Talk about an athlete/celebrity influencer having a cultural moment. Paul Rodriguez is receiving this year's Stoked Achievement Award this week.

Paul Rodriguez spoke at an After School event presented by Stoked & Mountain Dew yesterday at New York City Technical College. P-Rod took the stage in front of an audience of high school students to answer some questions from Stoked founder Steve Larosiliere and to speak about how skateboarding has shaped his life. Alex Corporan, Mark Nardelli, Steve Rodriguez & Nigel Sylvester also spoke on friendship & leadership topics and answered questions. The crowd watched some clips, got some free product and between speakers listened to DJ C-Lo spin some tracks.

Great video showing the 'success equals reward' mentality of urban youth...

Theotis and Paul talk about Theo's rise to the pro ranks.

Nike's new skate film looks to be pretty awesome. What I found interesting is that the roster of athletes in it will be most reflective of what the U.S. youth market looks like right now. Two Hispanics, one of who is bilingual, and a black kid. It's no wonder the brand has had so much success in action sports as of late...

On June 2, 2011 Paul Rodriguez, Theotis Beasley and Omar Salazar take the stage in the NIKE CHOSEN.

This event already happened. But this image represents a unique mash-up of creative concepts I've been working on as of late, had to document it...

As close associations of Latino actor Danny Trejo, SA Studios offers viewers an intimate look into Danny Trejo. Often cast as a villain or a hard-nosed character, Trejo shows a much softer and compassionate side and stresses the importance of giving back.

Reminds me of something Paul Rodriguez (Sr.) stresses while discussing his son's role model status. He is in a position of being an influencer, which os what I think Danny Trejo is getting at in this clip.

Do you notice how many visual markers that speak to the urban youth market? Ah, the sublime sometimes...

P-Rod was the first to give a mention on twitter this evening...

I want to give a shout to Aldrin Garcia the new high Ollie record holder at 46 inches!!!!!!!

After I saw that two Hispanic skaters were in the final 3 of this contest, it reminded me of another observation I made awhile back. Ethnic urban youth have established themselves in the upper echelon of skate, and it's gonna bleed into snow and surf...

Brilliant! Hopefully most folks realize by now that the mobile technology and urban youth market go hand in hand by now. It's going to be interesting to see how much of an affect apps like TSO will have in growing action sports, in particular the snow and surf categories.

We’re setting the bar as high as we can by signing athletes like P Rod. Riders that aren’t just the best in the world, but that also really want to give hands-on, personal instruction to help riders at all levels progress.

Think about it. When you know little about something these days you seek out information via the Internet. A how-to video app has big implications. Masekela clearly recognizes the power of mobile...

We live in an era where every participant in action sports is used to having access to everything right at their fingertips. And that was the driving force behind the creation of TSO – 24/7 access to instruction from the best riders in the world, all in the palm of your hand.