The passion for extreme sports like skate boarding, BMX, surfing etc is catching pace amongst the country’s youth. To drive and encourage this passion of Indian youth, Casio’s G-Shock brand partnered with Extreme Sports Association of India (XSAI) for ‘Indian Extreme Nationals’, a platform to encourage extreme sports.

G-Shock is reaching out to the Indian youth who is sportier, fitness focused and passionate to take extreme sports of the country to international level as worldwide a huge population of G Shock fans follow this sport category.

With participation of over 140 Athletes from across the country, the first edition of the ‘Indian Extreme Nationals’ received tremendous response from extreme sports lovers and enthusiasts showcasing the potential and scope for this niche sports genre in the country.

Commenting on the association, Kulbhushan Seth, Vice President, Casio India said, “With this association, G-Shock wants to develop and promote extreme sports in India as this energetic and adventurous sports genre is facing issues due to lack of awareness and right space. We were looking to leverage the synergy between the brand and the audience and with this partnership we achieved it while promoting Indian talent of extreme sports on this platform.”

Sunil Kutty Menon - President of Extreme Sports Association of India, believes the main reason why the Nationals could be a success was in getting together all the fragmented Skateboarders, bmxers and such communities in India under one roof. Even though 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, is a challenging vision but by building atleast 5 to 6 Skate parks in India 2024 Olympics is not too far away.

The Head Judge, Warren Stuart was surprised with the growing talent and growth of Skateboarding in India and congratulated XSAI in bringing all the communities of these underground sports together and forming a bond between them. He also requested the India Olympic NOC to support XSAI so that first Skateboarding team India gets a chance to represent at the Asian games 2018 Indonesia.

Gold Medal for Skateboarding in the Seniors Category at the first India Extreme Nationals was won by Mumbai Lad, Nikhil Shelatkar and in the Juniors Category, Bangalore boy Devappa bagged the gold. The other Gold winners were Sanjay Purohit for the BMX freestyle Park and Yusuf Shaikh for the BMX Flatland.