Oman Skate hunts down the Sultanate's best skaters
Published: 03:11 PM,Nov 03,2021 | EDITED : 11:11 PM,Nov 03,2021
Hytham al Wahaibi demonstrating one of the tricks
On Friday, November 5, the best skaters in Oman will gather at the OmanSkate arena in Wadi Kabir to compete for Oman's Best Trick Contest.
The first-ever skatepark in the country, which has also gone through pandemic challenges, is expecting to double the number of participants in this year's edition. The massive renovations in the last six months was a great way to ready the ground for the participants.
Talking to Hytham al Wahaibi, the owner and founder of Oman Skate, he shared is proud of the renovations they made and had transformed the park 2x better than it was before.
The event on Friday, November 5 will see numerous participants doing different tricks with only the best performers taking home some of the special awards they prepared.
'During our first-anniversary celebration, we have about 40 skaters who joined the event. In year 2, we grew to 70 skaters, we're hoping to double that in Friday's contest,' he said.
Asked what kind of tricks they were hoping to see, Hytham said that Oman's skaters are some of the most innovative in the world. With many of the tricks accessible via videos on Youtube or social media, he is excited to be blown away by different performances.
'We've seen some really cool tricks performed in the park since we opened it. We are excited to see what kinds of tricks the participants will perform this year,' he said.
For those who are new to the sport, Hytham shared these tricks are some of the cooler ones you can check out:
Ollie — This is the first basic trick you usually learn and it will take you to other tricks. Simply described, it's “a jump with your skateboard.”
Boardslide — Aka Railside — This involves sliding on the centre of the board between the trucks facing forward. Older skateboards had plastic rails on both sides between the wheels, so you used them to slide on the rails or do a rail slide. We use boardslide now as the skateboards slides are on the board now.
The 5-0 — This is half of a 50-50 where the back truck grinds the edge. The tail can be in contact with the edge. For really good 5-0’s, you balance on the truck.
Heelflip — This involves using your heel to flip the board to the toe side while doing an ollie. This trick will come easy if you have mastered the kickflip.
Frontside 180 Kickflip — This is a mix between a Frontside 180 Ollie and a Kickflip. Both tricks are needed as a foundation and you should have them on lock before you try to go for an FS Flip. Once on lock, this trick is not only stylish by itself but also a good flip to combine with grinds. You see, it’s getting more ambitious!
Wanna take it up a notch? Any trick can be done with an extra spin or flip and can be done with the opposite foot. this can easily make it go from a medium trick to a hard one or from hard to an extremely hard one.
The Skate Park Journey
If you plan on learning to skateboard in The Sultanate of Oman, then now is a perfect time! Today, anyone who wants to start skating can easily buy a quality skateboard from the local skate shop and then go to the local skatepark to meet other skaters and even take lessons to learn how to skate!
It wasn’t always this easy though, as before the opening of the skatepark park and skate shop in March 2018, people who wanted a quality skateboard would have to order one online or go all the way to Dubai to buy it and it was the same if they wanted to use a skatepark or to take skate lessons. All these things were non-existent in Oman so it made it extremely hard to get into the sport in the country.
Today, three years after opening the skatepark and skate shop, people no longer struggle to get into the sport as they can find the skateboard, the place to use it and someone who teaches it.. all in one place.
The young (and old) of Oman are now offered a safe space to do what they are most passionate about. From those with experience, they learn not only how to ride a board but on how to do proper skating techniques limiting injuries and ensuring that they have a clean, enjoyable sport with amenities that allow them to display and practice tricks.
This combined with the growing popularity of skateboarding in social media has caused the skateboarding scene in Oman to rapidly grow to more than 10x its size before 2018 and we expect this growth to just keep building up more and more as the popularity of the sport spreads especially now that skateboarding got recently recognized as an official sport at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Oman would have never been able to form a team and compete before 2018 as it lacked everything, now it got a skate shop, a skatepark and skate coaches that might produce Oman’s next Olympic skate team.
Follow Oman Skate for updates and information about their space and upcoming events on Facebook and Instagram @Omanskate
The first-ever skatepark in the country, which has also gone through pandemic challenges, is expecting to double the number of participants in this year's edition. The massive renovations in the last six months was a great way to ready the ground for the participants.
Talking to Hytham al Wahaibi, the owner and founder of Oman Skate, he shared is proud of the renovations they made and had transformed the park 2x better than it was before.
The event on Friday, November 5 will see numerous participants doing different tricks with only the best performers taking home some of the special awards they prepared.
'During our first-anniversary celebration, we have about 40 skaters who joined the event. In year 2, we grew to 70 skaters, we're hoping to double that in Friday's contest,' he said.
Asked what kind of tricks they were hoping to see, Hytham said that Oman's skaters are some of the most innovative in the world. With many of the tricks accessible via videos on Youtube or social media, he is excited to be blown away by different performances.
'We've seen some really cool tricks performed in the park since we opened it. We are excited to see what kinds of tricks the participants will perform this year,' he said.
For those who are new to the sport, Hytham shared these tricks are some of the cooler ones you can check out:
Ollie — This is the first basic trick you usually learn and it will take you to other tricks. Simply described, it's “a jump with your skateboard.”
Boardslide — Aka Railside — This involves sliding on the centre of the board between the trucks facing forward. Older skateboards had plastic rails on both sides between the wheels, so you used them to slide on the rails or do a rail slide. We use boardslide now as the skateboards slides are on the board now.
The 5-0 — This is half of a 50-50 where the back truck grinds the edge. The tail can be in contact with the edge. For really good 5-0’s, you balance on the truck.
Heelflip — This involves using your heel to flip the board to the toe side while doing an ollie. This trick will come easy if you have mastered the kickflip.
Frontside 180 Kickflip — This is a mix between a Frontside 180 Ollie and a Kickflip. Both tricks are needed as a foundation and you should have them on lock before you try to go for an FS Flip. Once on lock, this trick is not only stylish by itself but also a good flip to combine with grinds. You see, it’s getting more ambitious!
Wanna take it up a notch? Any trick can be done with an extra spin or flip and can be done with the opposite foot. this can easily make it go from a medium trick to a hard one or from hard to an extremely hard one.
The Skate Park Journey
If you plan on learning to skateboard in The Sultanate of Oman, then now is a perfect time! Today, anyone who wants to start skating can easily buy a quality skateboard from the local skate shop and then go to the local skatepark to meet other skaters and even take lessons to learn how to skate!
It wasn’t always this easy though, as before the opening of the skatepark park and skate shop in March 2018, people who wanted a quality skateboard would have to order one online or go all the way to Dubai to buy it and it was the same if they wanted to use a skatepark or to take skate lessons. All these things were non-existent in Oman so it made it extremely hard to get into the sport in the country.
Today, three years after opening the skatepark and skate shop, people no longer struggle to get into the sport as they can find the skateboard, the place to use it and someone who teaches it.. all in one place.
The young (and old) of Oman are now offered a safe space to do what they are most passionate about. From those with experience, they learn not only how to ride a board but on how to do proper skating techniques limiting injuries and ensuring that they have a clean, enjoyable sport with amenities that allow them to display and practice tricks.
This combined with the growing popularity of skateboarding in social media has caused the skateboarding scene in Oman to rapidly grow to more than 10x its size before 2018 and we expect this growth to just keep building up more and more as the popularity of the sport spreads especially now that skateboarding got recently recognized as an official sport at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Oman would have never been able to form a team and compete before 2018 as it lacked everything, now it got a skate shop, a skatepark and skate coaches that might produce Oman’s next Olympic skate team.
Follow Oman Skate for updates and information about their space and upcoming events on Facebook and Instagram @Omanskate