Street sports are hot right now in Taiwan and another extreme sports challenge today will add fuel to the growing flame.
Organizers of the Nutrilite Extreme Challenge have teamed up with the Aggressive Skaters Association, an international organization, to put on a "world-class" two-day event at the Warner Village complex in Taipei, near the City Hall. They have transformed the car park site between the New York, New York department store and the Hyatt Hotel into a fairground for extreme competition, including a street course and half-pipe vert ramp, along with other sideshows and events.
More than 120 local skaters will be vying for the right to be Taiwan's No. 1 and trying to knock the sport's international stars off their perches.
The "king of skateboarding" and Taiwan's ESPN X-Tour winner this year, Huang Yao-te (黃耀德) has been confirmed for the tournament, along with BMXers Liao Wu-Hsung and Cheng Bang-chung -- who are both X-Tour champions. Jacky Chen (陳奇權), one of Taiwan's most experienced X-Games athletes, has represented the country in US and international competitions.
"The big thing about it is that this is a world-class event. Six of the seven guys [coming over] are ranked in the top 10, so this is a top-class field. It's international, only about 20 cities in the world are holding these things," said Geoffrey Le Cren, who runs a skate shop in Taipei and has been responsible for much of the grassroots development of the sport in Taiwan since 1996.
"It's the first time that many of the emerging sport's top pros have come to Taiwan," Le Cren said. "They [the organizers] have made the competition very accessible. It's all geared up for a lot of people who will all be able to see the action. We've got the caliber of athletes who will attract that sort of interest."
There is a strong US presence for the competition, with premier skaters Matt Lindy, 20, Shawn Robertson, 21, and the world street champion challenger Ryan Dawes, 19, taking part. Respected skater, judge, actor and relative veteran at 27, Azikiwee Anderson will head the judging team.
The European contingent comprises Sven Boekhorst, 21, from the Netherlands, who took the world street title last year and Beni Huber, 19, from Switzerland, who placed first in the 1999 European championships.
Japan's world champion Yasutoko brothers, 18 and 15, are the cherries on top of the skating cake and are expected to set the competition alight.
Most of the competitors flew in yesterday and are all young men who are happy to be able to do what they do best and get well rewarded for it.
"We're on top of the world, it couldn't get much better," said Shawn Robertson. "We could do a regular job, but we do what we want and get paid for it, meet nice people and travel the world."
Lindy said that though it could not be compared with the NBA in terms of professionalism and money, yet, skating has gained mainstream acceptance as a sport and the cash incentives are growing.
"Just last year, I think, people were starting to wise up and promoters started coming in and coming up with sponsorship. People are starting to get paid. It's not at the level of professional sports, but it's growing," he said.
Lindy said he realized that with the rewards came responsibility, "The reason they [sponsors] put up money is because they want to sell product. They want us to represent them. It's no good being a dick and not signing autographs."
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