Two island teens have now crossed off what many in the skateboarding world consider to be a top bucket-list item, competing against some of the world’s best amateur skaters at one of the foremost facilities in the sport.

Simon Wilke and Bowie Spencer, both eighth-graders at McMurray Middle School, were invited to skate in an international competition in Los Angeles that took place on Oct. 17 at The Berrics — a privately owned, world-renowned indoor skateboarding and multi-media production venue.

Simon and Bowie competed in the Wild in the Parks (WITP) Global Championships, which is the grand finale of a series of skateboarding competitions sponsored by action sportswear and equipment company Volcom, and held in cities throughout the U.S. and Canada and around the globe.

“I was really happy I got to qualify for that,” Bowie said. “It was great. I was like ‘Wow, I made it here.’”

To qualify for an invitation to the global championships, skaters had to place in the top seven in their age groups at a WITP series event. Both Bowie and Simon qualified in June at the series’ Bellevue, Washington, stop, where Bowie placed second and Simon sixth in the under-14 age group.

Both boys have been skateboarding seriously for about the last four years, though Simon got his first board when he was just 5 years old.

“At the time, we lived in Arizona near a skate park, and he really enjoyed watching,” Simon’s mother Jenni Wilke explained. “He was interested in trying it out for himself, so he got his first board for Christmas when he was 5.”

Simon has also kept every “deck” (the board part of a skateboard) he’s ever owned, with about 12 to 15 currently in his collection.

The two are an active part of the skating community at the Burton Adventure Recreation Center (BARC) where they spend much of their spare time — from two to three hours after school a few days a week, to six or seven hours a day on the weekends and through the summer.

And it was at BARC that Simon and Bowie met.

“He (Simon) had tried some of the more traditional sports, but those didn’t really click for him,” Wilke said. “We still wanted him to have some regular physical activity, so we started taking him to the skate park. That’s where he became friends with Bowie and the others. They became a team almost, always pushing each other.”

It’s this camaraderie that helps define the culture of the sport.

Bowie, Simon and several skating friends spend their summers riding King County Metro buses to skate parks throughout the greater Seattle area to experience different venues and skate with new people to learn new skills, share what they know and make friends with others who share their passion.

“If a friend or someone else can do a trick that I can’t do, then I can ask for help,” Bowie said.

Simon’s father Dave Wilke, a fan and advocate of the sport himself for 30-plus years, elaborated on what he referred to as the brother/sisterhood of skaters.

“It’s a familial culture, a lifelong component of who you are,” he said. “And it’s fantastically inclusive and welcoming.”

(Dave) Wilke, who accompanied Simon and Bowie to L.A., noted that the Volcom events, particularly the championships, were emblematic of this as well.

“It’s a testament to the community that exists for these kids,” he said. “There was a feeling that they were amongst friends. And even with so many competitors, it didn’t matter how old they were, if they fell or landed an awesome trick, there was never anything but support and encouragement.”

Jared King, Volcom’s WITP director, noted that is exactly what Volcom had in mind when it developed the WITP series.

Now in its 13th year, WITP had a rather inauspicious start as a friendly barbecue and skateboarding get-together for amateurs in Canada. Volcom took the idea of supporting young skaters in a casual and low pressure setting and ran with it, setting up WITP as a unique vehicle for exposure and experience at skateparks around the world.

Skaters can register for a WITP event free of charge in three age categories. Competitors are then put into heats or groups, that each get 15 minutes in the park to show what they’ve got — essentially skating as they normally would with others, with no requirements and nothing lost for falls.

“It’s just like any day at the park,” King said. “They can show what they’re capable of without all the pressure of being on their own in front of a crowd.”

This year, almost better than winning, was the opportunity to skate at the venue chosen for the championships.

The Berrics is a privately-owned, indoor skate park in Los Angeles, used primarily by professional skaters for filming and other media purposes.

Owners and professional skateboarders Steve Berra and Eric Koston also host a website of the same name, where the content produced at the park is posted. The website is a mecca for skaters around the world, surpassing most major skateboard magazine sites in attracting visitors.

It’s not a surprise then, that an invitation to skate in the championships there was a victory in and of itself for Simon and Bowie.

“He (Bowie) was in heaven,” Bowie’s mother Kristen Spencer, who also made the trip to L.A., said. “He was so thrilled and excited to be there, to just have the opportunity to skate there.”

The championships hosted over 200 competitors from countries around the world, with six continents represented, according to King.

“We had kids from everywhere except Antarctica,” he said with a laugh.

With over 70 competitors in the 14-and-under group, neither Bowie nor Simon made the top 15 but by all accounts, placed well within the field.

Both said that they weren’t so much concerned about winning, as cool as it would have been, but more about the experience overall.

“It was really great competing with other kids from all over the world,” Bowie said. “I’d say, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that trick before!’ I loved it. I just wanted to do my best and have as much fun as possible.”

And he’d like to go back, a sentiment echoed by his friend.

“I would 100 percent go back to try to get invited next year,” Simon said.