PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED RED BULL SKATEPARK HAS CLOSED
When
my parents forbid from purchasing my first skateboard,
skateboarders were considered delinquents. Regardless,
I purchased a used Powell-Peralta and proceeded to
get involved with the "wrong crowd". It wasn't that
we were bad kids, we were just kids. However, it seems
understandable that those we "terrorized" would believe
that our loud and dangerous boards could only be ridden
by loud and dangerous individuals; we weren't exactly
saints.
Today
the image of the skateboarder has evolved. Certainly
a bad-boy attitude still permeates skate culture,
epitomized by the motion picture hijinks of the Jack
Ass crew, a spin off of the antics featured in Big
Brother skate magazine. However, thanks in part to
the popularity of charismatic superstars like Tony
Hawk, and his hugely popular video game, skating has
become completely mainstream. Worldwide, skate parks
are popping up everywhere, and Vans, an old-skool
skate shoe company, has even built ramps in shopping
malls around America. ESPN frequently airs international
tournaments for skating and other "extreme" disciplines,
elevating them to practically genuine sports status.
When
I saw that a park had been build on Sathorn Road,
I was unsure of what to expect. What form had skating
taken when it migrated across the pacific? Were skaters
in Thailand stereotypical punk skate-rats, intent
on thrashing any and all concrete and plywood surface,
unapologetic of their anti-Thai-values lifestyle?
The conspicuous absence of skaters at the seemingly
endless number of public handrails, abandoned buildings,
parking garages, and monuments led me to doubt this
conclusion. Perhaps Thai skaters were more in line
with the new image being fostered by the corporate
promoters of skating; skaters as actual athletes.
I headed down to the Red Bull skate park to check
it out.
The
park consists of an international competition size
park course, approximately 35 x 40 meters with a 3m
high drop in launch box, fun boxes, spines, lots of
banks, rails, and transitions, as well as a full corner
bowl and a full size, 10.5 ft vert ramp with a 13
ft roll in. The design was created for multiple purposes;
hosting international competitions, allowing traffic
to flow for different sports using the course simultaneously
on a daily basis, and elevating the skill of local
talent from novice to international level.
Climbing
up the bleachers for a better view of the terrain,
I was surprised by traffic that was flowing around
the park. While a group of Freestyle BMX riders performed
flatland stunts in the foreground, others launched
aerials off the fun box. Dozens of in-line skaters
were grinding the copings, and one high-flying skater
was landing back-flip 360s. Although I was aware of
the growing popularity of in-line skating and riding
BMX bikes, at this park they easily outnumbered the
skateboarders.
I
spoke with several skateboarders and in-line skaters
to try and understand the reason for the discrepancy.
In the west, skateboarding is clearly the dominant
sport, why was it not so here in Thailand? The skateboarders
hedged at my suggestion that in-line skating was more
popular because it was easier. One in-line skater
simply smiled, unaware that there should be some rivalry,
and said that he just liked to "get air" and thought
the in-line tricks were "beautiful". While I expected
some animosity between the various camps, I was a
little surprised by the actual harmony between the
groups. Everyone was stoked on each other and I started
to glimpse the real difference here in Thailand, the
attitudes of the kids.
The
vanguard of this optimistic outlook is Apichat Rutnin.
Following the advice of an old Thai saying: "sports
is the best medicine" and applying it to activity
that appealed to at-risk kids, Apichat founded the
Skating Association in 1996. An ex-skater and former
teen drug rehabilitation counselor, Apichat actively
promoted a new positive mind-set based on a combination
of self-esteem, self-expression, individualism, freedom,
speed, and thrills.
This
was particularly applicable to a historically maligned
group of individuals; skateboarders. "Whenever they
had a problem they came and we skated. Then we talked,
but we would never point or prohibit, rather guide
them to a right decision. As in skating, life was
their own. If they decided to exercise bad judgment
then they would fall and hurt themselves. We could
only advise them on how we would do it, but we could
never do it for them."