Welcome back to another episode of our Homies & Stories series. Today we are going to share the story of Flysquad, the thriving skateboarding community of Kerela! During our visit to God's own skate festival hosted by Flysquad, we met a few OG members of the Flysquad who shared how the skateboarding scene grew up in Kerela.
Piso visiting Kerela for the first time!
So it was our first time ever in Kerela. We went to check out the God's own skate festival hosted by the Flysquad skate crew. It was such a great experience to see the way they have grown the community and have maintained the authenticity and rawness of skateboarding.
Best part we got to experience in our journey was everyone becomes a kid when it comes to skateboarding in Kerela. The ambience which they have created for the younger kid skaters is supeerrr. The approach of adult skaters when they are around kids, or when there are kids around the environment is very playful, full of innocence and joy. We can see kids jumping over skaters, making fun of each other, playing games etc. We fell in love with the Kerela Skate community :). They have given so much importance to create a healthy atmosphere such that young skaters feel comfortable. So much to learn and great memories we had with everyone around during our visit. As I am writing this article, I am so missing the Kerela vibe. Lets see when we get another opportunity to experience this community again :)
We got to meet few initial founding members of Flysquad like Akhil, Akash, Styne, Sreekumar etc. and got to know about them. So without wasting much time lets dive into how did this all happen, Flysquad.
Styne, The senior most & the experienced KID :) of the Crew:
My story with Styne:
Vaibhav (Piso) : At first instant itself we got connected. Yes, we did have a few language barrier as my also English is not that great and Styne also struggles with English. But, we had skateboarding as our common language :). Styne is the senior most member of the crew. I on purpose have said him a kid with all due respect :). Infact, now I could see why the culture is so friendly and supportive for the young skaters to gel in. Styne is so matured but the way he expresses is so poppy and full of energy like a young kid. I got very less time to interact with him as we had to get back to our hotels and pack up everything to catch our train next morning.
'Steyn is like the Godfather of the Flysquad skatecrew' as per Akhil (Skater from Flysquad). 'He takes care of all of us like his own kids :)'
Following is Styne words & and his narration on how it all happened!
Styne - Hello everybody, I am Styne from Flysquad skate crew of Kerela. My skateboarding journey started somewhere around in 2015 -16. It started from streets skating as that's where it begins from, in every community. Back then we did not know much about tricks to be honest, it was just about pushing and enjoying the flow of skateboarding.
Why Skateboarding?
Actually I am a sports person. I love and enjoy playing sports in general. But, skateboarding always has a special place in my heart when compared to any other sports. It has a recreational and rejuvenating touch to it. After skating you start feeling fresh and lighter. At times my body becomes very stiff and dull. I just grab my board, skate for a little bit and it frees me up both mentally as well as physically. It's tough to explain in words but skateboarding is kind of a magic, it does magical changes within you on various levels of body & mind. Skateboarding helps in concentrating and live that very moment. It creates a space within you where outside sound or influence does not enter the inner you, that's the beauty of it.
Actually my inspiration or source of happiness is teaching skateboarding to another person. It makes me happy and satisfied when someone smiles for the first time after getting on a skateboard. That is what makes my journey on this skateboard worth living!
The Flysquad Story:
Actually I learnt skateboarding on my friends skateboard. Our only goal back than was how to push better and balance better. This was somewhere around late 2015 or early 2016. I had a photographer friend with whom I used to skate, he had a small penny board back then. Soon we became a crew of around 7-8 skaters. Slowly we started to realize there are other skaters as well, in other parts of Kerela all scattered around. We started meeting each other, sometime they used to visit us and sometime we used to visit them. That's how our skate family grew actually, as a skater its always exciting to meet new skaters and hear their stories!
As we grew bigger and bigger we started enjoying our time with everybody. The fun started to double as days were passing by. Soon we realized our community should have a name, that is how 'Flysquad' skate community was founded. A community where all the skaters are invited, keeping the true spirit of skateboarding alive and vibrant.
Efraim Antony : A Legend and a revolutionary skater from the Squad.
Without Efraim's contribution I don't think so many things would have happened in our community. He is the one who got skaters together from various part of Kerela. He made sure the fire of skateboarding is always on within the community. In fact Efraim was the first skateboarder to announce that he is going to dedicate rest of his life for skateboarding as a profession. His legendary contribution towards Kerela skate community revolutionized the whole skate scene in Kerela.
God's Own Skate Festival concept (GOSF):
Actually there are lot of skaters in rural parts of Kerela. We are trying to support and gather all these skaters at one place through this event. Main problem of skaters in Kerela is, they restrict themselves to a particular area. Exploring more mentality, coming out of your area and exploring is what we are trying to create. We are trying to Unite all the Kerela skaters together in short through this event, so that we can enjoy and celebrate skateboarding together atleast once a year through this festival.
The name of our festival is inspired by our state Kerela, who's moto is 'God's own Country'. GOSF is like a festival of skateboarding in Kerela, an opportunity for everybody to come together and experience the core spirit of skateboarding.
We were happy to see the Piso team came to visit us and especially Nunkima, coming all the way from Mizoram. Nunkima is a big inspiration for our Kerela Skaters. Honestly never in my dreams I expected Nunkima in Kerela haha! His performance on his board is just mind-blowing, you just cant get your eyes off him when he skates. The show which he put tonight, I did not even blink once thinking I will miss out on something! It was an honor to have him in Kerela. We want more and more skaters from around the country to come and be a part of the festival. Our boys and team is working hard to make this event bigger and better every year. Next year we all will put much more efforts and make it even better and bigger!
So that was it folks! The story behind the Flysquad Skate crew of Kerela through the narration of Styne. See you again in our next episode of Homies and stories.
Keep Skating, Keep Pushing
Vaibhav Rasam.
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Welcome back to another episode of our Homies & Stories series. Today’s story is all about the OG skatepark construction company of India, ‘100 Ramps’. Well 100 Ramps need no introduction. In one word if I have to say they are the real OG’s responsible for the skate scene and the skate culture in India
