MARGIELYN Didal is blessed to have benefactors like Red Bull and New Balance to provide everything she needs as the face of Philippine skateboarding.
But there was a time when she couldn’t afford to buy her own skateboard that she had to borrow from owners who frequented a skate park in her native Cebu.
She spent so much time at the park to enjoy her then-newfound hobby that she was eventually hired by the operators as a cleaner and a cook, apart from helping her mom in her kwek-kwek stall nearby.
While working on a board trick, Didal would get interrupted by an order of noodles.
“Yung mga canton na niluluto ni Margie, always soft na – kasi nakakalimutan niya. Overcooked,” said Cliff Rigor, Didal’s childhood friend, drawing laughter from Gretchen Ho in a clip from the recently premiered Beyond the Board.
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Good thing Margie didn’t have to rely on her cooking skills anymore as she turned out to be a world-class skateboarder.
The 25-year-old Didal looked back on her humble beginnings in the documentary produced by Woman In Action Studios and hosted by Ho, who immersed in Didal’s hometown and covered her recent competition in Dubai in her bid to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
First borrowing a skateboard at age 12, Didal would teach herself through instructional YouTube videos that she watched in computer shops where she rented for five pesos for 30 minutes.
Dani Bautista, a skate park friend who eventually became one of her two coaches alongside Anthony “Ant” Claravall, saw Didal was a natural.
“She asked a lot of questions,” Bautista said. “She was super into it. After two months, alam na niya lahat. She learned how to kick flip, straight flip.”
“Then I knew she was special,” he added. “And she was a girl. And she was the only girl skateboarder there.”
Didal almost went a year borrowing skateboards until her friends chipped in for spare parts - enough to build her first board as a gift for Christmas.
“Para hindi na kami kulitin,” Bautista smiled.
The dynamic Didal would eventually become good enough to win tournaments for men, before rising to fame when she captured the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games and bagging two golds at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
Didal cemented her status as the best Filipino skateboarder when she made it to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, reaching the finals in the sport’s debut in the Summer Games.
A year later, Didal was back in the thick of action as she joined one competition after another. The grueling schedule, however, seemed to take a toll on her in the Red Bull Skate Levels in October 2022 in Brazil where she suffered a bad fall from a rail grind that left her with a fractured and dislocated left ankle.
Immediately undergoing surgery that installed a titanium plate with six to eight screws inside her fibula, Didal would've wanted to recover as long as possible.
After all, something as simple as walking became a struggle for Didal.
“Like yung pagtuto maglakad ulit, yun yung pinaka (mahirap),” Didal bared. “Parang nawala yung muscles ng paa mo, kasi hindi mo nagamit for a long time. Kailangan mo i-build. So yun yung parang sa’kin kasi need mo ng strength sa paglalaro, paglalakad.”
But only three months post operation, Didal had to prematurely train again and join competitions to start earning points to qualify for the Paris Olympics the following year.
Broken dream
She did steadily collect points to rise to 43rd in the rankings at the end of 2023 that would’ve been enough to be among the Top 44 that would advance to the final round of Olympic qualifiers.
But she fell short after her final hurdle: the World Skateboarding Tour in Dubai, United Arab Emirates last February when Didal’s low finish slid her to the 46th spot – two places shy of Olympic qualification.
Didal has taken the adversity in stride.
“It’s a lot of good and bad impact,” Didal said when asked about the pressure of Olympic qualification. “Pero I take everything as good naman. Yung iba, nag-expect sila na makakapunta ako. And it’s good na nakikita nila na may opportunity ako.”
“May times lang talaga na hindi lahat kaya mong gawin at the same time,” she added. “Minsan kailangan mo dumaan sa low level. Dadaan ka muna sa hirap, magaling. Ganun lang talaga yung life. Hindi mo maaabot the easy way.”
“Nanghinayang, pero it happens for a reason,” she continued. “Medyo na-sad, pero okay din na may setbacks ka and you have to think some stuff. May mga na-realize din ako, like spend time with family, sa jowa, sa dogs, and friends. Try to enjoy life din.”
Now free from the pressure of making back-to-back Olympics, Didal can finally get back to her best.
“Gusto ko lang i-enjoy yung skateboarding like how I used to love skateboarding, kasi parang nawala siya nung parang, (may nagsasabi na) ‘Gawin mo ‘to.’ Kasi skateboarding is like being free and doing how you like to do it,” she said.
Claravall attested to how far skateboarding in the Philippines has come – and how further it can go with the help of more sponsors. As an example, Didal’s coach/manager pointed to Pajara Bridge Park in Mandaue, Cebu, which is one of the places where Margie learned the sport, but remains a makeshift training ground for the rest of Cebuano skateboarders.
“The thing that really struck me was that it looks amazing: Cebu looks sick; Pajara looks super dope; everything looks cool. But the reality is: it’s still pretty shitty,” Claravall admitted after watching the movie. “You guys did such a good job to make it look amazing. The culture and community really came out strong. Marge’s story was told amazingly.”
“But I think that before she did this, before her journey, there was no template. There was no roadmap,” he added. “And now, I feel like for Filipino kids, for the community for skaters, they can see that, ‘Hey, this girl came from this and you can really see, like Gretchen showed, where she came from, what she did, what she accomplished, and now what’s the next step, the next chapter.”
“And that was like super important for me. I’m super proud,” he continued.
True enough, Didal’s rise has inspired the next generation of Pinoy skateboarders, including from Baler, Aurora, that was featured in the final part of the documentary, which premiered at Power Plant Cinema last June 21 and can now be seen on Ho’s Youtube channel.
“Ang layo talaga ng pinanggalingan and ngayon. Pero hindi lang ito yung ending. Kumbaga kaka-start lang ulit sa ibang page or ibang book,” Didal said.
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