Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Ride like the wind: Spain's Danny León just can't get enough!
Find out how looking out of his window one day opened up a world of travel and adventure for a nine-year-old boy from Madrid.
There are a spectrum of avenues to the status of professional skateboarders. Some people come up through skateboarding on the streets alone. Others pretend that was the case. In truth, the second golden era of the skatepark is well and truly upon us and by far they represent most skateboarders' introduction to the activity these days in most parts of the world. Danny León is a scion of that reality.
In truth, the man from Madrid had never considered skateboarding as a kid until he looked out of his bedroom window in Mostoles one day to discover the vacant lot was being turned into a skatepark.
"At first, I thought Mostoles skatepark was an empty swimming pool, because I had no clue about skateboarding."
It instantly became a neighbourhood hangout – that is, in the end, who it was designed for – but, unlike his peers who skated a bit before the temptations of youth and young adulthood saw them drift off into the night – León stuck at it. Of those formative days, he reflects, "at the beginning we just asked people to lend us their skateboard when they sat down." A lifelong love affair was born.
Danny Leon — Crossbone
© Cameron Markin
At first, I thought Mostoles skatepark was an empty swimming pool, because I had no clue about skateboarding
What comes along next is the big sell of skateboarding as a lifestyle to talented youngsters – the opportunity to escape. Spain has long since had its own contest culture, from events at La Kantera in the Basque Country to Vigo’s long-running O Marisquino festival. As you might imagine, Spanish skate contests are much less buttoned-down affairs than elsewhere, so the seduction is not hard to see. After a few trips to contests beyond Madrid as a young teenager, he was sold on the life and never looked back.
As he says of that era himself: "I kept skating as a hobby until it became my job."
Danny León - Frontside Kickflip Stalefish
© Vasek Zalud
Danny unapologetically loves skating at contests because of the social aspect of them. It's a lifestyle not unlike that of rodeo riders: some you win, some you lose, usually you share some prize money, hotel room floors or meal vouchers with the skaters who are nominally your competition.
Either way, you all hop on the transport leaving the park and see one another again somewhere down the road. It is not a lifestyle for everyone, let it be said.
"At home [as in Spain the country], they didn’t understand it, but now that skateboarding has become an Olympic sport and they see me on TV, they understand it better. But back at that time, they told me: 'Let’s hope you grow up and you leave skateboarding because you're not going to make a living out of it!’ That's the sort of thing I heard from teachers – although some of them supported me.”
Danny León – Fakie Thruster
© Sebas Romero/Red Bull Content Pool
On the skate contest circuits, you begin to recognise faces in different ports and soon enough you've made friends with people from halfway around the world. There is undeniably a certain romance to it, if you're consistent enough to compete and thereby be invited elsewhere.
01
Life in the fast lane
Danny is undeniably one of the best-travelled skateboarders of his generation. Once he jumped on the events train, he's shown up and busted out at contests like Simple Session, La Kantera, O Marisquino, the Australian Bowlriding Championships, Mystic Cup, Skate Ark Japan, Bondi Bowl-A-Rama, Fise Montpellier, Far N High, Imagine Extreme, Vans Park Series, Dew Tour and the Baltic Games.
Danny Leon – Boardslide
© Gaston Francisco
His status as a leading light of Spanish concrete ripping saw Danny invited to take part in a skateboarding hidden-camera prank for national TV show El Hormiguero. The clip in which, disguised as a pensioner, he borrows a skatepark kid's board and blows their minds, became a viral sensation in the Latin world; the YouTube clip currently sits on 14 million views.
Dnny Leon - Invert
© Nicolas Jacquemin / Red Bull Content Pool
I kept skating as a hobby until it became my job
All the big-moment experience which he has gained from such a prolific career saw him become an Olympian in Tokyo 2020. His dominance in European Park contests, which saw him compete on behalf of Spain, came from a revelation he had when he first went up against elite US talent.
"When I was 19, I took part in the X Games in Barcelona. My mind changed there; I saw how the Americans skated in such a big international competition. I was used to competing in Europe and in Spain, but there I competed in the biggest competition. My vision of skateboarding in a competition changed. From that competition, I started to win almost everything in Europe."
Along his never-ending road hopping from event-to-event, Danny has also shone in some unique showcases of our own.
More skateboarding on Red Bull TV
02
Eolo - Skate The Wind
2017 would see Danny able to act upon an invite from Asturias-based wind turbine manufacturers Dacero and Windar Renewables to film a skate sequence on the production line of their manufacturing plant.
5 min
EOLO: Skate the Wind
Watch Zion Wright, Danny León, Alex Sorgente and Ryan Sheckler skate wind turbines in Asturias, Spain.
The result was Eolo, named after the ancient Greek wind god and which featured León alongside elite US pro’s Ryan Sheckler, Zion Wright and Alex Sorgente in another skateboarding fantasy feature which only Red Bull could deliver. In an era before hot-takes and clap-backs, Eolo caught the attention of the skateboarding world and beyond. León’s name was becoming established internationally.
"I try to mark the difference, I try to do tricks that haven't been done before, or to put together tricks in a way that's never been done before, or to do them at a place nobody has thought about before. I look for things that people aren't going to do. That’s where my creativity is... that´s the way I skate, that’s what I try to do."
03
Red Bull Roller Coaster
León was a natural choice for both editions of the wild 300-metre-long downhill slopestyle course through Munich’s Olympiapark in 2017 and 2018.
1 min
Danny León at Red Bull Roller Coaster
Watch Danny León perform his best moves and tricks at Olympiapark in Munich, Germany.
His all-round ability had an opportunity to express itself, not just to the thousands in attendance, but also watching him around the world via our popular livestream brought him wider respect in the skateboarding community as a whole. The perfect skater for a killer event.
04
Red Bull Paris Conquest
The first leg of the touring city homage series began in the French capital in 2021 and was by anybody’s estimation a huge success.
14 min
Relive the raucous skating in Paris
See what went down as the world's street elite showcased their skills at a one-of-a-kind skatepark in Paris.
Held in the Place de la Concorde at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the entire event was a showstopper with León bringing his own unique transition skating abilities to one of the most idiosyncratic course set-ups the world has ever seen.
05
Red Bull Steep Street 2023
Knowing what we knew about León’s ability to handle downhill speed from Red Bull Roller Coaster, he was an instant choice for his friend and team-mate Maxim Habanec’s brand-new downhill street event held on Prague’s steepest avenue in the long hot summer of 2023.
1 min
Red Bull Steep Street 2023
The hillbombing street-obstacle contest is a first for the city and showcases a different kind of skateboarding skill from those on display at the city’s fabled skatepark and ledge spots
His high-octane run from the roadblocked event has racked up in excess of half-a-million hits on social media since.
06
A career crescendo
2023 would turn out to be one of the most productive years of Danny's career. Representing Spain on the World Skateboarding Tour he's moved steadily up the leaderboard, with two semi-final finishes in Argentina and Italy respectively pushing him up the Official World Skate Rankings. The summer of 2023 would also see him win Red Bull Bowl Rippers at the fabled Bowl Du Prado in Marseille in front of a capacity crowd.
Not satisfied with that victory, he would then go on to win the final stop of the World Skateboarding Tour in Dubai in February 2024 to cement his position as one of Europe's current Park skateboarding elite en-route to becoming a Paris Olympian that summer.
Danny Leon - Nosegrind Tailgrab
© World Skate
Somehow, Danny is in the skateboarding form of his life right now despite a decade of endless international skateboard touring behind him. As a skateboarder who's carved his own path against the orthodoxies of the mainstream skateboarding media, he proves every day that you can follow your own path and pursue your dreams your own way. As he says of his grounding in the culture that has given him everything...
What motivates me the most is to skate with my friends
"What motivates me the most is to skate with my friends; that´s what gives me the most confidence. I have the best time when I skate with my friends, although they are not at a professional level, that is what motivates me to skate. They are the ones who give me the strength to go to the competitions."
That sense of connection and feet on the ground explains why León is one of the best-liked skateboarders on the international Park skateboarding scene today- a quality which has to be admired.
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