Maliwanag Ang Pasko sa Meralco

A few days ago, Andrea informed us about an upcoming event. Yesterday, the event pushed through. Yesterday afternoon, the 1st Philippine Gravity Games 2008: Longboard Edition was held at the Meralco Compound along Ortigas Avenue in Pasig City. It was another extreme sports events involving lots of falls and crashes and a little bit of blood.

It was another exciting weekend for me. Just last week we watched as skaters from Volcom do their moves on the ramp at Bonifacio Global City and now this, a Longboard Competition. There were two competition held that day, a Freestyle Competition, where participants do their own tricks using the longboard, and the Racing Competions, where, obviously, participants race through the steep tracks of the compound.

In the Freestyle event, many participants did their tricks and stunts on the longboard some with much grace and smoothness to their movements, some did a lot of stunts, twists and jumps (I don't know what they're called exactly) and others weren't too successful in doing so but still kudos for trying. I have caught pictures during the competition until my battery died. I even had a video of one or three of the skaters. This one is probably the best video I've captured but not necessarily the best skater IMO. There were others at that time who better executed their moves and had me so enthralled that I forgot to catch them on video. Hahaha.

In the Racing event, hearts stopped, or at least some of them. I mean wow. Before it started, there was this young man exiting the race track with blood all over his face and body. He fell while on his board on the track warming up for the competition. He had a broken errr..face? I don't know exactly what was broken, I'm not the one to pry, but I heard he broke one of his tooth. Too bad for him. He had to be taken out of the event and to the nearest hospital.

During the race, many racers stumbled/clashes upon each other. Some were ran down by other players, others simply fell off their boards and some rolled off miserably on the ground after falling off or worse, glided on the ground face first. It was an exciting event with unintended and obviously shocking, incidents (or accidents, whichever you prefer).

To see all pictures from the 1st Gravity Games 2008: Longboard Edition Click Here.

We didn't wait around to finish the competition as it was taking too long with all the heats and rounds and sets, at one point I really thought they were in heat 24 already, hahaha, and it was getting late, kind of, so we left. but before we did, we had a little photo-op with Meralco's little Christmas Garden.

Bright Christmas Artwork/Sculptures (by I don't know who's the artist) made up of nothing but copper wires of various thickness and color were fronting the Meralco Compound. On the right side stood the Nativitiy Scene and huge men which looks as though they came straight from Moriones (or was it Maskara?) festival, on the left side there was a mini-community-like scene complete with mock-up huts, church, tank towers, electric posts and a three-car Meralco Tram famous during the pre-world war, in the middle there was a patio and little bridges connecting both sides and above, the brightly-lit Meralco building shines.

The Tram ride was exciting and disturbing. If this was the way Trams run during its time, it was obvious why they had to be removed, aside from the fact that they were severely destroyed during the war.

To see all pictures from the Meralco Christmas Scene Click Here.

After that, we had dinner at Chaikofi at the Galleria. I ordered "Sate Ayam", while Andrea had "Sate Babe" and Tina had "Chai Beef Rice" and an order of some Frappe. I didn't really enjoy my dinner that much but the conversation have been really pleasant and fun. The night ended just right. I had a great time.