Unlike the United States were all the skaters join together, there are two separate events in Taipei. Both the skateshops there are in huge competition against each other. If you associate with one skateshop the other one will shun you. I don't know all the facts to this controversy but it seems pretty crazy how much they hate each other. Hopefully I have chosen the right crew of guys.
Most of the day we spent skating this flat area with a rail and a box to skate. There was probably about 100 or more skaters that showed up. There was only a few that I could speak English too. The photo above is from some of the fun little contest they had. This is the High Ollie contest. I only made it up to 4 boards. I nicked the 5th board so I got kicked out of the contest, even though I know I can make that. I just needed a few more tries.
After skating in 33 Celsius weather from 12-7 we headed back to the skateshop for some food and a skate video by Toy Machine. Sorry for my lack of photos, I seem to have failed to fully document this day due to being occupied by skateboarding.
nice, waiting for more pics :)
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't get that many, I was to busy just having a good time skating last year I had a crew of guys I was with that would borrow my camera and take turns taking pics so I got a lot more last time.
ReplyDeleteGeez being an old-school skater myself I was pretty excited when I passed by the area on Sunday around 6pm noticing hundreds of skaters.. and I felt so sad that I didnt know about this event, so I could have at least joined with a camera to take some shots! I hope there will be footage somewhere to find later... - are there any good skateparks in Taipei? I rarely see skaters here, but I bet, they must hang out in certain places?! :)
ReplyDeleteHere is some footage from the day http://wordsilived.blogspot.com/2011/06/go-skateboarding-day-taipei-footage.html
ReplyDeleteAlso there is a very good skatepark in Taipei, and they have a nice wooden bowl that you would probably love if you are an old school guy.
I am not sure of the address to the place but the park is at Nangang MRT Stop.
Thanks for the footage - cool - and I saw you aswell there, nice! :-) I am not oldschool for bowls, but I am more like oldschool streetskater.. with the age against me (36 now) so I haven't been able to keep up to for the past 10 years due to job and stuff, but I can probably still pull off a few flip tricks if I warm up first (I guess :-D) I should try and find the one at Nangang at see what's cooking there. I also should try and dig out where the skateshops is.. as a foreigner, I don't hope they judge me on hitting the "wrong store" :-) haha
ReplyDeletehaha, yea I am not completely sure how serious they take it with a forienger but it seems like a pretty big deal. The vibe I got was the skateshop called "skateboarding" seems to be more hardcore skaters more rough and not as just be nice to everyone kind of deal. You kinda have to earn your respect I think. But Jimmy from the Taiwanese skaters that aren't so good, they seem to like to go there, because apparently Jimmy skaters are a lot nicer. I have never been to Jimmy so I don't know for sure. But Nangang also has a really good streets course with ledges and rails, etc.
ReplyDeletegeez, it is kinda interesting that they have this kind of internal flame-war between the stores and followers here. I rarely see any skaters on the streets here in Taipei, but I will go to Nangang and try to find the place - thanks for the tips :-) Maybe Taichung also has it's skateboard areas? I guess so, since you seem to be staying there. I will probably go Taichung in July to see some business contacts there.
ReplyDeleteOk, I tried to find you on facebook, so hopefully I got the right guy. I will be pretty busy in July, but if you need anything just let me know or want to find some place to skate or whatever.
ReplyDeleteCool, you did manage to find me and I added you in, Dale :-) I will also be busy in July and out of Taiwan for business trips etc. but we will catch up eventually :-)
ReplyDeleteok just hit me up whenever.
ReplyDelete