Back in May 2021, out of the blue, Zaky tried aggro skating. Bcos of covid, the 4 private aggro skate lessons that I booked for him with Exis (Coach Justin) progressed very slowly. We finished them only in December 2021.
Zaky started under Coach Nizam in February 2022 and it had been almost 1.5 year. I must say that Zaky has progressed very nicely under Coach Nizam's guidance. Zaky is into big airs and jumps bcos these are more exciting and fun. If given a choice, he wouldnt work on his grinds bcos they are so much harder. I got reminded of Nana - she is also more of a jumper than a spinner.
A few months back, Coach N shared that the skating competition is finally coming back, after the long covid break. Zaky was very excited.
Only Zaky signed up under Junior category. The cut off age was 13 and he is still 12 before his bday. These are the times that one celebrates over a late birthdate. Oh, and qualifying for cheaper child price attraction entry tickets too. Given that he is almost 13, we are guessing that he would have age advantage over the other competitors.
Nana didn't join bcos she is paika. Daddy Lim and M aren't confident enough. Again, I was reminded of Nana, who was never quite keen in her ice skating competitions. On the other hand, Zaky falls into the group who is always super keen to compete. Same parents ah?
The Junior Qualifying commenced at 11am. Registration started at 10am while the skatepark opened at 8am for all. Having spent an entire day in USS the day before, Zaky had trouble waking up. We finally made it to the skatepark at 9ish. The weather wasn't too bad, slightly cooled by the pre-dawn downpour.
Nana came to support Zaky before meeting with her friends.
I went for a jog, coming back at 10ish to Zaky who was already soaked through in sweat and the kids telling me how advance and 厉害 the other Junior participants are. Out of the 14 participants, there is the IG famous 6 YO skaterchloe, who is well-known of her ability to do a 520 jump. Zaky's confident plummeted flat.
Nana was hoping to see Zaky competes in the qualifying rounds before leaving. Just when the Juniors were gathering for briefing, it started drizzling. ZZzzzzz.. We had to wait for the rain to stop and the floor to dry. We also realised (when the Juniors gathered) that Zaky wasn't the only "big Junior". There were quite a few similar size to him.
Nana had to leave and I wheeled her to the MRT.
Can walk and stand already. I hope that means that her bone has healed nicely and she could soon joined us for activities.
Just then, the drizzle turned into a downpour. I was trapped at the MRT station and it was almost 12pm when I walked back, just in time to buy snacks from Starbucks to feed the hungry boys.
The weather was so bizarre. One moment, it was pouring, the next, the sun was out full force. Everybody started sunning their skates, socks and guards. Smelly siol.
I don't know what did Zaky do to his socks. I think the artificial grass patch at the bench area was wet and he stepped on it with only his socks. He ended up with soaking wet socks, like water can be squeezed out kind of wet. He was busy trying to dry them and was still at it when warm up started for the Juniors. Zzzzz.
Ended up, he wore Daddy Lim's ankle socks and Daddy Lim had to help him wear his skates. Double Zzzzzz... I stand one side and take pictures only. Hoho.
There were 3 heats and Zaky was in heats 2.
The competition format was in the form of a "jamming" session for a total duration of 2mins x no. of participants in each heat. They take turns to show off their stuff and each was allowed to do about 3 tricks per run. Then repeat until the time is up.
If his competitors were good during the warmup, they were suddenly superb during the actual heats! Our jaw dropped. The kids were like grinding on all ledges, changing grind positions, 360, 520 and one of them did a back flip! How can?!!?
When it was Zaky's turn to warm up for his heats, he suddenly started missing all his grinds. He was obviously very anxious. There were 5 (or 4?) in his heats, with 2 very small girls who probably started aggro skate not long ago and were happy doing simple stuff. That was very helpful in slowly down the tempo of the heats and lessen his pressure. Heats 1 was so aggressive with the skaters like flying everywhere. Even my blood pressure was pumped up a notch just by watching them.
Zaky did well in his 1st 2 runs and got his grinds. Nice! We had been asking him if he thought of what he had wanted to showcase before the heats and he was like "I think...". When the heats started, he just had to think on the spot, and think very quickly. As the mins progressed, exhaustion sunk in. He didn't land his 360 after 2 tries but got his front side grind at his 3rd attempt and the crowd cheering for him when he did it. Such motivating spectators.
By the end of it, he was so exhausted and the midday scorching sun didn't help. If he made it into the finals, he would need to be back for it later in the day. I wasn't so confident of him making into the finals. I coaxed him home for a nice shower and Caoch agreed that he would message us if he made it.
Not only did Zaky have his cool shower, he got to lie in bed and aircon too. Then at 3ish, Coach whatsapped that Zaky got into the Junior Finals! He made it to the Top 10. Before long, we repacked and made our way back to the skatepark and got to watch the Masters (aka old but still good) and the Open (aka very good and very young). I didn't realise that the aggro skate community is so big in Singapore.
The Junior Finals was to commence after the Open Qualifying. There was again another long wait after the Open Qualifying. I think they were tabulating the results for the Qualifying rounds and the referees were taking a break or something. Just when they announced for the Juniors to gather, it started to drizzle AGAIN!
Daddy Lim had to leave for a dinner appointment. I stayed on with Zaky. The drizzle turned to downpour and the crowd started chanting "Plaza", which is the sheltered part of the skatepark. The venue was indeed changed to the Plaza for the Finals. The skaters started warming up and Zaky started planning his run.
The rain was relentless and the wind was howling. The rain wet one side of the Plaza, making 1/3 of the Plaza unskateable. The host started gathering the finalists, trying to decide through voting if the Finals should continue or move to Sunday.
It was a 50/50, some of the foreign skaters were flying out and others probably had plans/ work.
As they were deciding, the wind changed direction and now the other 1/3 of the Plaza was wet. Zzzzzz. I don't see how ant of the skaters can skate safely.
It was eventually decided by the host that the Finals would be canceled and results would be based on the heats. Zaky was nowhere in the tops and in fact placed 9th. He didn't mind. It had been a long and tiring day.
We waited until the downpour reduced to a drizzle and walked home. Nana was waiting for us to do dinner. She said that Zaky had successfully competed in his 1st aggro competition and that called for a celebration and good food. Lol.
It all ended well.
Zaky was happy with his performance and the competition exposure. He is so motivated and wanted to skate again the next day. He also recognised that it is the grinding that gets the top scores and is now committed to train his grinds. The skaterchloe didn't make it into the top 10 with her "almost got it" 520 as she didn't do many grinds. They were saying that she is probably not familiar with the JLG skatepark.
I was also told that majority of the Juniors (like 10 out of the 14) are foreigners. Zaky thinks that he was the only SGP who made it into the finals. Obviously Singapore lacks aggro skating young blood. The weather is too hot, aggro skating is too dangerous and studies are too important for young skaters to hone the skill.
It is OK. I hope the kids (and Daddy Lim) continue to enjoy the game and please, do not break any more bones. Zzzzz.
Mummy Lim
