Joe Agbro- Skating dangerously

Skating

Lagos is gradually witnessing a rise in young people taking to roller-skating which some Nigerians consider dangerous. Joe Agbro Jr. writes about the growing love for the pastime

It’s a Wednesday evening at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos but not much activity is going on yet. Unlike the weekends where the premises is packed full of sports people of different ages, dimensions, and nuances. Walking from the main gate, one can see those playing outdoor sports like Tennis and Basketball, a few people jogging round the main bowl. The outdoor esplanade in front of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) headquarters had a sprawling arrangement of chairs and table waiting for a different sort of patrons.

Many of the young people engage in the sports have different words for describing their love for skating but they all share one thing in common  they enjoy it.

At the National Stadium venue where the skaters converge to practice, markers are placed on the floor and skaters take turns at performing various manoeuvres around them, which include skirting, jumping, and careening at varying speeds. Others skaters engage in dizzying spins and also climb up a ramp and race down at top speed.

One of those is Daniel Iwuji, who started learning skating about six years ago. Iwuji who trains every day, usually on the BRT lane around Adekunle Bus Stop in Yaba, Lagos comes to the National Stadium. For him, coming to the stadium is to get together with other skaters and also to learn new tips and tricks.

Though it is not even acknowledged as a sport by the necessary sports bodies, corporate players are beginning to engage them. For some events currently, skaters are invited to spice the events. This development has ensured the skaters make some income from engaging in the sport.

“For a day’s job we can get like N2, 500,” Iwuji said.

And he said these jobs include being hired for exhibition performances at events, advertising products, and sharing fliers on busy streets and venues.

And as per notion that skating is risky, Iwuji disputes this, saying it is only risky if one does not skate as prescribed. “Everything has a technique,” he says. “We’re doing it with technique. We understand the way we have been doing it. We have fun with it.”All over Lagos metropolis, the interest in skating is piquing young people’s interests. And while it is boys that are mostly taking to daredevilry ventures on highways, young girls are also getting involved in skating.

Mercy Michael, a female, used to play basketball but since being introduced to skating five years ago in 2009, she has been hooked to the sport. “I had a friend then, a guy who skates. When I told him I love it but I’m scared of falling and having injuries. He told me and I registered into Extreme Roads Club.”

On her experience so far, she said it was not easy at first. “As a learner, I started practicing on the grass before I started skating on the floor. I fell down most of the time. But after three months, I started moving well. Now, I can do many of the tricks. I can even jump.”

And she is not even afraid of skating on the roads now. “The first time I skated on the road, I was afraid. But after a time, I was used to it.”

Having a brother who also skates, Michael says her family does not mind her involvement in skating. She however says her dad is not in support of their skating because he does not want any of them injured.

Unorganised environment

She said the skating environment is not organised but she wants to pursue skating to professional levels. “Government doesn’t really know skating as a sport,” she said. She also blames most skaters for making the sports not easily acceptable in the country. “Like skating on the roads and holding buses or commercial tricycles (Keke NAPEP) is dangerous. Once you do that, your speed will me much and if you don’t know how to control it, that is a problem. When people see it like that, most people won’t then see it as a good sport.”

Another female is Lovelyn Chukwuemeka. Just six months into skating, she too has caught the bug so much that declares; “Even if I give birth, I will still be skating. My children will skate.

Though, the sport does not enjoy office government patronage, the clubs are venturing into activities that showcase their talents. An example is the Big Heart Skaters Club which was founded in 2008. Displaying daring moves, they are delight to watch and their skills have also attracted the entertainment industry too. The club got the gig to participate in the Dude Tetsola’s music video. And another club, Wondrous Moves Skaters performed at the Star event of the Lagos Countdown, an annual beach carnival to usher in the New Year.

In Lagos, the clubs have started engaging in competitions amongst themselves.

However, some Nigerian parents have frowned over their children’s love for skating. Like Deji Alabi who says he would not encourage any of his children to take up the sport. “I have a friend whose son broke his arm while skating,” Alabi said. “I don’t think the sport is work the risks involved.”

Indeed, in order to master the sport, skaters often embark on some risky manoeuvres which might resort to injuries.

But not all parents share this fear. Bolton Elechi, in his forties, encourages his two children. He registered his daughter, 9, and his son, 6, to take skating lessons. They all started skating two years ago. But while he has stopped, his children still continue learning skating manoeuvres, which he encourages.

“Actually no sport is not dangerous,” says Elechi, who himself began skating two years ago. “But sports is sports. Our family, we are all sports people. I skate too. I want to put them into something but since they love skating, I have to let them carry on.”

Though he said he stopped and now only concentrated on playing football.

He registered them at YQ Club to learn the basics but he said they had to stop because of schooling and unavailability of time to take them there.

“When we have practiced, it is very easy,” he said

The skate shoes average range in prices starts around N6,500 to about N12,000. Second-hand skate shoes are also available in many markets dealing in the second-hand things.

Apart from roller skates, some people also don the skate board. Lugging his skateboard around Mushin Bus-stop, Joshua Faraday, a Business Administration and Management student of Yaba College of Technology is one of those adopting skate-boarding as a sport. “I just have interest in anything on wheels,” Faraday said. “It’s risky but the more you do it, the better you are at it. What you do every time does not become a risk to you anymore.”

John Nwaesei, 21, a rapper who goes by the stage name ‘Enigma’, started skating 10 years ago when he was 11. “I was in England then,” he said. Upon relocating to Nigeria in 2006, he found that skating is considered a dare-devil sport. “They (Nigerians) look at you like what are you doing,” he said. Don’t injure yourself, and all that.”

He said he took a while to discover that there were places where he could actually skate without threats of vehicle accidents.

“Presently, I don’t see it as a sport yet in Nigeria. It’s still a dangerous play to attempt. But to the world, skateboarding and roller-blading are both extreme sports. But, we’re catching up. I’m seeing a lot of young boys riding blades. That one is normal in Nigeria. But you hardly ever come across anyone with boards. So, us that we are riding boards, we are trying. I think it will take like three years before people start boarding in Nigeria.”

He usually skateboards with four of his friends. And they have different meet-up points. “We can be at 1004, the beach (Bar Beach) but anytime we’re in Surulere, we come to the stadium.”

His parents know he has a board but they also do not support it like many Nigerian parents. But Nwaesei is undeterred. To him, it’s an hobby he’ll do on any smooth road.

In Nigeria, skaters can currently be found in pockets in other places in Port Harcourt and Enugu as well as other cities in Nigeria. In Abuja, the well-maintained tarred roads attract skaters and at weekends, they can be noticed on some roads in the federal capital, converging at Jabi Lake.

Because of the popularity of the sport in Abuja, a skating club, Skate Love, is considering opening a new centre at Maitama Amusement Park. According to the owner, Chidi Onukaogu, an ardent roller skater, “roller skating is equivalent to jogging in terms of health benefits, calorie burning, reduction of body fat and leg strength development.”

Experts advise that one must be prepared to get the right kit which include skating shoes, helmets, knee and elbow pads and also to get the requisite training. The skate shoes cost from around N5,000 to N10,000 while the helmets costs about N2,500.

Currently, no regulations apply to specifically to skaters but Lagos State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Chidi Nkwonta, said the organisation discourages skating on the roads. Though FRSC is yet to record road accidents involving skaters, Nkwonta said that the practice of skaters skating alongside vehicles on roads is dangerous.

Such warnings, however, does not deter Seyi Obisesan of Extreme Roads Club who said he has been skating for seven years. The club meets regularly at the National Stadium to perfect their skills and learn new tricks. Obisesan said most skaters get injuries in the course of trying something new and also does not agree that it is more dangerous than other sports.

“Skating is not dangerous when you abide to the rules,” he said agreeing with other skaters.