Adam Yates Goes to China. Part 1

Photos by: Jacob Lambert


Day 1.

After 20 hrs of traveling I arrive at Beijing International airport. The size of the city was hard to depict from the air as the pollution was the worst I’ve ever been witness too. I'd have to say the visibility is in the range of 150 meters, not an inch more. The thorough work that went into planning for a visa I was expecting a pretty full on time passing through customs. The first sign of how intense it was gonna be was the Heat Transfer u have to pass through, for what I don't know? The lineup is off the hook and it’s got to be in 85-90% humidity. Peeps everywhere. Guess it’s just a small look at what’s to come, at least this is somewhat organized!

Joe from XWing Distribution picks us up from an incredibly busy terminal. It's so spread out between the place you land and go through customs to the place you get your bags, then it's another massive hike to the car park. You wouldn't want to be late!

Is no so much of a drive to where our accommodation is for the night.One thing for sure is that the city is busy and is massive. There's no real structure of where to drive or who to follow. More of a case of every man for himself and to have eyes in the back of your head!

We meet some of the crew from the Chinese Downhill scene and with them is K, a young fella who really has his shit on lock down, the one behind longboard.cn. He takes us to some little, on the street, BBQ and we chow down on some of the local delicacies. He calls himself the "ordering king"! I’d say it’s a pretty fair assumption with the quality that's been laid before us.

Full and eager to hit the sack after a belly full of eats and beer, it's off to bed and tomorrow can't come soon enough!

Day 2.

Quality!! What a sleep! Really helps sleeping with a full belly! Comatose! Today we were to check out of our hotel and catch the train up to the Olympic Forest Park. The weather has unfortunately come across wet with a few more showers planned to set in over the course of the day. You'd think with some rain it’d cool things down. Quite the opposite. Moist and needing water we jam into the train. Epic, it's got AC! Winning. We rode the number 8 line that was new for the Olympics and the reasoning behind using the number 8, it is in fact a sign of fortune and wealth, I guess they thought the Olympic Games was going to be good for their economy. For us it was the case that we were fortunate to have our fair paid for and ride in air conditioned comfort north to Olympic Forest Park.

The scene here is lively. Everyone is interested in who these two white boys are! Jacob and I jam around the park in the wet while crew sit undercover and wonder why? They soon caught on that it was all turning wheels, wet or dry! There was a small presentation to introduce the start of the 3 day festival. Next thing ya know, K has called me and Jacob up to be introduced. We even had our own interpreter!

The events that were on the cards for today are the push race, flatland freestyle and the hippy jump. Punters lined up at the start line for the push race. Jacobs deep on the startling getting the shot and I was on the edge of the road further up waiting to see the carnage. Crew threw down and as with any Chinese style start, I'm pleased to say there was carnage. Boards and bodies flying everywhere! I kicked in from the back of the field and felt the need to haul, not far behind the lead, finishing in 5th. Jacob had a joke and said" dawg, u shoulda entered"!

Foods been on the cards all day and its finally time to eat. The Chinese eat big and skip breakfast apparently! By 1pm I'm munging and I'm finding it harder to hold Jacob from tearing his limbs off and consuming them for substance! Tasty little rice box with different treats came at the perfect time, a little late but perfect nonetheless.

After a little lie down and re hydrate it was time for the hippy jump. Never really appealed to me but as it is with most of the different peeps u skate with around the world, u support those who do and get ya stoke on watching them do what they do! No haters here! It started at a pretty mellow 400mm. No surprise that everyone made it threw the first few rounds. As it crept toward 1000mm peeps be dropping and by the time it was at 1200mm there were only 3 punters left. The winner jumped a height of 1300mm his name converted was "light" from the Tiger Surf Shop team from Taiwan. He was riding the 2013 Tomahawk. Nice one bra!

To finish up the day it was the flatland freestyle. I was asked to judge? I was down and good thing for me I've been touching on my Mandarin cause the score sheet was hectic to say the least. These guys really get down on their flatland stuff. No wonder when the whole of the Beijing area is mondo flat! It was pretty cool seeing what tricks they all had dancing, spins, manuals, finger flips, u all get the point, they were getting tricky! The girls who competed where stylin and could have competed against the guys! The girl’s final was run and there was one that stood ahead of the rest in her abilities. The guys, not so much. 4 riders got thrown in to an elimination game of Skate. The winner was last year’s champ. He skated damn well, flowing and fast.

That's the day’s events done. It's time to party. The crew have been talking this up since we got here. On a bus and travel 90 minutes NW into the mountains. Accommodation, dinner, beers and the bus ride is all covered! I can't thank Joe and the crew from Xwing enough. U guys know what’s up! Thanks.

Day 3.

Wow. Epic party. Epic accommodation. Epic crew. These guys really know how to throw down right. The hospitality since we have arrived cannot be faulted. Dinners, Transport, Accommodation and in the case of last night, all the hard liquor ya need for night of good times. We taught the Chinese how to Shot-gun with the fridge full of local beer. Needless to say there were some sorry heads at breakfast in the morning. Full buffet brekkie asian style. The food here is totally different to anything I've ever sampled around the world, very interesting and full of flavour.

Today’s event is the slide jam and longest slide comp! Yeah, finally were hitting some hills. The hotel we stayed at was at the foothills of the mountains to the north of Beijing. Its beautiful. Its peaceful. The green and the air is fresh. Now this is what id imagined the outer areas to be like. Its gonna be a great day! As we meander over to the hill with all the days goodies, the road impresses me right away. Its not at all the steepest hill but the pavement was perfect blacktop. Not a fault. Smooth uber butter was here in the middle of the mountains. It looked brand new! The spot we were to jam was a small section that was around 200 meters long and the viewing was easy from anywhere on the edge.

There were some really different styles. Some crew got down on the hard wheels. Some hands down. Some faster standees. There was a great mix of it all. Some of the guys from the flatland comp where showing they could also throw down on the downhill styles. It was really fun just jamming with all these different styles ya know, everyone was their own, doin it their way. Thats wat i love about this sport. Freedom of expression.

We skated for the best part of 5 hours before crew sat down to have lunch. Meals here are an occasion and the time is spent bonding with either your family of your friends. Its a respectful time thats part of the culture. Same as yesterday, ricebox's were the treat.  Joe brought Jacob and I over ours and we sat down and chowed down with everyone else. After lunch it was the longest slide comp. The way they run things is very regulated here. Nothing like a slide comp of the US or Canada. There's a system they do things here and it must work for them. Its 1 rider at a time, they introduce the rider to the road and then he/she will mob in and jam a slide. Didn't really matter whether u did it hands down or not, there was a different score for each. As with any of the events over the last day and a bit, we are here to support the scene and sk8 with the riders. We're not gonna just show up and take all they're prizes. Its funny because longest slides went to me and Jacob. Jacob got me by a lousy meter sliding his way to peoples hearts with an impressive 17 meters on the flatter part of the hill. The longest slide was actually awarded to "Light" from the Tiger Surf Shop Team from Taiwan. He now has won two of the weekend's events, doin it all on LY gear!

Best trick came next. Again, 3 runs to showcase your trick, one at a time. There were some really interesting tricks being attempted and also being landed. Cross step slides, Hard Wheel, Shov-its, crazy foot off board action? Its like some of them are doing martial arts of some sort while they are rolling down the hill. Epic. It was hard to pick a winner as the different styles made the individuals tricks epic in their own right. I had to give best trick of the girls to a hands down 360 spin. For the guys, a fella named "onion" won it with a super stylish toeside skid into a shov-it, again to the guy that won the flatland event. Apparently, he skates street real good? Another great day nearly over, time to head back into the city.

As I've mentioned, the hospitality has been second to none. The Xwing Crew have gone out of their ways to make sure Jacob and I have everything we need and more. Dinner tonight is at a Beijing Duck BBQ that is over 600 years old. That's right, they been cooking duck for 600 years and believe it when i say that its been the same fire that's been burning for the whole time! Hows that for cultural belief. That's doing it right! Shan asked us if there is anything we won't eat. NANANANANA was the response and when the food came to that table I could see the look on Jacobs face was one of intrigue. What are we about to eat? All parts of the Duck done different ways, nothing to waste. There was Duck Head, brain and all, tongue, kidney, liver, stomach, egg, wing, and yeah there was some normal breast and leg meat as well, to go with the pancakes. These are all delicacies of the Beijing area and its a privilege to share this meal with our new friends. Chinese Rice Wine at 42% accommodates the meal cleansing the palate to get the most out of all the different flavours! It was HEAVY! Its an epic feast as always!

Back to the room for a few more beers and an interview that was sorta funny as the translation at times can be a little weird, especially after a few brews and that bloody Rice Wine. Tomorrow, we skate through Beijing and see the sites!


To be continued...