Skateboarding
Skateboarding
A resurgence of a scene: Greetings from Sydney
One of the most skate-friendly cities on the planet has everything from world-famous bowls to award-winning plazas. Let's get the lowdown from the city's fabled streets.
Much like Berlin, people are always staggered to discover that Australia’s most famous city is not in fact that nation’s capital. Sydney is a world city, let us begin by recognising that fact. Everything which has been said about the fusion of city and beach culture and what that also means for nightlife is absolutely true and has been explored better elsewhere than we could hope to do justice to here. Suffice to say, skateboarding isn’t new to Sydney.
What is really interesting about Australian skateboarding today generally and specifically with regards to Sydney is how much of a cultural resurgence it is having.
8 min
Shredding down under
Ryan, Corbin Harris, and Ryder Lawson jam around Sydney, grab some custom sunglasses, and shoot some hoops.
Australia, you see, is skateboarding’s forgotten ancestral story. The climate, coastal connection to waveforms and a society that is all about being outside and alive have made Australia by extension one of the wellsprings of skateboarding culture worldwide. Entire skate scenes from elsewhere in the world would decamp to spend months avoiding domestic winters and absorb the good life on offer. The country could be its own entire episode of Madars Apse’s Skate Tales for that reason alone!
01
Coming back to front
The pandemic put Sydney's international connections on ice so the global city had to find the energy to rebound... and how it has.
Australian skateboarding is enjoying something of a moment in the sun with brands like Butter Goods, Hoddle and Pass-Port returning international attention to Australia’s burgeoning talent pool in skateboarding which also includes World Skateboarding Tour standouts like Kieran Woolley, Rome Collyer and more.
Sydney once again finds itself on the minds of skateboarders around the world, so let’s take you on a lightning-fast roll around some of the places you might go and people you may encounter should you come and visit, from world-famous bowls to polished-granite plaza spots.
Jake Hayes, Backside Tailslide
© Andrew Peters
Best skatepark? Waterloo. It’s a good place to meet up before going out skating.
02
Local legends
Among the now-internationally famous skateboarders to have emerged through the Sydney scene hub you can include Chima Ferguson, Jack O'Grady, Jake Hayes, Dean Palmer, Josh Paul, Dane Burman and Dustin Dollin.
Alex Sorgente — Transfer back tail
© Cameron Markin
Danny Leon — Wall-to-wall transfer
© Cameron Markin
Bjorn Lillesoe — Nosebone
© Cameron Markin
Kalle Berglind — Gap to nosegrind
© Cameron Markin
Mikey Mendoza — Tre flip
© Cameron Markin
Vincent Matheron — Frontside hurricane
© Cameron Markin
Alex Sorgente — Frontside ollie in
© Cameron Markin
Danny Leon — Crossbone
© Cameron Markin
Alex Sorgente — Nosegrind
© Cameron Markin
Bjorn Lillesoe – Alley Oop Lien over the channel
© Cameron Markin
Alex Sorgente — Hip floater
© Cameron Markin
03
Where's good to skate in Sydney?
Sydney has more than 80 skateparks, which should come as no surprise given the city’s nexus between outdoors culture and surf paradise Bondi Beach which forms part of the city’s shoreline. Some are suburban activity spaces for post-playground youngsters which is fine and after all what the taxpayers need them for, but Sydney also has some of the most varied legal skate terrain anywhere in the world.
Let’s begin with the most famous of them all: Bondi.
Bondi Bowl
5 min
Highlights from Vans Bowl-A-Rama in Bondi
All the action from the weekend’s jamboree in Sydney!
Outside of Marseille arguably the most iconic bowl in skateboarding today, Bondi skatepark in fact has much more skateable terrain than the bowl itself but it is the giant, monolithic proving-ground set deep into the concrete there which has captured the imaginations of skateboarders worldwide courtesy of the era-defining Bowl-A-Rama contest series held there less than a decade a go.
Manly Skatepark
Alex Sorgente- Ollie
© Cameron Markin
The great dame of Sydney skateparks is so-titled not because there is anything particularly macho about it but because it sits on Manly lagoon north-east of Sydney Harbour. As well as the concrete space it also plays host to an absolutely perfect wooden mini-ramp for the mellower sessions.
Martin Place
Gustavo Ribeiro - Halfcab Heelflip
© Anthony Acosta
Martin Place is many things; a confluence of concrete slabs, slopes and staircases, sure. But it's also hosted World War I conscription rallies and has been the home of the Sydney Cenotaph since 1927. It's been a filming location for the likes of The Matrix and Superman Returns, and, in 2008, Kevin Rudd chose it as the spot from which he’d issue an apology to the Aboriginal people of the Stolen Generation.
Named after Chief Justice Sir James Martin and completed in 1935, Martin Place today is a huge outdoor pedestrian mall located smack-bang in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. It’s a gathering place, the 'civic heart' of the city and, for many skateboarders around the world, the definition of the perfect spot.
South Eveleigh / ‘Tech Park’
Tech Park
© Convic
This imagined plaza-spot by specialists Convic won the 2020 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) Award for Urban Design. Think brick banks, street volcano, curbs and low-impact wave forms. This is the future of integrated leisure space design and it has a natural home in Sydney.
Mona Vale Skatepark
Bjorn Lillesoe — Nosebone
© Cameron Markin
This huge space located in Kitchener Park which forms part of Sydney’s Northern Beaches not only has a floodlit street section and bowl for late-night sessions, but has proved pivotal to the city’s halfpipe-skating scene through the presence of a giant steel vert ramp, all of which was refurbished in 2016.
Chima Ferguson, Switch Backside Heelflip
© Andrew Peters
Best beach? Tamara is the loveliest, because it's smaller so it doesn't get so crowded; it's also the best to snorkel at.
Sydney Park Skatepark
Sydney Park Skatepark is fast becoming the city's spot for all levels of skaters. It offers entry level features, but quickly leans into more technical rails, ledges and even a full-sized bowl. It's got something for everyone in other words. It's even hosted the Red Bull Drop In Tour, which features some of skating's biggest stars.
Felipe Gustavo performs a Backside Flip
© Andrew Peters/Red Bull Content Pool
Jake Wooten treats the crowd to a Frontside Ollie Disaster
© Andrew Peters/Red Bull Content Pool
Zion Wright on the megaphone
© Andrew Peters/Red Bull Content Pool
Spectators at Red Bull Drop In Tour in Sydney were treated to star showcase
© Andrew Peters/Red Bull Content Pool
It was part of a $6,000,000 development in 2020, so there's plenty of concrete for all. It is weather dependent so be sure to check for rain before heading over, but if you do get rained out, head along King Street for a bite to eat, flip through record stores or stop in at the many vintage shops.
It's a short skate from St Peters train station or a number of bus routes, making it accessible no matter where you are in Sydney.
04
Where's the skate shop?
Shop signing
© Anthony Acosta
When the Red Bull Drop-In Tour touched down in Sydney last year we were hosted by East Sydney’s Concrete Skate Supply. You can find them on Bondi Beach when you go to visit the bowl there, but we should also shout out Kingpin out in suburban Penrith who are also doing great things for the scene there. Both stores carry all the Australian brands mentioned earlier as well as select imported companies as well.
Take a deeper dive into Australian skate culture
05
When to visit
September and October tend to be quieter while February and March sees things move up a gear with surfing contests bringing crowds to the city for weekends which see every business along the beaches full to capacity.
Irrespective of when you arrive, rest assured the you will feel welcomed by that famously easy-going, unpretentious Australian way of being which means even world cities like Sydney never forget their manners or lose their charm.
