The Republic of the Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country with a population of about 90 million people, and where you've got people, hills and great weather... you've got longboarders! Carlos Domingo sends Silverfish this scene report:
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.
A few years ago, Silverfish Longboarding ran a series of articles by the OG Longboarder, Jeff Tatum, describing the giant waterpipes in San Diego County that were known to a few as “Nukeland” in the late 1970’s. Perhaps even more well known, if only because of greater coverage in Skateboarder Mag, were the truly legendary Desert Pipes in Arizona. Skater and historian “Ping!” skated those pipes and maintains an online homage to them. Here’s a taste of what he’s got…
By Steve Pingleton (aka: Ping!)
Five Reasons Why America is Great.
I was very fortunate as a young skateboarder to grow up in Phoenix, AZ back in the seventies and eighties, even tho' I didn't really know it at the time. We had an abundance of empty swimming pools, and the cops were usually pretty cool about "trespassing" and skateboarding back then. But from about 1977 to 1980, we found much bigger game, the Legendary Desert Pipes!
Everyone at school used to party in the desert out by Lake Pleasant, at a place we called "the flumes", a downhill canal with waterfalls and a bridge. Tubing, boating, and swimming in the desert -- a 4x4 party paradise! Well, they built a pipe factory nearby to dig a pipeline for the C.A.P. (Central Arizona Project) under the Agua Fria river. Once we had discovered that, it was on...
Jeff Tatum is "the original longboarder", but isn't one of those dudes that sit on their laurels and talk about glory days instead of skating. JT rips it daily, and has recently been on the road, working with skatepark owners and designers. Recently, his travels took him to a town outside Omaha, Nebraska and when he got back he was so stoked about the skatepark scene there that he sent another of his reviews in:
Vinny's Skatepark
Papillion, Nebraska
A buddy of mine and Pool King team photog, Mark Fountain, lives in Nebraska. Mark told me about a skatepark being built in Nebraska and that the owner, Vince Serratore, needed someone to do his whole art campaign for the park stickers, tshirts, banners, logos etc. So, Mark hooked me up with Vinny and I got the gig. I flew out to Omaha, then drove about 20 minutes over to a town called Papillion, where Vinny’s Skatepark occupies 7,000 square feet in what looks like it used to be a small warehouse. Vinny turned out to be a real cool guy and once he learned of my skate history he asked me if I would sign autographs and do a skate demo with the Pool King Nebraska dudes. I was impressed with the facility and thought you skaters on Silverfish might enjoy another skatepark review, so here it is!
Jeff Tatum continues on his quest to hit every skatepark he can, over and over, and to report back how he rates them. This time, he takes us to a suburb in Los Angeles, just south of Santa Monica...
Culver City: the Mickey Mouse Pool
The Culver City skate park is a mix of the best and worst use of cement I’ve ever seen together in one place. As skateparks go, it’s relatively small, consisting of a street/flow area and also a Mickey Mouse head-shaped pool with pool coping and the shallow end being the ears.
Michael Early, frontside at Culver.
The “mickey mouse pool” is a pretty serious bowl.It’s got a deep end at about 10 foot deep and the two shallow end pieces are about 5-½ foot in the one and 6 foot in the other. The deep end has a fairly quick tranny to almost vert and the shallow ends have a quicker tranny with about 5 or 6 inches of vert. The finish on the cement is good and smooth but grippie with pretty beefy backyard style coping. The whole bowl is very backyardish for a park. There are a few lumps in it but otherwise it’s built well.
In recent months, we've brought you scene reports from around the globe. Now, check out the stoke coming from a group of longboarders in the Central American nation of Panama:
Longboarding in Panama is Alive!
Longboarding in Panama, Central America, still a young sport OR lifestyle as some might say, the first longboarders started appearing on the country hills maybe some 10 years ago, carving, down every hill they could find on their path. In the last couple of years there has being a global boom regarding longboarding, and Panama has also taken part on this popularity, skateshops are know carrying products specifically for longboarding, downhill OR sliding as much as regular skateboarding equipment.
Scene Reports 
