Warren Stuart is a Hongkonger who helped shape the skateboarding community in Hong Kong. In Part I, he recounts his earliest memories of the sport, and explains Hong Kong’s skateboarding scene. He also offers advice for amateur skateboarders.

“A common mistake amongst beginners is to go down from a height before they are ready. It’s easy to get hurt — when you get to the other side of the bowl*, you might not know what to do because you’re going very fast. Learn the fundamentals first: how to ride forwards and backwards, turn – when you can ride up to the top, you’re ready to learn how to drop in. Take your time and build your confidence over time. We all fall; we all learn to fall. You have to learn how to fall the right way first.”

— Warren Stuart

Journalist: Karen Ng

Videographer: Jeezos

Video Editor: Silver Wolf

Photos: Silver Wolf

Translator: Pumpkin, Wallace

Editorial: Lightning Bug, Flore Herbe, Wallace

Production: Flore Herbe, Lazyass, chifftau, Wandy Cheng, Cave Bliss, Onehungrycoconut, Skyhorse Creative, Lui, JM

*Bowl – Shaped like bowls, the deep dips of a skatepark bowl allows for continuous, uninterrupted skateboarding.

My earliest memories of skateboarding

Though I only really started when I was a teenager, my first memories of skating are from the 1970s, when I was 4 or 5 years old. My dad bought me a tiny fibreglass skateboard, and I would sit and ride on that little board in my grandma’s driveway, because they didn’t let me go outside. I was riding just outside the house like that. Then, I moved back to London when I finished Form 5. As I was going home one day, I walked past a famous record store in Piccadilly Circus called Tower Records. It isn’t there anymore.

It was at Tower Records that I first came across a skateboard magazine with photos of skaters flying in the air. There was one photo that stood out the most to me, in which Natas Kaupas was riding his board horizontally on the wall. I didn’t understand how he was able to do that. I was amazed and bought the magazine, and learnt that skaters jumped on their boards to ride on the walls. I didn’t know people could do that on skateboards. I thought to myself that this was something else. I was hooked! That was my starting point. You don’t have to only skate on the ground — you can jump, you can fly.

Shortly after that, I bought my first skateboard and tried to skate. I was skating everywhere in London, riding in the streets and in the old skate parks. Around this time – 1985 or 1986 – I met a lot of skaters who told me where to go. London has lots of old skate parks, and I would skate with my best friend – my godbrother Daryll Griggs – and we would skate all over the city every night, meeting up with skaters, whether they were good or bad. We would go to nice spots, street spots — everywhere.

My skateboards

I didn’t know anything about skateboarding at the time, so when I went in the store, I just looked at the pictures. There was a pro model of a Viking Skull by Per Welinder’s skateboarding company Powell-Peralta that I thought looked nice. At the time, I didn’t even know who Per Welinder was. I just bought the board because I liked the graphics. After a while, I learnt that the pro skater featured on the board was a stuntman for Back to the Future. You know that movie? The guy skating in it was Per Welinder, Michael J. Fox’s stunt double, and I thought he was cool.

Everything the store gave me – the trucks, wheels, bearings – was very cheap, but I paid a lot for the skateboard. I was happy after I bought it, and I learnt how to skate on it. Later on, I found out the shop had cheated me and sold me lousy parts. Learning from this, I went to a proper skate shop for my second board. I remember it was one from Christian Hosoi’s brand Hosoi Skates. After these two boards, I can’t remember — I must have had hundreds, maybe even thousands of skateboards. Today, a skateboard is disposable to me. If I ride every day, I change my board every week, and if I ride once a week then I’ll change it after a fortnight or a month. The trucks and wheels last for a long time though.

I ride this board that I’m using today because I like its shape. The shape is the most important factor for me. If the graphics aren’t too bad, and the wood comes from the wood factory I like, then I’ll ride it. There’s no love for the board, it’s like moving from old girlfriends to new girlfriends. For some people, their skateboard is like their wife, but for me my skateboards are like girlfriends. Okay, love you today, tomorrow I don’t love you — just kidding!

Tricks, influences, street style, and Hong Kong’s skateboarding community

Though I don’t do a lot of really technical tricks, I have a lot of favourites: I like the 360º flip, and I do a lot of noseslides and frontside grinds on the ledge. I also do a lot of frontside airs and kickflips. I like riding the bowl, and surfing the concrete a lot. The older you get, the harder the tricks become, and the less you can do. Like I said, I’m just happy I can roll around.

I also have plenty of skateboarding inspirations. My skate heroes are different from the ones kids in this skate park will give you, because they look up to a different generation. Back then, my heroes were all my age or older, but as time passed and different styles of skating emerged, I started to look up to a different set of skaters as well. I was very influenced by skateboarding in the East Coast of the United States. The culture across New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. is great. It’s very urban, with a street style very similar to ours here in Hong Kong. The videos I watched from the East Coast maybe 20 years ago really inspired me as a skater, because I saw the parallel between those cities and mine. I dressed like the pro skaters there, learnt their tricks and skated ledges the way they skated them.

I used to look up to a famous pro skater when I was much younger, and I considered him to be my idol. I had an opportunity to attend a contest in the United States one day, and I met him there, but he turned out to be rude. It was heartbreaking. I’ve met different skaters over the years and realised that skateboarders are just humans. That opened my eyes not only to the skating world but to people in general.

Likewise, a lot of people view me as a coach or someone to look towards for inspiration, so I’m careful about what I say and how I act around them. I wouldn’t say I’m an idol for kids, but I definitely inspire a lot of older guys. Many skaters my age have told me that they want to skate like me, so I tell them we should skate together. For older people, they see me and find me inspiring because I’m their age and skating — it means they can skate too. I’m really happy when this happens, and I understand them so I try to help them. I’m not a rock star pro skater, but I can tell them to eat well, take care of their bodies, and enjoy skateboarding for what it is. I’m trying to live up to the expectations of those who look up to me, if that makes sense.

The small ecosystems that make up the Hong Kong skateboarding community are always growing. There are more skateparks now, more shops and skateboarders across different generations. For lay people outside the skateboarding community, we might look like a singular group. However, there are actually a lot of groups and factions within the skateboarding community. It might be shop-based, area-based, or even differentiated by style. There are street skaters, and then there are the surf skaters. Some communities might be influenced by brands or shops that sponsor their groups. There’s loyalty involved too — for example, a skater might buy from a shop because their friends do too. It becomes tribal. Shops also play a significant role in forming the community, because they link beginners and kids with coaches and top skaters. Skaters will always need boards, clothes and facilities, so shops and brands will always have an influence.

Just like any other sport, it’s natural for someone interested in skateboarding to watch others and learn from them. They might be a lousy player but still enjoy watching others ride. You can understand each skater’s character when they’re skating, and witness all their flaws. Of course, you can also learn about skating equipment and style trends through magazines and videos. A good skater might have awful style. The most important thing to remember is that street culture dictates that you can’t mix brands — for example, you can’t wear Nike shoes with an Adidas T-shirt. A lot of kids don’t know that. When you go out and see non-skaters mixing brands, you know that it’s just wannabe streetwear. Skaters are the ones who started this one-brand rule. You can look at what clothes they wear in skate magazines, how they wear their sneakers and caps. Skateboarders have really influenced street style. That’s another reason why they like to watch other people skating — you can look at everything, not just the way they skate but their style too.

Social media has changed everything

Social media is everything. If you didn’t tell me, I would’ve thought it was a religion. Instagram and Facebook are a new religion. It’s everything — I don’t think there will be young people skating without social media. Look what they did to Donald Trump. They cut his social media and suddenly he became helpless, and lost his power. Social media is very powerful. To give you a perfect example from when I was young: the way I learnt about skateboarding and tricks was from magazines, or videos in cassette tapes that we’d have to put through a machine to watch. By the time a video was published for us to watch, months would already have passed from the time of filming. What we were watching was from three months, six months, or even a year ago!

Social media is instant. When someone does a crazy trick, you can see it right away through Instagram. That’s the world we’re living in today. Social media is about the now, and this has definitely helped skateboarding. Any sport that’s popular has to be on social media. No one reads physical magazines anymore; they’ve all gone online. Thrasher Magazine has their top videos on their website now, but I used to have a 20-year collection of around a thousand skateboarding magazines, including Thrasher, Transworld, Skateboarder. When I moved out, my wife told me we weren’t going to move that, so I gave it all away. But imagine: I gave away a thousand skateboarding magazines. I almost couldn’t throw it away, but today’s kids don’t even buy magazines. They just go online. If you want to learn about skateboarding, check YouTube. As a warning though, don’t believe everything. Some of the videos are fake and might teach you the wrong thing. Have an open mind – as with everything – when you go on social media.

Skateboarding celebrations and associations

Go Skateboarding Day was started around 2004 in the United States. A group of skateboard companies felt that the international skateboarding scene was dwindling, so they came together to form an association and create a day for skateboarding on June 21. That’s the summer solstice, or the first and hottest day of summer. All around the world, skateboarders were encouraged to go outside and skate on June 21. When it first started, thousands of people went out on the streets to celebrate skateboarding. Then events started to be held, like mini games and contests.

Around 2001, a few friends and I – skateboarders, surfers, inline skaters, BMXers – founded the Hong Kong Federation of Extreme Sports. There were very few of us back then. All of us from different extreme sports came together, and there was strength in numbers. We formed this association to petition the government. We wanted more skateparks, more facilities, and over the years we worked with the skateboard association to spearhead Hong Kong’s Go Skateboarding Day. The Extreme Sports association isn’t just about skateboarding. There are also the scooter riders, BMXers, downhill guys, surfers, wakesurfers, snowboarders — all in that one association.

Talent, persistence, and calculated risks

Of course, everyone can skate. With persistence, passion and love, anyone can improve their skills. Having said that, there’s only one Michael Jordan. There’s only one Mozart. There’s only one Einstein. In skateboarding, there’s only one Tony Hawk, only one Nyjah Huston. Of course, you need talent. Those without talent have to work hard, but for the ones born with talent, they are the ones that rise above — really, really rise above. Those are the ones we look up to, and that’s why they are who they are. I am a firm believer that talent can be obtained. When I first learnt skateboarding, there were many things I couldn’t do. I’d try to study how other skaters did it – how they moved, their positions – I took time over years to learn. That’s how you achieve talent. As with anything else, you can work for it. Don’t use the lack of balance or talent as an excuse. There are ways to learn.

If someone’s afraid of heights or falling — well, everyone’s afraid. I’m afraid too. My advice is to start from the bottom. Work your way up the bowl. When you can use your own power to get to the top of the bowl, you naturally build your confidence to come back down to the bottom. A common mistake amongst beginners is to immediately go down from a height. It’s easy to get hurt — when you get to the other side of the bowl, you might not know what to do because you’re going very fast. Take your time and build your confidence over time. We all fall; we all learn to fall. You have to learn how to fall the right way. Learn how to absorb the rolls, and soon enough you won’t be afraid of falling. Don’t be overzealous either. Instead, take calculated risks. You should know how you’ll fall if you don’t make it — otherwise, you might fall over and break your arm. You don’t want to go straight into the 10th step when you have yet to complete 3. Don’t think you can just go for it. The culture of skateboarding might seem to imply that — that you should expect to injure yourself, and that you need to be reckless. Everyone can muster up the courage to do something that scary, but the smart skater will do it in a calculated way. It’s like diving: you wouldn’t jump off the highest diving board on the first day you go diving, right? You wouldn’t swim in the deep end the first time you learn to swim either. Learn the fundamentals: how to push, ride, turn, surf, jump, and how to fall. Be patient and believe in yourself.

“I am Warren Stuart. I am a HKer. ”

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