Bakit Ngayon ka WHAT?
The story behind the Filipino Longboarder Movement
For those that follow my personal handle on Instgram, you might have asked yourself in recent times, “What is up with all this #BAKITNGAYONKICKFLIP stuff?”
Ok, well in reality I doubt anyone has asked themselves that question, but I’ve found the topic quite hilarious in recent times, so I decided to explain the phenomenon here, and also have this article serve as an archive to all those who support this cause. ????????????
Bakit ngayon ka lang – the song, the legend
So Bakit ngayon ka lang (or BNKL, as I’m going to refer to it from now on, as the full name is too much to type lol) literally translates to “Why only now?” in English, and it is the title of a very popular song in Tagalog – the national language of the Philippines.
The song itself is actually terrible ????????????. It’s an extremely gushy-mushy dramatic love song (most songs in Tagalog are), but for some reason the song has just reached that legendary status in the country and with it’s people.
Come on, every culture has THAT song. You know it’s terrible. You know you hate it. But when it comes on, you find yourself singing a long to it. (I’m actually curious to know what song this is for you in your language or country, let me know in the comments!)
Below is the song in its entirety, in its most popular version, the duet by a group named Freestyle.
Side note on the Filipino Culture
So for some reason unbeknownst to man kind, almost every Filipino person thinks they can sing. Most can’t, but hey, more power to you for the confidence game.
If you’re ever in the Philippines and go to a bar / club that offers on-stage karaoke for guests (very common) you’ll be certain to see two things:
- A karaoke duet performance of this song, probably many times.
- People doing dance moves way too nasty for their ages ???????? (TITO TITA WTF I TOLD YOU NOT TO COME HERE ANYMORE!) ????????
How BNKL made its way into longboard dancing lore
During one chilly November session in Germany, I randomly changed the angle of my rear foot on my No-Comply 180 pop by like 10 degrees, which resulted in a massive improvement in the consistency of my pop.
I cut a short video to this progression after the session, and posted it to Insta with the song – yep, you guessed it – BAKIT NGAYON KA LANG. And really for no good reason, it just popped into my head as an idea, and I even poked fun at the song in the caption.
After posting this, may other Filipino Longboarders recognized the legendary song in the video, and we started poking fun at it. Saying it would give us super powers as Filipino Longboarders. ????????????
Somehow, we got on a kick of syncing this song to Kickflip attempts on Instagram, and we’ve just been having way too much fun with it.
Classic skate vibes, laughter, improvement, poking fun at one’s own culture, etc.
#BAKITNGAYONKICKFLIP
This is now the official #hashtag for people trying to unlock the kickflip to this song, and below you’ll find an archive of everyone’s attempts.
Wanna claim your place in #BAKITNGAYONKICKFLIP lore?
I’d love to add you here, you don’t even have to be Filipino! Only rule is you gotta post a video on Instagram with your kickflip attemps or unlocks to this song, and make sure you use the hashtag in the post.
Once you’ve done that, just hit me in the comments with your Insta details and I’ll get you up on here.
Have fun, and may the BNKL be with you ????
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