#GSDCEBU2014

Far from being an act of protest or anything unnecessary like that, a deluge of kids on wheels rolled around Cebu City on June 21 to celebrate with the rest of the world the essence of the annual (controversial) “Go Skateboarding Day” (GSD). Why controversial?

Ask your local police station for details. Anyone outside the skating community can go cock an eyebrow about it but June 21 is like Christmas for all skaters. Not to mention, every day is skate day for some skaters. It used to be an excuse for skateboarders to make skateboarding a priority for a day but in the long run, there’s more to the event in itself.

Founded by the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) in 2004, GSD started in Southern California in the United States—skateboarding’s unofficial capital. Eventually, the do-it-yourself occasion progressed into a tradition adapted by other skating cities around the globe to what else but put the skateboarding culture into perspective.

Cebu is not the Mecca of skateboarding in the country, sure, but it doesn’t really matter. A hundred or so boarders (on skateboards, longboards, cruisers, penny boards and even roller skates) hit the streets last Saturday at midday, passing by strings of confused spectators on the sidewalks; roaring, cheering, justifying the “holiday.” For all you know, some skaters might have blown off their regular grinds for the day in exchange for the revelry.

Despite the light drizzle, a few honking vehicles and the “arresting” looks of traffic officers (thank you for the maximum tolerance), the skating flock was not stymied from cruising the busy roads, one push at a time from Fuente Osmeña Circle to Escario, Gorordo, Mango Ave. and to downtown Colon. Pocket contests, random displays of tricks and photobombing graced every pit stops of the route. The parade rounded off with an after-party at The Emporium Skate Shop in Quezon Blvd. where participants continued to mosh with live band performances, skate competitions and free skate sessions. For those who didn’t make it, next year for sure is still going to be one “sick” of a staging or maybe the “sickest” ever.

For the benefit of those who have been brainwashed by the claim that skateboarding is nothing but a lousy activity for the lost, well, just like everything else in this life, what has become of the Cebu skateboarding scene is weeded out of history.

Just don’t be so cynical or freaked out about skating. You’re not jealous of those who can land tre flips or hand rail back smiths, are you? As cliché as it sounds, skateboarding is not one hardcore of a crime (if you really think it is) than what those drugged-out psychos are committing in the dead of the night. Perhaps you have to skate for yourself to understand the whole “nonsense.”

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