Converse Asia Crown 2012: Tales of an Old Zephyr Girl

Before I start talking about the event, let me regale you with some super old photos of past-me.

See, before I was Wonder Woman, I was... wait for it... ZEPHYR GIRL. Why? Because I was addicted to skateboarding, Tony Alva and all things Dogtown. This prolly doesn't make any sense to half of you. Anyway, in Dogtown, the skaters had a team called the Zephyr Team and they were called the Z-boys. As such, I was the Z-girl. And this is how I dressed up:

Two wifebeaters on top of each other. Chyeah.

Trucker cap FTW.

Or a beanie.

One thing that has remained constant, though: my geekiness. And yes, those are sex bands on my wrist.

I eventually grew out of my Zephyr Girl phase, though, and bid farewell to my Chucks, Vans, Keds and Skechers collection to make way for sky high heels and become Wonder Woman. However, when Ana tweeted about Kenny Anderson coming to Manila, the old Z-girl in me jumped up and down for joy and I traveled two hours on a bus to the North to experience the Converse Asia Crown 2012.

The event took place at the TriNoma Mindanao open parking lot, where Filipino skateboard enthusiasts all came together to experience the country's first and biggest skateboarding event, the Converse Asia Crown - and, boy, were there a lot of them! We never had a skating crowd that big in Bangkok, that's for sure!

When I got there, I saw these awesome standees of some of the top bloggers in Manila donning Converse apparel and shoes: 

Cheyser Pedregosa, David Guison, Lissa Kahayon

Seph Cham and Alex Gancayco

 

And, of course, the Pauls - Paul Jatayna and Paul the PR Guy.

I actually got to the event pretty early, but since I had lost my Blackberry Troy earlier that week, I had no means of getting in touch with Ana. I actually saw Paul from a distance, too, but didn't approach him coz I didn't recognize him... but we'll get to that later.

Anyway, I was able to walk around for a bit and get a sneak peek of the Spring and Summer Collection of Converse Philippines, as well as an added shoe display of various styles and colors, the likes of which I never experienced as a Z-girl back in the day.

How awesome do these look?

I have a thing for guys' shoes... prolly coz I have never dated a guy who actually had good taste in them. And coz, in my head, I'm a frustrated stylist for men.

So tempted to get one of these, just because they are completely new to my eyes. And look how adorable the polka dotted ones are!

As you can see, Converse continues to adjust with time by becoming more creative and evolving to something bigger and better.

Aside from the displays, there was also a finger skateboarding competition, which reminded me of what I used to do with my skateboard keychains when I was bored in class. Sigh. Memories.

And then I took a break from walking around coz Paul wanted to Instax me on one of the ramps. God wouldn't have it, though, and decided to let it rain on me, my Kylie Gs, the ramp, and the rest of the event.

We ran for shelter under one of the tents, but it eventually rained so hard, it started to flood and Ana and I had to jump up onto the shoe display racks to save our shoes, while Paul had to jump up onto one of the plastic stools.

You should see by now why I didn't recognize Paul when I got there. If you have seen Paul in my other blog posts, then you should know I have never seen him with his hair styled like this. I've never seen him dressed so casually, either. Not complaining. At all.

And the reason why I practically begged him to get on the stool to save his shoes: his Superman chucks!!! How awesome are they? They're almost as awesome as my Wonder Woman chucks - also courtesy of Paul. :)

Instead of wasting time doing nothing but feeling like a contestant in Survivor, I decided to play the role of paparazzi... everyone else was standing on stools and display racks, too:

Okay, God. No more Instax-ing on ramps, I promise! Just make the rain stop!!!

It didn't stop, though. I think we were stranded there for around an hour when Paul decided to turn into Superman and rescue us damsels in distress. Felt like Lois Lane for a while there. One of the few moments when I really had no idea how to take care of myself.

Even though we shared umbrellas (hell yes, I shared an umbrella with Paul *watches as more chickadees unfollow my blog*), we still ended up drenched in the rain, after which Ana got really stressed out and we decided to cancel the next event and call it a day.

Okay, I already deleted all of the other yums, but I can't delete this one, sorry: YUM. Our real life Superman. <3

Paul was also nice enough to drop us off in Makati - he really was our hero of the day - and Ana introduced me to Mexicali before we waited a gazillion hours for me to buy a new Blackberry.

The food clearly made her feel better! Haha.

Of course, as always, Globe added to the stress, so we didn't cancel on the Bioessence treat that was waiting for us in BF. Ana passed out on our way to BF in the shuttle while I toyed with my new BB, Zac, but the day ended well with a free facial for Ana and a free back massage for me. Thank you, Bioessence, as always! :)

So, all in all, even though I wasn't able to fulfill my dream of meeting Kenny Anderson, the day was definitely still a successful one. Props to the Converse event organizers who were able to laugh about the experience and still end up with a successful event in the end! :) Thanks also to Paul, Ana and Bioessence for keeping me sane. :)


Don't forget to like Converse Philippines on Facebook, follow them on Twitter or visit their official website. :) How many pairs of Chucks do you own?