to respect the environment we were in, so we wanted to kind of encourage the skaters, to have some type of incentive to skate.”
Since then, Baker said people have gravitated toward the community event as more local vendors are reaching out to participate; artists wanting to perform and local businesses wanting to donate prizes to give out to winners of the skate contest.
They became a nonprofit in 2024 and gained enough traction that, when the X-Games came to Sacramento in June, organizers invited Baker and his team to bring local kids behind the scenes.
One board member who is known in the community as Esquire Ali, described their platform as “X Games meets Rolling Loud,” which is a traveling hip-hop festival.
Popout at the X Games
Esquire Ali said attending the inaugural X Games League — an extreme sports event focused on biking, skateboarding and Moto X — in Sacramento was a dream come true.
“To be a part of X Games and really see everything that goes in from a corporate infrastructural lens, it was just beautiful, and we're really happy and pleased that they wanted to have us be? a part of it,” he said. “We started out at the skate park, just doing something tight, and for people to see this coming to fruition in real time, it's more than we can ask for.”
Esquire Ali said their organization was allotted up to 30 passes to come watch the athletes practice. He said they grabbed all the kids in the community to come witness the event.
“Me and Jordan, we've been in the scene for a little bit, so we got relationships with some of the pro skaters that were up there,” he said. “Just being able to rub elbows with them, you know, get pictures for the kids and autographs and stuff-it's just a beautiful thing. Shout out to X Games.”
Gael Toscano, 16-year-old skater who was one of the kids that attended the X Games with Popoutnine16. He has been attending Popout events since 2025 and has been skating since he was 14.
“[Popoutnine16] does community events for young up-and-coming skaters, and you can get a lot of prizes – like, say for free decks or free shoes, free wheels, and it's basically just like helping out youth,” Toscano said during the X Games practice in June.
Toscano said he enjoyed his time seeing the skaters warm up and even got his hat signed by pro-skater Jamie Foy.
Esquire Ali (left) with pro skater Deshawn Jordan at the X Games League event in Sacramento Friday June 26, 2026. X Games organizers invited Popoutnine16 to the event.Keyshawn Davis/CapRadio
Pro skater Deshawn Jordan's first time in the city was during the X-Games League event. He mentioned how big it is for the event to happen in Sacramento.
“I think it’s a relaxed vibe — they have Popoutnine16 as a nonprofit here,” Jordan said. “I think it’s to interact with the city and bring the culture in because extreme sports is all about the culture.”
For Baker, he sees the opportunity to be a part of the inaugural event one of his proudest moments as a founder.
“The fact that X Games reached out to us this year and partnered up with us, that was a big thing too to be able to bring the kids over there, so that was like a big milestone for us,” Baker said. “It just felt like a great escape for X Games to be in Sacramento and us to be a part of it and be able to bring them kids out so they could get away from their day-to-day life.”
What happens next
Not only does Popoutnine16 do free skate competitions around the region, they’ve also expanded to other cities including, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and Placerville.
Popoutnine16 during their West Coast trip to Seattle on Monday July 6, 2026.Photo courtesy of Jordan Baker
They’re currently on their 6th season of a West Coast tour that has future stops in San Diego, Long Beach and Las Vegas. Their next event in Sacramento is slated for July 26 at Derr-Okamoto Skatepark at Mainline Drive in Elk Grove.
Ali said he would love to see anyone come by whether it's rain, snow or sunny outside.
“It's the first time we're going to Elk Grove, so we're really excited,” Ali said. “As always, we got an all star lineup of music — good vibes, good prizes, skate contest, of course, and we gonna do it up.”
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