A taste of Cebu skateboarding
More than a month ago, I went to Cebu to cover the football match between the Philippines and Malaysia, which ended in a 0-0 draw. Football has always been one my passion. I got introduced to when I was grade 2 back in Saudi Arabia, surprisingly in a kind of racist way; “Oh you’re Filipino, you play the goalkeeper”. Ever since then I played as a goalkeeper; in high school then local clubs after I graduated in college.
Strangely though, I stopped playing football in college simply due to the fact that there was no one I knew that time playing it around where I lived. Enter skateboarding, I remember having this old fish board back in Saudi Arabia. Everyone sort of had one, so I bugged my parents to get me one, and I did during one of the weekend sale bazaars around the hood. I never took it seriously then, just pushed through the streets and that was it. I got into it again just after graduating from high school. It was hard looking for boards, and they were pretty damn expensive.
There was 3 of us high school buddies who decided to skate, the problem was where. Skateboarding seemed so small back then here in Manila, and you’d be greeted with cheers; “Ayun oh trasher! Basurero!” Eventually I found a group in Robinson’s Galleria, where I met the Makati skaters who took me to different spots in the Metro and so on and so forth.
Meeting the Cebu skaters reminded me of how skateboarding was back then; small, tight, compact and everyone pretty much knew each other. It was all good vibes, not to mention that these dudes really rip! A lot of them are creative as well, the guys in charge of Quila clips, Strap, Brad and Butter etc… so much stuff going on in the scene, you can’t really get bored here.
Skateboarding has truly grown and evolved, and I’m happy and quite sad at the same time. It’s hard to explain; you have to go through what skaters experienced back then to understand it, but the Cebu skate scene? It made me smile… and the ladies as well.
As Go Skateboarding Day approaches, I hope every skateboarder thinks about why he or she is skating in the first place. You can’t skate all your life, but you can keep on pushing until you physically can’t.
Cheers!
Now here are some snaps from my 2 day trip.
ahlan wasahlan! 