When it comes to skateboarding, we have cultural practices that set ours apart from the rest of the ordinary people with valiant efforts trying to pick up the knack of our skateboards.
For skaters, there is one important thing we all look forward to with either nervousness or excitement or both - the learning new tricks every single day.
Before we start skating, posting on social media, or even brag about the new tricks we have landed, we all need to know at least the brief history of skateboarding in the Philippines. Here's what you need to know about the chronicles, containing what went down in the time when Ger Batista was first starting to skate.
So what is it like skating back in the old days?
Way back in the 70's there were individual skateboarders and at that time, cruiser skateboards were still in vogue. As far as I know, it was still a demo from Pepsi, I think the skaters were Kuya Ponzo's group, the mid 80's street skateboarding, and the Philippine skateboarding scene were at PICC which is a weekend skate session.
"I STARTED SKATEBOARDING SINCE I WAS 5 YEARS OLD, NOW I AM 45, SO DO THE MATH YOU WILL KNOW WHAT ERA I SKATED."
We already have the ancient street skaters in the Philippines, there are groups of local boys and torrid grinds, then the resounding names of that era are Kuya Lincon Yatco, Marlon the ollie because he can ollie a trashcan, and other locals of PICC and the skate shop back then is the RADIA skate shop near Blumentritt market the only skate shop of that time in the late 80s.
There is a scene in Makati at that time in Greenbelt and also in Greenhills, there are Filipino Americans who skated there and it is the spot of a celebrity named Ian De Leon. In Olongapo there is also a scene in the '80s which are also Filipino Americans, they have a full vert ramp and snake trail inside SBMA that time, I started skateboarding since I was 5 years old, now I am 41, so do the math you will know what era I skated.
I saw the evolution of skateboarding in the Philippines, I was one of the PICC skaters back then in the late '80s and I am just new in skateboarding, but I never called myself a newbie or beginner, I knew immediately that I am a skateboarder.
So around the '90s skateboarding evolved from old-school spoon nose and tail fish to the new school skateboard that came through with double kick decks. Same here in the Philippines the skaters also evolved and replaced their decks - that era of the early 90s are called small wheel big pants.
Then the scene boomed in SM city north Edsa because of the new school technical skaters that time and from there I became part of the group. What the new generation tricks now is being done before is also what is being done now, we do stairs, gaps, all those technical flip tricks that we can learn by just reading the magazine and watching Betamax and VHS tape that the troops will not return after it's being borrowed, then the mid-90s entered.
"WE ARE JUST TALKING AND HAVING FUN DURING SKATE EVENTS, WE DON'T SEE OURSELVES COMPETING, BECAUSE WE KNOW WE ARE THERE JUST TO SKATE AND HAVE FUN."
The bulky skate shoe era became a thing, and skateboarding is already booming because there are shops built, like Melrose and High Adventure and by the way the High Adventure skate shop started in the early 90s it was earlier than Melrose then from there Boystoys skate shop opened in Univesity belt, so the era of SM days started to have the gnarly skaters like Ansey Flores, Raymond "Wong" Lorenzana, June Castor, Mike NPA, Mike Torio, Lloyd Briones, master Edward Pasqua, Alex Papa, Jack Nonato and so on who are great skaters of the 90s era where we all started off what we call golden years of skateboarding.
Then when the year 2000 entered, skateboarding boomed, even more, big events like Philips x rage and Philips x rush entered, then after that the Asian X Games entered as well, it really totally boomed the scene, but at that time we didn't want competition at all not being the best of the best, we are happy in the scene because wow skateboarding in the Philippines is now known, even if we are at a skate event, do you know that we are just talking and having fun during skate events, we don't see ourselves competing, because we know we are there just to skate and have fun.
There are already a lot of skate crews and spots that were being recognized such as Mendiola, Lawton, Pasig Kapitolyo and Munisipyo, Marikina just like the playground and Chinese temple, Las piñas Country homes, Paranaque Katuska, Alabang town center, Caloocan city hall, Montalban with Dweed, Bulacan zero, Malolos Baliwag, strong south Laguna with Strike Pangan, Cebu, Visayas region, Mindanao and many more skate spots that were built in that era then the skater-owned skate shop started like Jackass project, Skunks owned by a pro skater from U.S Shiloh Greathouse in Makati that Mylan managed, skate shop of Karls in Laguna, Artillery skate shop in Malabon, skate mate of Ryan Manalo, and other skate shops are already operating and owned by skaters, and because of the skater-owned shops, the reason why our skate products have increased and the price has dropped significantly, imagine before a deck was at Php3,000 and now it is affordable, it was a huge decrease right?
If you notice you will meet almost everyone in this era now what? now, this is the new heresy of the skater, it seems that the next skateboarding story is not good because it loses the true meaning of skateboarding to the youth, so I can share it with you because I am one of the sponsors who helped the Philippine Skateboarding in our country I am one of those who helped to develop it now what did you do?
Please do not waste the scene that we all started and by the way, there is already a Philippine Skateboarding website of the 90s and a forum created by Jun Celso before which is philskate.tk this site no longer works.