My first skate crew, the ones I learned tricks with, the ones that would watch the same VHS tape over and over trying to decipher “how in the world are they flipping their boards, is it glued to them?” that’s the first crew, the ones you figure things out with, the ones that push you to become better at it every day. They are there to pick you up when you fall, but not without making fun of you for falling in the process. I would call it tough love. We all love each other but it’s easier to tease than show any kind of affection. Yet the affection is there. I mean, why else would you want to hang out with these people and care that they “land” their tricks or not? It’s love (just to be clear).
For me, that first crew was “Parche El Batan”. “Parche” meaning crew, group, or friends. “El Batan” referring to the location. El Batan is a neighborhood located in the north of Bogota, Colombia. I specifically lived behind the park – Parque El Batan – which I could actually see from my bedroom window and would often check before heading out. Sometimes I wouldn’t even need to check. Friends would whistle, scream, and/or shout for me to come out.
The park is awesome, it has two basketball courts and a futsal court (or cancha de micro, as it’s commonly known), jungle bars, swings, lots of grass and several trees. The park is big and there’s a market that surrounds it. A church is adjacent. Essentially the neighborhood runs through this park.
I don’t know when I met them. All I know is that we would play soccer, basketball, hide and go seek, run around, hang out, tell stories. You name it, we did it. We spent the majority of our time there just being kids. I wasn’t aware that some of my friends would rather spend their entire time at the park than ever go home. That wasn’t the case for me. Luckily I grew up in an awesome and supportive house. I just liked being outside with my friends. But it’s interesting what you’re able to realize as an adult. That your friends didn’t want to go home because home sucked for them for one reason or another – missing parent, no food at home, abuse, pressure, etc. So the park was everything to us, and, in some cases, all there was.
Then I see one of them with a skateboard and I’m blown away. This time I’m ready for it. I dust off my board (my first skateboard) and go right outside to let them know ‘I got one too, I’m with you on this. I want to know how you figured out making the board jump, to have it stick to your feet, please teach me.’ Then all of the sudden there were a bunch of us trying to learn things together. Someone’s dad brought them a skateboard from USA along with VHS tapes of what was current at the time in skateboarding. ‘Birdhouse The End’ was watched almost religiously. Every single frame was examined, paused, slowed, studied, and later mimicked. Of course, not with the grace and elegance of Heath Kirchart and Jeremy Klein, or endless bag of tricks of Willy Santos, or the power and explosiveness of Andrew Reynolds, or the preciseness of Steve Berra. But we tried nonetheless. We always tried. I know Tony Hawk and Bucky Lasek were also on the video, but hey, I’m a street skater, we used the “vert button” quite a lot, it was foreign to me (still is), especially since we didn’t have ramps to skate. We only had streets, and lots and lots of concrete. With that said, let me not forget about the rest of the “street skaters” Rick McCrank, Brian Sumner and Jeff Lenoce who are also members of this amazing film (it’s a film, if it’s shot with film, it’s a film).
My crew – Parche El Batan – they’re forever a part of me. This is who I learned to skateboard with. It is because of them that I still ride this piece of wood, and that I write this. They’re the reason I feel the need to share and the reason why SK8 2 Live makes sense to me.
