The trip there was fun. Enlightening in some sort of way to the untraveled such as me. Its also amazing to learn how welcoming and hospitable people from Eldoret are.We got there so late so there was always the notion of imposing too much on an unexpecting host. But Nelson Mulandi was willing to receive us at 12 a.m in the morning with a nice warm cup of tea.So the next day we woke up, bombed the Elgon View road which leads straight to Eldoret town. Saw a couple of stairs and a few gaps which we never even skated. Some nice blue handrails. But because of too many people we had to go back some other day to skate them at night.
We then headed to Moi University main campus where like three or four of the Eldi skate gang go to school. Stair and ledge heaven. We skated a bunch of four and five stair sets that are in succession. Kind of like those Grant Patterson skates in the “What If” Blind Video. Then we hit a sketchy six set outside the library gate. Its sad all we could do was a kickflip and and a front 180. Real sad. Though the we-suck-so-bad wallow session soon ended when Eileen took us to Studi. Its everything you dream of and more. Except for bowl and trany fans. Sam and I went berserk when we entered. Ledges, drops, manny pads, large section of flat for a bored person cruise. All made of sleek Terrazzo. If given the chance, I would live inside there. Plus it has a roof. So no rain while skating. You can imagine the fun we had. Then I was stoked to see Patrick Kiswila come. He came with Reagan Omondi, the most hardcore Kenyan skater. He sleeps on boards and bare wooden floors. Not because he doesn’t have access to a bed. But because he can. Then Sylvia Mburu. She is a fast cruiser. Team Nitrous. We spent the night at Eileen’s, Reagan sleeping on the floor again. George arrived at 12 am inconveniencing all of us.
The next day we skated the campus again the went to town in the evening. Skated a nice 5 set. 5 sets is all we talk about. Then meowed from skating the handrails that we’d seen the day before. We headed to Patrick’s house at midnight and cruised an almost 5 km accent to Eldoret University. That was even more fun. Then he showed us the scars from the 22 km down hill called Iten, showing us clips of how they improvised on cartons and pieces of wood, hooking them up to their shoes so that they wouldn’t get completely torn from the braking friction. They told us it took two hours to bomb the hill from top to bottom. The return trip would cost around Ksh 250 due to the steep ascent.
Sam woke up the next morning late for their bus. Pessimistic as hell because he thought there wouldn’t be enough time to get to Uganda before their hosts had left home. “Georgie tusha fuck up. Nipatie dough yangu mimi niende” was all he kept saying. They left together.
That day we spent skating the University of Eldoret. We made a nice DIY there. We skated a bed that day, the ones abandoned by students when going to holidays. There aren’t many spots inside the school but the makeshift DIY was good.
The next day we headed back to the main campus to skate there. It was a Saturday and more people would turn up for the session. Eileen had a show that day, and she wanted our support. We had a chill session at Studi since it was raining. Surprisingly Eileen turned up even though she had a show to prepare for. That is wicked. Even though she was kinda dirty after a million and one ollies she went to perform as she was. Eileen forgot her lines during the recitation of her piece “Obong’obong’o” so the show had to be cancelled. Kidding. The show ended with a couple of dancers fighting over who had the most cheers from the audience spiked on caffeine. After the waters had calmed, we skated the wooden stage and some old stair blocks also made of wood at 3 am in the morning. Then Eileen proposed that we sleep on the wooden stage with a big block of painted cardboard as the blanket. The skaters were down for the experience. None of us could sleep. Except Reagan. He didn’t even have a sweater on and it was like 10 degrees that night. So the guys woke up and raided Kelvin’s hostel (another skater) till morning. Its so good to see how hospitable everyone was in Eldoret. No excuses about girlfriends or roomates or dead kittens being mourned. Everyday we spent there we didn’t know where we were going to spend the night until 11 pm, then someone just offers to host you for the night. That was pretty awesome. We spooked out Sylvia Mburu’s roommate but she said ” Shida yake”.
Eldoret is one of the best places to skate. Aside from the distance between places to skate and lack of transitions and a bowl, I think it beats Nairobi in the whole skate vibe it has to offer. Everyone is psyched to see people on their wooden toys. The guards are pretty cool. Stair and ledge heaven. Studi, the indoor skatepark. Iten and the other gnarly downhills. How insightful it is to skate with people. I mean, after a discussion with Sam, we concluded that there really is no “Tunchi”, or even if there is, its relative. Because in as much as the guys there don’t know much about skating apart from ollies and kickflips, you appreciate how raw the scene there is, unpolluted with guys who just want to take pictures with boards so that they can upload the pictures on instagram and get 500 likes. The guys there just want to skate and that’s all that matters. Genuine interest.
I hope when I go back, which I know will be real soon, more guys can come and see for themselves how fun Eldoret is – the trip there was fun. Enlightening in some sort of way to the untraveled such as me.
Author: Samwel Maguta aka Slammy Karugu
