Words by Josh Zickert
On our third and final day in Taipei we enjoyed another beautiful morning with a nice breakfast at our local cafe and even scored a few souvenirs before getting on the metro.
Once we reached Taipei’s Central Station to skate the mesmerizing marble banks and manny features, the temperature reached a sizzling 31 °C (88 °F) with humidity much more intense then New York City. Eugenia Ginepro quickly scored a proper back 180 over the fountain gap. Juan Pablo pushed through the elements to lock down a back 180 nosegrind, switch pop shuv, wallie and a 360 flip over the gap.
40-plus attempts and an hour later, just moments before our filmer Five nearly passed out from a heat stroke, JP knocked out the switch crook, half Cab heel, wallie and fakie flip.
Perseverance at it’s finest.
A kickflip front board down the silver 8 got away from Yiyo and smashed Blair Alley’s fisheye. Moments later security put an end to the session.
JJ Colon spotted a massive domed roof drop off the metro and climbed up to investigate.
Traffic and overall downtown congestion was an issue, but JJ prevailed with the help of a lengthy yet steezy sess slide to control his speed before the head high drop.
The crew was in desperate need of air conditioning and food so we jumped on the metro to Taipei 101 Observatory, one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world!
The experience was wild. Our ears were popping during the high speed elevator ride to the 89th floor. The 360 degree cityscape view of Taipei was surreal. Although we didn’t pay for this experience we snuck up to the 91st floor to enjoy the outdoor vibe as well.
Two rather large earthquakes hit Taiwan the week before we arrived, so it was a little scary being so high up in the clouds, however there is an enormous steel pendulum suspended by 8 large cables in the upper stories of the tower that moves back and forth to counter any motion of the building. A true engineering marvel. There was a crazy video on loop of the 18-foot, 660 metric ton sphere swinging back and forth heavily during one of the biggest earthquakes.
Next we ate dinner, grabbed our bags and jumped on a 60-minute bullet train to Taichung. It’s wild traveling at 200MPH.
In the morning just outside our hotel there was a beautiful creek filled with thousands of Koi Fish swimming along. Richie Loffler got the squad ready for another exciting expedition with a proper yoga session before Bonestalone and Yiyo skated a natural stone kicker over the a section of the creek! Once again, an unbelievably Taiwanese Jackpot.
In the middle of the session a massive six-foot-long hungry snake cruised by and hid in the bluff where we were filming!
Episode 3 was one for the books.
Video by Five and Josh Zickert
Cover photo by Blair Alley
Catch up with episodes one and two from this trip:
Episode 2!
