Go Skateboarding Day.

Apparently the 21st of June was World Go Skateboarding Day and Push Skateboards, a bunch of cool cats, set up celebrations at the Racecourse on Saturday.

Push Skateboards is a relatively new organization that’s been a big part of the introduction of skateboarding into the local scene. They sell skateboarding merchandise, pimp out skateboards, and try to teach people how it’s done at events like this month’s Go Skate Day. Organizers plan on hosting an event like this at least once every month.

How it went

It was all very chilled out, from noon to about 5PM, with scattered crowds between ice cream and coffee at the Good Market tents – either trying their luck on skateboards, or just watching, entertained by either speedy skateboarders or fail-landings.

Balls of steel

I tried getting on somebody’s skateboard. It is unstable and scary and I feared for my life (I have balancing issues since falling off a bicycle). There are no belts on this thing and no ignition key so starting one up is utter madness really. So kudos to the folks who not only rode their skateboards and did wild things like take them on ramps and attempt to flip them in mid-air, but did it in front of loads of witnesses, at the risk of falling on one’s ass.

Learning to skateboard

Swag

Skateboarding is an extremely new sport in Sri Lanka, so as far as I know, Push Skateboards is the only place that’s offering any real assistance to learners. Kids and even adults were given a shot on riding the custom designed skateboards from the Push Sk8 stall. People fell down but kept going regardless. One of the older skateboarders said it can take years to learn to just maneuver yourself on an unstable board on wheels – and that it’s just a matter of trial and error, and keeping on despite falling off a bunch of times.

Location for skateboarding is tricky – Racecourse and maybe Independence Square seem to be safe places so far. Hash, an organizer, said in the long run Push Skateboards aims on setting up a skateboarding arena with ramps et al for those who want to practise.

Cool Points

All the cool kids are skateboarding. So, guaranteed, if you want to get lucky with the ladies or seem wild and mysterious to the boys, then skateboarding will do it for you. Sometimes, just wearing converse sneakers and carrying around a skateboard with psychedelic art on it is enough to earn you cool points.

Rasta dreadlocks + skateboard = all the cool points!

Get started

Although skateboarding is new here, there is a small growing community of skateboarders in Colombo. Stay tuned on Push Skateboards’ Facebook page and stay alert for news about meetups in the city – the best way to start is to probably meet others who do it, exchange notes, and help each other out.

More moments from Go Skate Day:

Push Skateboards does skateboard-art