HAZBROS Made In China Article from Issue 131

MADE IN CHINA

ISSUE 131

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MADE IN CHINA

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words

Chris Haslam

photos & captions

Brian Caissie

The idea about maybe going to China was floating around for a few months, although we didn’t really do anything to further the plan of actually going. That is until I went to the theatre and saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which got me thinking about how I don’t utilize my opportunities to travel on an impulsive level as much as I should. So as soon as I got home from that Ben Stiller movie I impulse-bought my ticket.

Well I was going, so then it became a matter of getting other people to go and calling it a skate trip. That meant sorting out accommodations, getting accepted for Visas (which can be quite the process), and there was some small talk with Will Cui—a friend of Brian Caissie’s who was going to be our guide there.

I had recently gone to Nicaragua with Steve Nesser, who had never been to China before. I talked to maybe four more skaters and all of them were busy or lacking in funds, so I

#hazbrosinchina

pretty much planned on it being Nesser and I there solo.

That was before he mentioned fellow SEND HELP rider, Tabari Cook, was down to go. The trip began to take shape, and seeing how budgets were kind of tight and I couldn’t find a filmer, Caissie ended up as the one-man media unit (stay tuned to concreteskateboarding.com for the video).

The itinerary was pretty laid back. All we really knew is that we were flying into Guangzhou—the largest city in Guangdong province—and then we could basically do whatever we wanted. We avoided the rain there until Will took us out to Foshan for the remainder of our stay.

While in the People’s Republic of China we got around by taxi, stayed in an average hotel, hung out in Bruce Lee’s ancestral home, ollied and kickflipped a few times, ate relatively normal food, had a few foot massages, got a few things on video, a few photos, had a few arguments about what’s Instagrammable and what’s not, and then basically branded it.

sendxhelp.com

ultimatedistro.com

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It’s hard to believe this is a spot, so skatepark designers take note. This ledge was so slick that it almost made no grinding noise, and Tabari kept his FRONT CROOK going a little further each time. Then out of nowhere he went the distance— across and down. Most people do short front crooks, so to see a long one in real life was amazing.

Aside from SEND HELP, Tabari rides for Nesser’s Familia Skateshop and this was the first time I met him. I believe this was also his first time overseas, and with China being a little culturally different than his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he seemed pretty stoked to check stuff out. When I saw him at the airport in Guangzhou he was wide-eyed and stoked, but just totally destroyed from the flight. Once he got in the groove of things and got on his board, he started devastating every spot we went to. If you’re not familiar with Tabari, he skates so much like Lewis Marnell, so that got me stoked. By the end of the trip I think he must have had like five or six lines and a bunch of singles, making me feel like a useless waste of space with my whopping two tricks in total. Both Nesser and I made up for it by pointing out every rookie mistake Tabari made on the trip every chance we could. So it was a decent trade-off, I think.

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Guangzhou, Southern China’s largest city, has been getting skated a lot for the last few years. The university is full of hidden spots like this marble bank. Tabari ran through a bunch of tricks before he did this HARDFLIP and took a speedy exit through the kink.

This is the second trip I’ve taken with Nesser. He’s awesome to travel with because we’re on the same page when it comes to a lot of things. Like myself, he just wants to see the world and is in a position to do it. So why not? Even though he got a photo at the first spot we went to, he approached this trip with the mindset of it being a little more mellow than usual—no pressures, just exploring and seeing what we could get. What I like about Steve is that he’s totally independent and comfortable just doing whatever he feels is necessary.

He got a few photos, some footage, and gave young Tabari a hard time. All in all it was a productive little mission for Steve.

It was raining and very windy, so we decided to catch some cabs and go exploring. We found this great plaza filled with marble hips and banks, and of course no security. It started raining lightly, which meant setting up quickly so that Steve could get this nice BACKSIDE TAILSLIDE. We celebrated later that night by getting foot massages and drinking beer.

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Threading the needle between these poles can be tricky, and potentially painful. I wasn’t sure if we had time to shoot this photo because we were rolling to another spot. But the architecture was just too good for Steve to pass up floating this OLLIE.

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On Sundays the big schools in China are like abandoned towns. Tabari started up a manny session and didn’t stop until he got this FRONT SHUV NOSE MANNY NOLLIE FLIP. One of the best things about exploring is that you never know what’s around the next corner, so we continued hunting for spots around campus.

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No matter how many times you go to a city or country, every trip is a totally different experience. The crew changes, personalities are different (sometimes that’s good, sometimes that’s bad) and the weather is often different (leading to new adventures within adventures, like hanging out in Bruce Lee’s old neighbourhood of Jun’an in Foshan on a rainy day). Even though I paid for this trip myself and didn’t really get as much footage or photos as I would’ve liked, it was worth it. Even if the spots sucked (which they didn’t), or if I lost my mind and decided that punching my board was the best decision at that particular moment (I did), or if I spent too much money every day (which in reality was only like four dollars), this trip made me feel grateful for how my life is. Adventures with my homies makes it even better, so I really want to thank Nesser, Tabari and the SEND HELP guys.

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The street corner in front of this spot is full of speeding bikes and cars, so it can be dangerous if your board shoots out. It’s also known for the bank-to-ledge a lot of people skate, so Chris chose a different route and hit this bumpto-rail with a BACK TAIL; he might even be the first to skate this section. Also noteworthy, while he was skating a car pulled up with security and a well-dressed businessman.

Instead of kicking us out or arresting us, it turns out this guy owns the whole building and was happy to see people skating it. He even went over, felt the damage we caused and thought it was cool. Only in China!

[O] WILL CUI

This thing is supposed to be for bicycles, which seems sketchy enough. Even just rolling over these bumps with a board is awkward.

As usual, Chris saw it as an opportunity to take the road less traveled with a GAP TO BACK 5-0 TRANSFER on yet another unique, urban obstacle in the Far East.