Streetboarding snakes its way into Shanghai
By Andrew Chin |
October 14, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LAST month, 30 of the world's best extreme sports athletes gathered at Top Toys Skate Park outside of Yuanshen Stadium to compete in their world championships.
While streetboarding is virtually unknown in China, the sport made an impressive debut with its 19th World Cup that saw World Champion Gabi Munoz successfully defend his crown. For the Barcelona native, it was a hometown win of sorts.
Since April, Munoz has been living in Shanghai, turning people on to streetboarding and trying to create a scene. He plans to introduce the sport in China through his Gazpacho brand that will build the first streetboards available in the country. They will be released around Christmas. He hopes to duplicate the success of his Barcelona streetboarding school program for children and youth in Shanghai.
Streetboarding developed in the early 1990s as a strange fusion of skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing. The board is similar to a skateboard but has three moving parts that skaters control by moving their feet in a snake-like fashion somewhat like surfing. Skaters are attached to the board with foot bindings much like snowboarding, which allows them to perform tricks from both sports.
"Being strapped opens a whole new range of tricks," explained Gregory Perret, general manager of this year's World Cup. "Riders jump higher and they improve quicker. The sport has evolved into something very technical and the riders have started to combine all the tricks from snowboarding and skateboarding to create some of their own. Every year sees a whole range of brand new tricks."
"Skateboarding definitely has a presence in Shanghai. Some locals skate really well," said Munoz, who gives lessons with his own boards. He says a Chinese, a Frenchman, and a Colombian recently started streetboarding and are now able to do some tricks.
Around the world streetboards get mixed reactions, but in China, "everybody was really excited when they saw it and wanted to try."
Munoz is a fixture at the Top Toys Skate Park, practicing for competitions and giving lessons. He has five students but lack of boards is the problem, so they use Munoz's board when he finishes. "They're learning much faster than I've seen in Europe," he said.
The unique features of the board appealed to Munoz at an early age. "I saw this board that looks like two things at the same time and I couldn't believe it," he said.
Munoz was hooked, bought a basic board, the Snakeboard Comp, and taught himself with a video tutorial.
The learning curve was fast. "The problem with skateboarding is that you reach a point where you must spend weeks to months learning to do an aggressive trick," he explained. "With streetboarding, I was learning something new every day and after four years I was competing with the pros."
Munoz has an impressive resume. Since first competing in the 2003 Streetboard World Cup in Austria, he has won six world titles in the Streetboard Vert category, three world titles in the Big Air category, and the last two overall World Championships. He set two world record tricks with a double backflip and a backflip to 50-50 combo.
Four months after capturing his first World Championship in Austria, Munoz moved to Shanghai. A graduate of the renowned ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Munoz sees a huge market opportunity.
His company (gazpachoboards.com) plans to sell boards in China for around 1,500 yuan (US$238) at the Top Toys skate shop.
"The China market is very new to streetboarding and I'm trying to make this market grow by creating a scene," he said, adding that he has a five-year time line and plans a range of boards for adults and children.
World Cup General Manager Gregory Perret observed, "Two years after the World Expo, Shanghai was still in everyone's mind and that helped sell the project to the riders. Shanghai is very fashionable and attractive. It's a young, exciting, dynamic and loud city which is what streetboarding is all about."
While streetboarding is virtually unknown in China, the sport made an impressive debut with its 19th World Cup that saw World Champion Gabi Munoz successfully defend his crown. For the Barcelona native, it was a hometown win of sorts.
Since April, Munoz has been living in Shanghai, turning people on to streetboarding and trying to create a scene. He plans to introduce the sport in China through his Gazpacho brand that will build the first streetboards available in the country. They will be released around Christmas. He hopes to duplicate the success of his Barcelona streetboarding school program for children and youth in Shanghai.
Streetboarding developed in the early 1990s as a strange fusion of skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing. The board is similar to a skateboard but has three moving parts that skaters control by moving their feet in a snake-like fashion somewhat like surfing. Skaters are attached to the board with foot bindings much like snowboarding, which allows them to perform tricks from both sports.
"Being strapped opens a whole new range of tricks," explained Gregory Perret, general manager of this year's World Cup. "Riders jump higher and they improve quicker. The sport has evolved into something very technical and the riders have started to combine all the tricks from snowboarding and skateboarding to create some of their own. Every year sees a whole range of brand new tricks."
"Skateboarding definitely has a presence in Shanghai. Some locals skate really well," said Munoz, who gives lessons with his own boards. He says a Chinese, a Frenchman, and a Colombian recently started streetboarding and are now able to do some tricks.
Around the world streetboards get mixed reactions, but in China, "everybody was really excited when they saw it and wanted to try."
Munoz is a fixture at the Top Toys Skate Park, practicing for competitions and giving lessons. He has five students but lack of boards is the problem, so they use Munoz's board when he finishes. "They're learning much faster than I've seen in Europe," he said.
The unique features of the board appealed to Munoz at an early age. "I saw this board that looks like two things at the same time and I couldn't believe it," he said.
Munoz was hooked, bought a basic board, the Snakeboard Comp, and taught himself with a video tutorial.
The learning curve was fast. "The problem with skateboarding is that you reach a point where you must spend weeks to months learning to do an aggressive trick," he explained. "With streetboarding, I was learning something new every day and after four years I was competing with the pros."
Munoz has an impressive resume. Since first competing in the 2003 Streetboard World Cup in Austria, he has won six world titles in the Streetboard Vert category, three world titles in the Big Air category, and the last two overall World Championships. He set two world record tricks with a double backflip and a backflip to 50-50 combo.
Four months after capturing his first World Championship in Austria, Munoz moved to Shanghai. A graduate of the renowned ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Munoz sees a huge market opportunity.
His company (gazpachoboards.com) plans to sell boards in China for around 1,500 yuan (US$238) at the Top Toys skate shop.
"The China market is very new to streetboarding and I'm trying to make this market grow by creating a scene," he said, adding that he has a five-year time line and plans a range of boards for adults and children.
World Cup General Manager Gregory Perret observed, "Two years after the World Expo, Shanghai was still in everyone's mind and that helped sell the project to the riders. Shanghai is very fashionable and attractive. It's a young, exciting, dynamic and loud city which is what streetboarding is all about."
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