I met Matteo at Parque Carolina in Quito, like many of the other guys I've written about from Ecuador. The BMX world is cool like that, you'll meet a lot of people. Sometimes the solo rider, sometimes the whole crew. I learned how some people might refer to a skate park in Spanish from Matteo: la pista. With Matteo it was more of constant reinforcement of my Spanish than learning new words. I think that reinforcement is just as important as picking up new vocabulary, some might call it practice. I got the chance to ride with Matteo just about every time I went to the skate park and we had some great sessions. I managed to get some photos of him doing a Toboggan, sometimes called a T-bog in the BMX world. If you didn't know that, you've learned some BMX vocabulary. Bikes pretty much have their own language, it's just like skateboarding or Spanish. In my case the language of BMX is something like a lingua franca that has allowed me to travel and connect with people.
One time we took the session from one park to another and got caught in the rain. The skate park was more like a plaza that had some big ramps in it that people moved around. Everyone took shelter in a nearby building lobby and I snapped these photos. The last session I had in Ecuador before I broke my hand and smashed my face was with Matteo on a little flat rail at Parque Carolina. I learned some tricks that have evaded me for a long time. I'm looking forward to heading back and seeing how my dude is doing. He kills it on the bike, you can check out his Instagram here.
I met Matteo at Parque Carolina in Quito, like many of the other guys I've written about from Ecuador. The BMX world is cool like that, you'll meet a lot of people. Sometimes the solo rider, sometimes the whole crew. I learned how some people might refer to a skate park in Spanish from Matteo: la pista. With Matteo it was more of constant reinforcement of my Spanish than learning new words. I think that reinforcement is just as important as picking up new vocabulary, some might call it practice. I got the chance to ride with Matteo just about every time I went to the skate park and we had some great sessions. I managed to get some photos of him doing a Toboggan, sometimes called a T-bog in the BMX world. If you didn't know that, you've learned some BMX vocabulary. Bikes pretty much have their own language, it's just like skateboarding or Spanish. In my case the language of BMX is something like a lingua franca that has allowed me to travel and connect with people.
One time we took the session from one park to another and got caught in the rain. The skate park was more like a plaza that had some big ramps in it that people moved around. Everyone took shelter in a nearby building lobby and I snapped these photos. The last session I had in Ecuador before I broke my hand and smashed my face was with Matteo on a little flat rail at Parque Carolina. I learned some tricks that have evaded me for a long time. I'm looking forward to heading back and seeing how my dude is doing. He kills it on the bike, you can check out his Instagram here.