21 Mar Local skaters heading for the big time

The six international skateboarders who will soon be in Malaysia for the Angka Tour 2018 will provide our national skateboarders with invaluable insight and exposure to the extreme sport.

The national athletes under the Malaysia Extreme Sports Association (MESA) will skate alongside world renowned stars like Arto Saari – Thrasher magazine’s ‘Skater of the Year 2001’ – for the entire tour which will have a glittering line-up including Jack Curtin, Davis Torgeson, Tom Karangelov, Jasper Dohrs and Margie Didal.

The Angka Tour 2018 will kick off on Friday (March 23) various locations in the Klang Valley (Mont Kiara Park, PCP Putrajaya and PJ Arena before heading to Ipoh the next day. The tour concludes at Dataran Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) on Sunday (March 25).

President of MESA, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Darshan Singh Gill hopes that our national athletes will take this opportunity to learn and gain priceless experiences while performing alongside these world class skateboarders.

“MESA believes that the Angka Tour will not only provide a platform for our national athletes to learn from these skateboarding stars but also to attract more interest from the public especially the younger generations,” said Darshan.

“Events like this tour will be used to prepare our athletes for the upcoming Asian Games,” added Darshan who said that organising an event like Angka Tour 2018 which features the world’s leading skateboarders is not easy and therefore hopes our athletes will make full use of it.

National skateboarding coach Mohd Zamri Ramli is quietly confident his team will be able to pull off an upset at the Asian Games. He hopes that the intense training will ensure his charges are physically and mentally well prepared.

“We have a great pool of up-and-coming talented skateboarders, however, there are only eight national athletes at the moment – six men and two women,” Zamri disclosed.

“Although MESA has been sending our athletes to international tournaments, we are still infants in this sport and are just at the developing stage but with proper guidance and training, we hope to be a powerhouse soon. The sport has only recently been included in the Olympic Games. The upcoming Asian Games will be a momentous occasion as skateboarding will be contested for the first time ever,” he said.

He added, currently MESA is working with the National Sports Council and the National Sports Institute to ensure our athletes are well prepared. The contingent will be competing in several competitions worldwide to gain vital exposure and experience before the upcoming major tournaments.

“We are capable of putting up a good fight in Asia based on the potential of this team. However, the Japanese have a very good team but nevertheless, we hope to gain a respectable result in the Asian Games,” said Zamri.

The Angka Tour 2018 is an initiative of MESA in collaboration with New Balance Numeric Team in organising a skateboarding workshop and demonstration from which the national team will gain exposure and in turn assist in the development of extreme sports especially skateboarding in Malaysia.

The tour will kick off on Friday (March 23) when the athletes take to skate parks at various locations in the Klang Valley like Mont Kiara Park, PCP Putrajaya and PJ Arena before heading to Ipoh the next day. The tour concludes at Dataran Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) on Sunday (March 25).

On the last day of the tour, there will be a ‘Skate Parade’ featuring all the international skateboarders and the entire Malaysian contingent from Dataran Merdeka to Dataran DBKL.