A
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Words and Photos by Wey Laundry
GAIN I FOUND MYSELF IN INDONESIA, WITH WORK TO DO
BUT also with some time to hang out with my friends who skate. I was
picked up at the airport by Didi, who runs a skate shop and distribution
company in Jakarta. Didi has been skating since the '70s, when he built his own boards.
Now he runs the shop and distro, owns a ramp, and is one of the chiefs of the
Indonesian Skateboarding Association. During my stay in Jakarta, he took me to his
own ramp, an eight-footer that's 16 feet wide, and Kelapa Gading, a mini-ramp and
some street obstacles in a mall parking lot. We hung out with some of the Jakarta rip-
pers, such as Dollar and Ardi, and some of the Bandung crew who were in town.
Later in my stay I got to go to a street and ramp contest put on by the ISA in
Bandung. Didi and Charlie, the other guy in charge of the ISA, had secured a big park-
ing lot for the event and got a band and some DJs to provide entertainment. The
atmosphere was awesome; it was like a carnival with skating in the middle. A lot of the
Bandung punks showed up to check things out and keep it interesting. It was hot as
hell, and the day went slowly (as most contest days do).
The street contest had beginner, intermediate, and amateur classes in that
order, with breaks for music. Skaters came from different parts of Java and
it was like a camival
with
ating in the middle
"
there were even a couple from Singapore. Some of the intermediate skaters
showed promise and will be ripping in the near future. The amateurs were the
cream of the crop; the crowd favorite was a pyramid/rail obstacle, and some of
these guys were working it. Hometown hero Dymas took it with his trick wiz-
ardry, despite a fall or two, and Bima and Tony from Jakarta followed closely in
second and third.
After the street contest, attention shifted to the ramp. It was Didi's ramp from
Jakarta, which he had brought down for the contest. The mini-ramp in Bandung is
only three feet, so some of the locals were having trouble adjusting to the bigger tran-
sitions. Ardi from Jakarta had the ramp wired and cruised into first place with Indy
nosepicks and consistent backside and mute airs. Maskom and Alvin from Bandung
got second and third.
After the contest, some of the local girl skaters had their shot at dropping in on the
starting ramp for the street contest. Some had it down,
others kept packing, but the raddest thing is
they kept trying even though they were
slamming. The trophies were handed
out, and I ran for the train station
to start the next leg of my jour-
ney. Charlie and Didi plan to
hold more ISA events in the
future and continue to lobby
their cities for more skateparks.
Indonesia