This past month I made a few visits to Wuhan to check out their hip hop scene. Much like Beijing, there are a lot of connections between various alternative music and sporting communities. Many of the MCs in Wuhan are also avid skateboarders, including MC Big Dog/大狗, the top freestyler in Wuhan and three-time winner of the Iron Mic. On my final night, MC Big Dog hosted the first skateboard night at Vox Livehouse, the preeminent music venue and club in Wuhan. It was a great evening of friendly rivalries and other shenanigans. The portraits below are the bulk of the competitors who took part in the evening activities. These are some of the faces of Chinese adolescents who are breaking boundaries in urban areas around the country. Wuhan is an incredible place with a very thoughtful and forward thinking youth movement. They stick to their guns and abide by the Vox Livehouse motto: Voice of Youth, Voice of Freedom!

My first day in Jakarta (and Indonesia for that matter), I decided to hit up the typical tourist spots like the National Monument and the old city district known as Kota. Expecting a melody of crumbling colonial architecture and dusty museums, I was pleasantly surprised to wander upon a BMX trick competition being held in the central square. In many ways this discovery typified the rest of my trip across Java. In every city Indonesian youths were organizing events and competitions to support their often-offbeat creative and sporting outlets. Although Indonesia is often stereotyped as a restrained and conservative place, the largest Muslim nation is actually brimming in energy as youths seek out alternative lifestyles.

Nanshan is making a big push this winter with more and more kids strapping on snowboards and taking to the slopes. Although Nanshan might be an over-glorified hill, it is still home to one of the best snow parks in China and remains the closest one to Beijing. Every year it hosts The Red Bull Nanshan Open, now considered a top-level slopestyle competition, and attracts snowboarders from around the world with its large cash purse. Otherwise, it has been hosting a series of events called the Nike 6.0 “Five Gates” Jam Series which, “replicates the historic Three Kingdoms story of a captured General and the five gates he had to fight through to return to his rightful home and family – in this case replacing gates with obstacles and battles with jam sessions!” Quite an interesting way of incorporating Chinese history into a snowboarding event. All the same, it is bringing more and more snowboarders out to Nanshan and helping pave the way for yet another extreme sport in China. I predict we will be seeing many more visits like Shawn White’s during the Air & Style competition in the coming years. These photos were taken at the first Nike 6.0 “Five Gates” Jam Series event entitled The Ledge. There are still two more events left on February 12 and 26 at Nanshan. Catch a bus and head for the hills.

A forty-meter high kicker was built in the Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Beijing for the Air & Style snowboard competition presented by Shaun White and Oakley. Probably the largest alternative/extreme sports competition ever to be held in China, it broadcasted live to an estimated fifty million people even though the stadium was less than full. Apparently the Public Security Bureau clamped down hard before the event and there was little to no promotion in terms of ticket sales. Those with VIP status were also supposed to maintain their seats the entire event even during the live performances by New Pants and China’s largest pop superstar Wang Lee Hom. Oakley and many other sports brands see Air & Style as the beachhead from which the entire snowboarding industry can enter China. With the widespread construction of new skiing and snowboarding resorts across eastern China there is a lot of hope for snowboarding to catch fire amongst China’s youth. Letting China’s top snowboarders appear with some of the best in the world on national Chinese television is a good start.

I just had the pleasure of visiting the newly-minted Woodward Beijing skateboard and freestyle BMX park that opened its doors to China this summer. Although it is a pain in the ass to get down to the southern sixth ring road, Woodward Beijing truly is a state of the art facility and will hopefully nurture a new wave of talented skateboarders and freestyle BMX riders in China. These sports are just taking hold in cities and major brands like Vans, who sponsored the evening by driving down two busloads of kids for free, can only see rising interest amongst the growing pool of urban hipsters and punks around the country. Even though I didn’t get in on the action myself, I was greatly intrigued by the possibilities of the giant foam box pit that freestyle BMX riders used for practicing aerials. Next time I might find myself rocketing skyward on a bike. For now the only problem I can foresee is consistently getting kids that far outside the city to partake in everything Woodward Beijing has to offer. On the up side, large-scale summer camps are being planned which is the real bread and butter for Woodward in other locations around the world.

I attended the Baby Dragon Skateboarding Competition finals in Hangzhou last weekend. Sponsored by the government and major international clothing brands, the national contest sought to raise awareness for the sport and develop better skills amongst China’s practitioners. Han Minjie, often considered the godfather of China’s skateboarding community, estimates that there are only 40,000 to 50,000 active skateboarders in China. Still, urban street culture is on the rise and considerably more rebellious youth are looking to skateboarding and the tight-knit circle of friends the sport engenders as a social outlet. Lots of pundits also tie the rise of skateboarding to hip hop which continues to be a burgeoning musical form in China. The biggest development for skateboarding in Beijing, however, was the opening of the Woodward skate park on the outskirts of Beijing this summer. Although its facilities are top notch, it still remains to be scene if it will work economically. Some skateboarding insiders in Beijing feel that the money would have been better spent building smaller skate parks closer to the city center. Be sure to check out KickerClub, Skatehere and Funboxx for more information on skateboarding in China. The skateboarders pictured above were Baby Dragon Skateboarding Competition finalists while the three below were female skateboarders participating in the open sessions that also take place during the contest.

A tidal bore is a rare natural phenomenon when the leading edge of an incoming tide propels a wave that runs up a river in the opposite direction of its current. These massive bodies of water are true tidal waves as opposed to a tsunami which runs over open ocean. The tidal bore in Hangzhou, known as the Silver Dragon, has been customarily watched by locals for over two thousand years. It is also the largest in the world and can climb up to 9 meters in height while traveling 40 kph. In the past few years, however, a new tradition is taking root. Surfers from all over the world are flying into Hangzhou to ride the longest wave in the world. Using jet skis and boats, the surfers can enjoy up to ten kilometers of continuous action. Even the bureaucratic Chinese sports administration is getting in on the action and promoting it as a blockbuster event for extreme sports in the country. Thousands of people come out everyday to watch the tidal bore at its height around the mid-autumn festival. Check the photos of gawkers below as well as this excellent video.