The skate scene in Calgary, AB has always been pretty real, with longtime rippers in the scene for decades.  One of them reports now on the spreading longboard stoke and has an invitation for you to come out and hit...

 Calgary's Wednesday Night Sessions

Some of the “noobs” meeting for a Wed night session in front of Royal Board Shop.

PICS AND WORDS BY JEFFREY WILKINS

I have been a part of this thing we call SK8 in one form or another since 1978. More recently, I have turned to longboarding.  In the last year, I have noticed significant growth in Calgary’s longboarding community, with the most significant change being in knowledge and skills. Calgary is a “prairie city”, nestled along the Bow River Valley between the Rockies and the foot hills of Alberta, and you can’t SK8 very far before encountering a hill.   60K+ isn’t a stretch on a bike path!  So skills, safety gear and knowledge becomes a necessity real fast, especially for the longevity of the sport.

As little as a year ago, it was common to see a noob pushing around on an Evo set up for DH with no helmet, no gloves, no skills and no clue.  Not to say that this doesn’t happen anymore, it's just much more common that these noobs have safety gear and, more importantly, skills.  I don't mean just the ability to stop safely but some"real longboarding skills" like cornering and sliding etc. It's also becoming more common place to see younger rippers taking up this sport, even some that have never SK8ed before long or short board.

So what happened, why the big change in one short year? The largest influence may be an old idea:  shop-promoted clinics, brought back by the new kid in town.  Enter Royal Board Shop and the Wednesday night sessions aka “Customer Safety Classes”. 

Y'know those articles that just fill you with the same stoke the author had when it was written?  We think this is one of those.  A member of the Silverfish revolution writes in to tell us there's a growing longboard scene in Malaysia, and you're all invited to visit and check it out!  You're gonna dig this one...

Skating Malaysia

It has been pretty much an annual thing for me: returning back home to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during the the Aussie summer. Only this time, things were much different, it wasn’t all about enjoying the local food or bumming around for the uni holidays anymore. This time around, I was a downhill skateboarder looking to make the best of my 3 months there.

This could be anywhere, and everywhere.

The downhill scene has been more or less a one-man show for a few years now, mainly kept alive by local street luger, Abdil Madhzan. It was in February ‘09 when I first met Abdil (that was before I even considered doing anything downhill related). I sat in on an interview he did for a local newspaper and listened in as he talked about how much potential this country has for our great sport and also, how hard it is to be the only one to be involved in gravity sports in Malaysia.

Click through to read, and see, more!

 Philippine Scene Report

– War in the Far East –

Whiskey Hill 1 Photo Finish - Dexter Daquigan and Bjorn Pabon

There isn't much news that comes out from our neck of the woods. There's the occasional Youtube video featuring Filipino skaters, but nothing that gives justice to how massive the scene has become in less than 18 months.

I for one have been lucky enough to be part of the community since it began to take shape about a year and a half ago. It all started with the freestyle craze that took the world over. Most people here hopped on a board hoping to capture the grace and fluidity that was the Adam Squared phenomenon-- and  a few of them did. Whatever board they were on, whether it was a mini, popsicle, or longboard, they were trying  cross steps and walk the planks while a handful of riders explored a different persuasion. A few including our crew, looked to the hills first for our share of the excitement.

For the longest time very few people noticed downhill skateboarding. To them, we seemed like crazed adrenaline junkies looking for ways to get hurt. Dancing and cruising on its own stoked the most of the people so much that they didn't feel like they needed any more. Us however cruised only when we didn't have a hill to bomb. Otherwise, we were watching downhill videos online and reading gear reviews on Silverfish, just trying to learn how to hit hills harder and faster than the last time out.