Natalio Bacalso Avenue is one of Cebu City’s busiest roads. By day, it carries locals, students and jeepneys from one end of the city to the other. But even its busiest stretches have forgotten corners that passersby are too afraid to walk through. They’re the places many simply call dead streets.
Tucked between two schools along N. Bacalso, one such corner has found new life through a community built around miniature skateboards. BLVCKMARKET (BM) Fingerboarding Cafe has transformed the once-dim passageway into a gathering place where passersby now stop not out of fear but curiosity.
‘‘There used to be a lot of troublemakers here. We’ve got to know all of them over time. When BM was built, the place stayed well-lit all the time. We’d hang out here until dawn just fingerboarding. People aren’t afraid to pass through here anymore,’’ said co-founder Ralph S. Quipte, better known as Pablow within the community.
The all-DIY community shop officially opened on June 28, 2026, with more than a hundred local creatives, artists and fingerboarders gathering to celebrate.
‘‘They supported us by donating products for the event. We have so many friends across different communities. Even the people whom others would call delinquents in these streets have become curious about what we do. Fingerboarding is really for everyone,’’ Pablow said, adding that the hobby gives young people an alternative to destructive habits by giving them something to pour their time and energy into.
The making
The idea for BM began with co-owner Art Rachid Baraquil, who came from Cebu’s skateboarding scene around 2012 and saw the potential of creating a space that could bring different communities together.
‘‘That’s when I introduced the vision to Pablow,’’ Art recalled. ‘‘I started thinking about how I could blend everything together into something that would bring people together.’’
His background in skateboarding and architecture naturally influenced the concept. Fingerboarding, he said, offered the same creativity as skateboarding but in miniature, allowing riders to build and interact with scaled-down parks almost anywhere.
That idea eventually evolved into ‘‘Fuel for the Subculture,’’ the phrase spray-painted across one of the shop’s walls by graffiti artist Takou. More than wall art, it became BLVCKMARKET’s guiding philosophy.
‘‘Coffee has always been part of people’s routines,’’ Art said. ‘‘Fingerboarding felt the same way. It became the fuel that kept people coming back.’’
Over time, the phrase took on a deeper meaning. ‘‘Later, I realized we were becoming fuel for the fingerboarding community itself. We wanted to hype people up, bring them back and help the community grow again.’’
Pablow brought the vision to life alongside his father and Art, who redesigned the space, while his sister Gladys invested in making the project a reality.
Today, BM has become one of the city’s most welcoming community spaces. Out front, tables and a miniature fingerboarding park invite riders and curious passersby to stay awhile. Inside, sticker-covered mirrors, graffiti and trophies celebrate years of shared memories, while a glass display of premium fingerboarding gear doubles as another surface where tricks are practiced between conversations. Beneath it sits a rack of locally made T-shirts, while shelves behind the counter showcase Cebuano-made decks, including Prototype by Daniel Ong, alongside other locally crafted fingerboarding products.
The roots
For the founders, BM was about bringing back a culture that had slowly faded.
The idea wasn’t entirely new. Before settling along N. Bacalso, the founders first opened a smaller space in Pari-an, Cebu City in 2017, but it closed a year later. Yet Cebu’s fingerboarding scene wasn’t always searching for a home.
Back in the early 2010s, the city was regarded as one of the strongest fingerboarding communities in the country. Riders from Manila looked up to Cebu’s scene, which had grown from a small underground hobby into a thriving subculture.
In 2010 and 2011, gatherings were intimate and grassroots, often taking place inside a pizza parlor in Lahug or along Gorordo Avenue.
‘‘Back then, it was incredibly niche,’’ recalled competitive fingerboarder Neil Nanta, a longtime figure in Cebu’s scene alongside Jasper Janea Jr. ‘‘Only people who were truly obsessed with it knew what was happening. It was a completely different era compared to the massive crowds we see today.’’
The movement gained even more momentum in 2012 and 2013 with the rise of Rebel Fingerboards, founded by local pioneer Ervi Jann Pescador before he eventually moved to New Zealand. In 2014, SunStar Cebu chronicled Rebel Fingerboards’ rise as the heart of Cebu’s fingerboarding scene, documenting how competitions, collaborations and friendships had transformed a niche pastime into one of the country’s most active fingerboarding communities.
As pioneers moved away, careers took over and organized events became less frequent, the community gradually lost momentum. Riders never stopped fingerboarding, but the large gatherings that once defined Cebu’s scene became increasingly rare. Shops such as Arlateheels in V. Rama, run by professional fingerboarder Rhanrey Autor, continued keeping the culture alive for dedicated enthusiasts even as the community became more fragmented.
For Pablow and Art, BM became their answer to a question many riders had quietly been asking for years: Where could the community gather again?
The answer came on the shop’s opening day. More than a hundred people packed the once-forgotten corner of N. Bacalso. Veteran riders stood alongside newcomers. Local artists, musicians and creatives filled the space, while pioneers who had helped shape Cebu’s fingerboarding culture returned to celebrate what many saw as the beginning of a new chapter.
Artists and collectives such as JJD, Ayban Yakan, ASHLEE, OL Crew, JustRaw and Aside Boondocks came to show their support, turning the opening into what Pablow described as ‘‘a mini reunion.’’ The moment was documented by BLVCKMARKET’s in-house photographer, Gabriel Villa.
Why BLVCKMARKET?
Aside from being backed by the community, Pablow knows exactly what fingerboarders are looking for. Having spent 16 years in the hobby, competing across Cebu, Bacolod, Ormoc and Manila, he understands what they need.
Supported over the years by communities such as AKLAS through 9Lives Fingerboards and Frederick Marc Sales of Triumph Fingerboards, Pablow wanted BM to become a space that would pay that generosity forward.
‘‘When we opened, it felt like a mini reunion,’’ he said. ‘‘The pioneers either came themselves or sent products to support us. That’s how this community has always been.’’
The shop name is a playful nod to one of the shop’s biggest draws. While premium fingerboarding brands often sell out within minutes of limited online releases, the shop has built a reputation for sourcing sought-after products that are otherwise difficult to get in the Philippines. Instead of waiting for overseas drops, collectors can often find exclusive decks, wheels and trucks already available on its shelves.
Rather than rushing to launch their own decks, trucks or wheels, the founders chose to build a community first.
‘‘We still don’t have our own decks, trucks or wheels,’’ Pablow said. ‘‘Right now, we’d rather support the people who’ve been keeping the fingerboarding scene alive.’’
That philosophy extends beyond fingerboarding. Before joining BM, Derek Ramirez spent his evenings selling meals along the same stretch of N. Bacalso while watching the founders renovate the space night after night.
‘‘I used to pass by here every evening,’’ Ramirez said. ‘‘They noticed me and asked if I wanted a job.’’
‘‘I was starting from zero. I didn’t know anyone in the fingerboarding community,’’ he added. ‘‘But thanks to them, I learned. I’m really grateful they gave me a chance.’’
For Pablow and Art, stories like Ramirez’s are what BLVCKMARKET is truly about. More than a hobby shop, they see it as a tribute to the pioneers who built Cebu’s fingerboarding scene and a place where anyone can belong.
The forgotten corner along N. Bacalso that people once hurried past now stays alive long after dark. Where silence once lingered, the clatter of miniature boards, conversations and laughter now fill the space.
‘‘In this scene, everybody wins,’’ Art said. ‘‘No matter where you come from, it’s common ground for Cebu’s different communities.’’