Concord’s Nicholas Lajoie grew up admiring the older skateboarders and filmmakers who built their legacy on the gritty, rough and “cutty” streets of New England. He’s bringing back that old school vibe with a new skateboarding film, “Arrogance is Bliss.”
The 30-minute film will screen at Red River Theaters on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 10 p.m. for die-hard skateboarding fans.
Lajoie, the director and owner of his own skateboard apparel and filmmaking company, “PEMDAS,” works for a 3D printing company conducting physics simulations. He never gave up on his dream to make a skateboarding film.
“When you create a skate video, it’s kind of like writing a scientific paper,” Lajoie said. He likened his film hyperbolically to Einstein’s theory of relativity. He hopes people build off of this film to continue pushing skateboarding forward.
Those local skaters and filmmakers he grew up around, namely Cuong “CN” Ngo and Derek Walker, inspired him to create this film to show that New Hampshire skateboarding may not be flashy or fancy, but it can be just as good as the “arrogant” skateboarding cultures in big cities.
The graphics, music, cuts and the actual visuals beyond the skateboarding clips draw heavily on Lajoie’s passion for science and retrofuturism.
“That aesthetic really kind of matches New Hampshire because of the mundaneness of it,” he said.
New Hampshire has many old mill buildings, remnants of a time when manufacturing boomed. He wanted to give them new life by skateboarding at these old sites.
Lajoie and a crew of skaters traveled to Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Albany, Boston, Portland, Nashua, Manchester and other places all over New England to make the movie.
(L to R) Ethan Rigoli, Troy Mavrogeorge, Will Nowokunski, Andrew Andersen, Chris Buchanan in Ghent, NY to make a skateboarding film, soon to be screened at Red River Theaters. Credit: JOSHUA LITTLEFIELD / Courtesy 
New Hampshire’s Steve Shepard hits a trick during a filming trip to Albany, NY. Credit: JOSHUA LITTLEFIELD / Courtesy 
New Hampshire skater Troy Mavrogeorge wall rides in Cambridge, MA. Credit: JOSHUA LITTLEFIELD / Courtesy 
Concord filmmaker Nick Lajoie and skateboarder Ethan Rigoli in Burlington, MA filming for “Arrogance is Bliss.” Credit: JOSHUA LITTLEFIELD / Courtesy
“It’s like trying to show that our area is not perfect. Yeah, we don’t have everything, like we don’t have perfect parks, perfect spots. We have a long winter,” Lajoie said.
One of his friends, Eric Dasaro, said the same thing. Dasaro has known Lajoie since he was young and recalls him having beat up shoes and hanging around good skate spots in Concord.
Lajoie’s not just a great filmmaker, Dasaro said, he’s a great skateboarder too. Many skate shops have come and gone in the region, and the scene took a dive in Dasano’s eyes, but he hopes films like Lajoie’s can bring a revival of the sport.
“His skateboard videos are just raw skateboarding. The stuff that they skate is, I’d say, more crusty, more rugged kind of spots,” Dasaro said.
Nick Lajoie, a filmmaker and skateboarder, kickflips over stairs for his new film. 
Troy Mavrogeorge hits a noseblunt on a ledge for a new skateboarding film made by New Hampshire natives. Credit: ZACK TINKER / Courtesy 
Troy Mavrogeorge gets serious air for a trick on “Arrogance is Bliss.” Credit: ZACK TINKER / Courtesy
With all the new skate parks sprouting up around the state, Dasaro hopes kids will take to the streets and be inspired to try the same stuff the group skated in “Arrogance is Bliss.”
Lajoie remembers those days growing up skating in Concord. He said it almost felt illegal to skate in downtown when he was a kid. He remembers watching skate shops come and go. But he’s not in it for the fame or the money, just to promote the sport.
Now, working in science, he hopes that this movie shows others that they can continue pursuing their dreams. His first love was, and always will be, skateboarding.
“It comes from truly within, I would say that really promotes longevity. It’s just wanting to do it because that’s what you want to do,” Lajoie said.