On 22nd Dec 2024, we completed 10 years of Piso. Can't believe its been 10 years in the making! Time just flew by! On this occasion we thought of releasing 10 uncut/raw stories of our 10 years journey on, how did Piso happen after all!
What started with a small tiny push on a skateboard has led us to so many beautiful memories and experiences of life. Meeting new people from around the world, visiting new places, general dabba train journeys, skate trips and films with homies etc. Can't thank skateboarding enough for all the things it has blessed us with. Following are 10 uncut and untold stories of our journey.
Story (1/10)
Pisojourney#1 - The Beginning.
Well everyone's journey back then started with a JJ jonex board (1st generation skaters of India). The nostalgic feeling attached to this board is just at another level haha! Today's skaters might be amused, is this even a skateboard?? Well! back then this was the only option and our journey of skateboarding began right here, with this board.
Story(2/10)
Pisojourney#2 - 3rd Eye Skate Tour.
Well, this is the event we feel was the major turning point of the skateboarding scene in India. It was the first time ever skaters from different cities of India united in Bangalore for the 3rd eye skate tour. We are always thankful and grateful for these OG skaters who made this event happen, to name a few Nick Smith, Holystoked, Abhishek Khan, homegrownin. This trip opened up a whole new world of skateboarding for all of us. To know more about this event, you can watch the 3 episodes film here.
Story (3/10)
Pisojourney#3 - Skatrix (2014).
Skatrix was the first ever skate community formed by local skaters to promote skateboarding in Goa. Who knew this would one day give rise to Piso skateboards! There were just 2 local skaters in the whole of Goa back then, Vaibhav & Siddhant. Often Skating in the streets late night with shorts and tees. It was almost like sleep, skate, camp...repeat up till 2016 roughly.
In 10 years of Piso in making till date the most fun we have had, is with our kids. Nothing can beat the experience of being with kids and sharing the joy of skateboarding. And guess what! We are getting back into taking classes and being more around kids :). Skateshala , an initiative started by our team rider Velister to promote skate scene in Goa.
Story (4/10)
Pisojourney#4 - Sessions & Memories
This was the time when we were young, full of energy and vibrance. We were living the skatelife dream which we all dream about living one day. Going for skate sessions, filming, camping etc. list goes on and on .
Story (5/10)
Pisojourney#5 - Who knew!
The skate community in Goa was growing but it was becoming tough to manage. Loneliness was striking in sip by sip, and that's when Anveer entered the Goa skate scene!. Skatrix got merged into something which was bigger and for everyone - 'Skatelifegoa'. Things started becoming more interesting and of course more challenging. Without Anveer being there in the scene, skateboarding journey would have been tough on mental level to make it through.
In past 10 years of experience, making of Piso was not the toughest part. Toughest part was your mental balance and overcoming the loneliness in this journey. Yo Anveer, this is Vaibhav here - 'I know you will be reading this some day, just one word for you my homie 'Love'. It's been an amazing series of adventures so far, lets keep exploring this path more and more, lets see where this takes us :)'.
Story (6/10)
pisojourney#6 - Building boards.
This was the time when we got into making boards . Often due to skate injuries and boredom, sitting at home being unable to do anything, we started going deeper and deeper in R&D of making skateboards. This was our first concrete mold and our first ever pressed skateboard deck.
Story (7/10)
Pisojourney#7 - Tools and gratitude.
How can we forget about our tools? We were fortunate enough to have the right tools to make our job and experience of building boards & ramps efficient. Without these tools nothing would have been possible . Some tools were donated by skaters from around the world, some our parents gifted us on our birthdays :). Our parents definitely had a hard time raising us, mess and sawdust everywhere throughout the year! Without our parents support none of this would have been possible :). Truly grateful for everything we have received in life.
Story (8/10)
Pisojourney#8 - Injuries, risks & rewards.
Cuts while using power tools, splinters going into your skins and nails were like norms of those days. We were so well trained that we eventually learnt to eat with both left as well as right hand to keep ourself well fed. And of course injuries while skating were additional bonus with ankle rolls and wrist ligament tears :). In a few years we gained immense amount of knowledge in shaping, understanding shapes, angles, various type of wood and veneers. We never really had a plan to start a skateboard company but the passion to build boards grew so much that Piso just happened as a consequence, but it was never the goal.
Somewhere around 2016-17 where we had to take a call whether to get serious about what we are doing, or drop it all down and go the normal route of getting a job and being secured. There were constant arguments with parents, loneliness all around, confusion, breakdowns etc. But moment we used to step on the board, all stress and overthinking used to go away. We wanted to keep this feeling with us no matter what. And yes we took that call of sticking with building a skateboarding brand for the skaters of our country. It was not an easy call back then nor is it now, its full of uncertainty and exploration. But there is a sense of freedom and fearlessness in what we do. Piso is like that fine line between being sane and going insane, the fun lies on that line!. Piso was born.
Story (9/10)
Pisojourney#9 - Piso Skateboards
After working relentlessly for 3 to 4 years every single day, finally we sold our first Piso board on 17th of Sept 2018 and officially our journey began. Next challenge was we were skaters, just passed out of college with no knowledge on how to do business. The only way we could learn was through our customers and community. They always guided us by pointing out our mistakes, which area we should improve, things to do and not to do etc. Today its 2025, the story which we started in 2014 is still on and we are grateful for the life and grace which has been showered upon us. In image is our very first logo which we had made back in the days!
Story (10/10)
pisojourney#10 Piso World, our new vision.
As you all know we are working on the Piso world project. We are trying to create a healthy & joyful world where there is room for growth, and is open for all groups (Kids to adults). To know more about Piso World you can read here. In image is our core team of Piso, the only photo we have where 3 of us are there (Andy Topo missing out).
Piso world update - Revamp Program for skaters batch 1 has started! More details and updates will be out soon. We have also added 'Fun with Math' module to the curriculum seeing kids struggling with basic math.
So that was the last post from the series, 10 years of Piso in making. Looking forward for the next 10 years :).
By Skaters, For Skaters.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
Namaskaram everybody! This is Vaibhav from Piso Skateboards. So the topic for today's episode is- 'Skateboarding, a journey to the beyond'. Most of the people get in this sports thinking it's cool, or because of the hype built around it. Some get fam, some don't, some get sponsored, some do not, some make their life out of it, others dream about it and the list goes on. Why is it that, when this sport gets into mind you are willing to do whatever it takes to stay with it. Have personally heard loads of stories from people across the globe on how they just cant live without skateboarding being part of their life :)
