The Asian X Games qualifiers will, quite literally, roll through town this weekend, beginning today with warm-ups for competitors in each of the event's three categories: aggressive in-line skating, skateboarding and stunt bicycling. Tomorrow and Sunday will see participants compete for a slot in the Asian X Games VI and the Junior X Games V to be held in February in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
While its too late to throw your helmet in the ring, there's ample opportunity to see Taiwan's most promising "action sports" talent go wheel-to-wheel with the world's best, including Japan's Eito Yasutoko, better known as "Eight."
In a sport populated with rebellious youth, 20-year-old Eight stands apart, not just because he's perhaps the best in-line skater in the world. It's because, far from being rebellious, becoming a professional skater meant trying to fill his father's shoes ... or skates, rather.
Yuku Yasutoko and his wife Tomoko are credited with popularizing roller disco in Japan and have been active in Japan's skating scene ever since. When the couple started a family in 1983, they strapped a pair of skates on Eight's feet when he was just two-years-old. They did the same with their second son, Takeshi, three years later. Before the boys skated their way into in-line competitions at ages 12 and nine respectively, their parents had built the first half-pipe in Japan.
"There isn't a lot of space in Osaka," Eight says of his hometown, "not enough to build a skate park. So our dad built a half-pipe and that became our playground."
The boys have competed professionally for the past eight years, generally shutting everyone else out of first and second place in every major skating event on the planet. Since graduating high school, Eight has lived on his own in San Pedro, California where he says he can best further his skills. Takeshi is still in high school.
"People there are passionate about skating and the competition keeps you sharp," he says. He plans to skate for another 20 years and hopes to popularize the sport in Japan just as his parents did with roller disco.
"People know about us in Japan," Eight says of his family, "but they don't know much about in-line skating. I wanna do for in-line skating what Tony Hawk did for skateboarding ... maybe even have my own competition some day."
The Asian X Games qualifiers will be held at car park A13, next to the Mitsukoshi Department Store near City Hall. The venue opens to spectators at 2pm today and at 11am tomorrow and Sunday. Each day's events will go until 8pm with the winners being announced at the end of the competition on Sunday evening. Admission is free.
RSS