What's all this about Southall being an Extreme Sport? I mean, on the face of it Extreme sports include extra curricular activities like Surfing, Skate boarding, and the odd bit of random wheelies for no reason on a BMX, yup - all very, very, extremely, Extreme.
Yup, in reality, these are sports deemed 'Extreme" - which according to most reputable dictionaries is defined as:
"Designating or of sports that involve high speeds, unusually risky actions, and considerable exposure to physical injury"
Well, After 8 years in the extreme sports industry, I soon found out that there was nothing very Extreme about this space and industry, at all really.
And i guess separately, what really drove my frustration, was the lack of representation in the skate, surf and bmx scenes, and in the early days of building my brand, that's what i thought the brand was about...
Creating more safe spaces, for under-represented communities, in the scenes i loved...
But as we found out, Extreme sports aren't extreme... far from it.
To wake up and go surfing everyday, has a certain privilege attached to it.
So it's why through my brand, we talk about the experience of immigrants and the experience of under-represented communities as an extreme sport, because imagine for a day living a day in their life, where the simple things like living, breathing, expressing and being themselves, can feel like an extreme sport.
Just like my Big Dad (Grand Papa if you will), with a "fiver in his pocket", and no clue where to start life or how to make ends meet, life as an immigrant, that is the only extreme sport I could ever relate to.
Skating, Surfing, BMX-ing, Skiing, aren't exactly high priority skills to learn or enjoy when you are a person of colour, under-represented or an immigrant and forced to flee your homeland because of war, politics, colonialism and poverty.
In our H.O.U.S.E, we dip in and out of Extreme Sports, to share our perspective on the only Extreme Sport we think sensible to explore and discuss, the journey and experience of Under-represented and Immigrant communities.
So hold my surfboard for a sec, i got a night shift and dirty dishes to get to.
