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Trevor's Tales

Generation NeX

Skaters? In Bangkok? Thai skatepunks spill their guts.

Skating is alive and well in Bangkok, Thailand! Bangkok expat and skateboarder, Trevor Ranges, heads down to Red Bull Skate Park on Sathorn Road to get a feel for how the BMX biking, in-line skating, and skate boarding traditions differ on this side of the Pacific.

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."

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