This time last year I was preparing for my first ever skate trip outside my small, rainy Island. I had been speaking to some of the Madrid Longboard Crew on Facebook and a girl called Sonso invited me and a bunch of other weirdos to stay at her house for the duration of the event.
The love and hospitality of that special girl and the rest of the Madrid family and the stoke from La Noche changed my life. I made so many friends that weekend. Even with the language barrier! This weekend, a thousand skaters will descend upon Madrid. This will be, by far, one of the most fun events anywhere on the planet. Ra has put together so much good stuff – throughout the weekend.
After the first night last year, I woke up and had to share my experiences with the world. I wrote a little piece on my blog. I thought it was okay. Nothing special. Sonso read it and told me it was amazing. She kept saying I should submit to the La Noche chronicle competition, so I eventually did. To my surprise I won! Everyone seemed to agree with Miss Masia, then I started to think maybe I had a little skill with words.
One of the other guys who stayed with Sonso that weekend was this moustached fellow now known as Luigi. Sonso said he was from some website called AllAroundSkate and suggested we speak. I had seen their site once before but didn’t know much about it or the guys behind it. We had a nice chat – but then someone had too much Sangria and fell asleep.
The next day I spoke to the only other black person there and his bald friend, they were also from allaroundskate. They had a lot of great ideas and stoke. I wished them all the best. In the weeks following our meeting, we kept in touch and I kept suggesting stuff for them to add on the site. Then one day they must have gotten fed up and they made me an admin on their site so I could add stuff myself.
At that point I knew absolutely nothing about the European scene, so I decided to interview riders who did, for my benefit and for the community. My first interview had to be with the beautiful woman without whom I probably wouldn’t have this opportunity. It was really fun and I’ve done over 100 interviews since but I’ll never forget my first. I’m happy it was with someone special.
Writing this was really hard because Sonso was supposed to be in San Diego now, but because she broke her wrist in Portugal 2 weeks ago – she’s still here. The happiness from that news was my motivation for finishing this. I can’t wait to see her and the rest of my Spanish family again.
This weekend will hopefully be another special one, strengthening old bonds and making new ones. ooking forward to skating with the bros & girls from Barcelona, Valencia (longfamily!!!), Mallorca, the Basque Country. I will be spending more time skating than writing but stay tuned on Instagram and twitter for photos that will surely make you jealous.
If you’re still looking for a place – check out the longboard couch surfing group on Facebook!
La Noche En Negro – for skaters by skaters.
