Skateboarding
Skateboarding
The best 25 skate cities to shred before you pile out
Check our guide to the finest skateboarding cities on the planet, from the famous to the surprising. From Los Angeles to Guangzhou, these are our top-25 places to skate.
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Skateboarding is predominantly an urban expression. Street skating was created and developed on the slopes and pavements of cities and the relationship between the urban sprawl and restless, thrill-seeking youth is at the core of our beloved activity.
To this end, we thought we'd pool our collective experiences of skating around the world to choose 25 cities that we can recommend to any skater looking to bust out and see somewhere new.
#BestSkateCities
01
Barcelona – the mecca
6 min
Greetings from Barcelona
From the OG’s to the young bucks, we go street-level in skateboarding’s capital city.
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I love Barcelona, it’s like heaven for skateboarders. Smooth ground everywhere you go, nice weather and interesting people.
02
Berlin – a summer must
6 min
Greetings From Berlin
Join Jan Kliewer & Lennie Burmeister on a skateboard journey through Germany’s spot-packed capital.
Such diversity also makes it a very open-minded place, where street artists, skaters and young people in general have found a place to call home.
03
Los Angeles – where it all started
3 min
Denny Pham taking care of Coastal Business
Two skaters, two cities, one mission: watch Denny Pham going hard in Los Angeles.
04
Guangzhou – the Asian skate El Dorado
4 min
The Rice Diaries - Exploring China Part 2
The Canadian crew continues their journey exploring China’s unique view on skateboarding.
If you get tired of the perfect plazas, don't not, as the city is also filled with plenty of other unique spots, like the famous ribbon quarter pipe as seen in just about every skate video from 2014. The city is very affordable and getting around is easy, and cheap, via the subway system or taxis.
05
San Francisco – where history was made
6 min
Greetings from San Francisco
The travel guide for skate exploration this time takes us around the US west coast metropolis.
True, the Embarcadero and other iconic spots may have fallen victim to their own popularity and been re-developed beyond skateboarding use, but in 3rd and Army you have arguably the greatest street spot of all time and the city's status as bohemian El Dorado remains despite the skyrocketing rents caused by the influx of digital revolutionaries.
The hills remain terrifying to traverse on any wheels, the tram tracks are still a bigger Ollie than you would like to do at the speed required to clear them and the Mission district burritos are still bigger than one person should eat. Put simply, SF has to be done if for no other reason than to realize how much skate history was made here.
06
Manchester – documenting a city's resurgence
14 min
Manchester
Explore the thriving skate scene in Manchester, England, with Margielyn Didal, Jake Wooten and Jamie Foy.
Despite a central architecture that reflects the city’s previous importance to the cotton trade, Manchester’s skate scene has survived council bans and inclement weather – and is absolutely flourishing right now. In fact, you could say that England's cultural juggernaut of a city makes for one of the country's most interesting skate scenes precisely because it has got so much going against it.
Join the sessions with the great and good of Manchester skateboarding – including Lewis Threadgold of the history-logging Manchestalgia Instagram account – and learn about what's going on inside the skate scene in one of the UK’s most character-filled cities. Read more about the skate scene in Manchester today!
07
Melbourne – Down Under spots galore
Chris Joslin - Backside Flip
© Sam McGuire
As a rule of thumb when it comes to cities, the second biggest is usually the interesting one. Principal cities tend to take first bite of everything and become predictable as a result. Second cities (and third, and fourth) tend to be more liveable, less showy and better loved.
Why? Simple city layout, terrific food, groovy arts scene, open urban planning and 20 skateparks within a 15km radius, including not one but two outdoor vert ramps, mean that while San Francisco may be the most storied city in skateboarding’s history, Melbourne is the world’s most skateboarding city today. Plus, Australians are overwhelmingly decent skins who look after visitors like their own, so you can't lose.
08
Copenhagen – eco and skateboarding friendly
5 min
Streets On Fire: this was the CPH Open 2017
After the biggest-ever turnout is recorded, where can 'skateboarding's Woodstock' go from here?
Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and this bicycle-friendly city is also one of the greenest in the world, with plans to be carbon-emission free by 2025. Copenhagen made a big impact in the skateboarding world with a little help from the CPH Open contest, one of the best events in Europe, which resembles the laid-back contests of the '90s. The spots here are pretty futuristic and the people that inhabit the city are very progressive.
More global skateboarding mayhem!
09
Moscow – Eastern marble block
1 min
Antiz and Absurd get lost in Moscow
The AA Connection: Antiz link up with Russia’s Absurd crew to rock Red Square.
The Russian capital boasts Soviet architecture, which makes it very different to most cities in the world, and one of the few in which you actually can escape globalization and feel that you're truly in different place. The marble monuments depicting grandiose moments from the Soviet epoch are all over the place and produce some of the best spots you've ever seen.
Local skaters are very friendly and open to showing visitors around, provided they are respectful of their customs.
10
Mar del Plata – Latin America's skateboarding cradle
5 min
Skateboarding in Argentina´s surfing cradle
A long skate history, spots and nightlife has made Mar del Plata a haven for Argentinian skaters.
This is one of the the first places that saw skateboarding in Latin America, as you can tell by watching the older generations that still rip the concrete parks.
11
Marseille – for skate terrain old and new
5 min
Hit up Marseille's latest and most legendary skate spots
Roll through the streets of France's most storied skate city with a select crew of local rippers.
Even though skateboarding was alive and kicking in Marseille before the early '90s, it was really when the Bowl du Prado came to life in 1991 that Marseille suddenly exploded on skateboarding's global consciousness. From that summer on, cohorts of pro skaters made sure to hit the new French hotspot as part of their European summer contest pilgrimage.
For several years now, the constantly evolving city has seen a lot of street spots emerge, too: City Hall, la Major and the Saint Charles train station are all worth hitting up if you're ever in Marseille. If you wander a little outside the city limits there are also a handful of other skateable gems of varying ages. Marseille has been a must-visit for a generation of skaters, but now the skate scene in all its forms and functions is flourishing like never before. Don't miss out!
Marseille’s Bowl du Prado is my second home. Really, it's where I grew up.
12
Rio – where the wild things are
8 min
Greetings from Rio de Janeiro
Step inside the skate scene of one of the world’s most famous cites with the top boys from Brazil.
The very name of Rio de Janeiro is the most evocative in the world. Perhaps only Paris can rival Rio as a mental picture painted in the mind's eye. A city for whom the word 'contrasts' might have been invented, Rio is a world city and life is lived with a particular gusto.
A couple of interesting things about skating in Rio: the city is hemmed-in between the mountains and world-famous waterfront, so it really took the rejuvenation of the downtown for global sports events in order to create really good ledge spots relatively recently. Rio is also home to a historic concrete bowl-skating scene, which is by no means common throughout South America. In fact, there are even DIY concrete parks in the favelas overlooking the city. Rio is about as real as skating gets. The city's reputation for wildness in all regards is not imagined.
13
Sofia – Eastern exposure
6 min
Greetings from Sofia
Come and meet the Bulgarian skaters that make up this awesome Eastern European capital city skate scene.
Sofia has a magic to it as a city. It doesn't have endless spots, but it's a city so old that they can't dig down in it without finding yet another civilization. The opening of 5-High Skatepark on the fifth floor of a funky converted industrial unit means the locals can skate all-year-round for the first time. Also be sure to go and hang out at Grindhouse Skate Club, a hideout in the city-center woods with an indoor mini-ramp and regular, noisy live bands. Every skater in the city seems to pass through this fantastic DIY venue at some point, so it's a great place to meet people and very friendly for visitors.
14
Paris – for the skate renaissance
6 min
Greetings from Paris
Go inside the skate scenes thriving all over the French capital today.
The rebuilding of Place de la République, the skate/fashion explosion and the will of the city to make more public spaces accessible to skateboarders have clearly all been factors in this Parisian skate renaissance. Word on the street is that a lot more shared areas will be developed throughout the city in the upcoming years.
Several skateshops continue to thrive in Paris, including Nozbone, Day Off, Odilon and Snowbeach, all of which collectively help to keep the Parisian scene's fires burning on a daily basis. If Paris offers a lot of street architecture to skate, the same cannot be said when it comes to transition, or what we might call 'park skating.' On the upside there, Vans collaborated with Cosanostra skatepark and the city of Chelles (roughly 18km east of the city centre) to build a brand new Vans Park Series Bowl that remains in situ for the skaters of France and beyond to use daily.
15
San Diego – where times are always golden
4 min
Greetings from San Diego
Beyond it’s amazing skate scene, San Diego pretty much offers it all.
Many famous pros and skateboard companies have called San Diego home over the past 25 years. Some have moved on, but there's always been a solid skate scene. The beaches are beautiful, the weather is always perfect – as are most the skate spots. It might very well have it all. North County San Diego – about a 30-minute drive from Downtown – has a lot of spots and may well be the best place for transition skating in the world. No California skate mission is complete without visiting San Diego: enjoy the perfect weather, its great culture – and hopefully a Peter Smolik sighting!
16
Lisbon – the rebirth of cool
5 min
Greetings from Lisbon
Affordable prices, good weather and challenging skate spots, Portuguese capital Lisbon has the lot!
17
London – underground adventures are calling
15 min
London
Explore the skate scene of one of the world's greatest cities with Margielyn Didal, Jake Wooten and Jamie Foy.
18
Lyon – going beyond the cliché
4 min
Greetings from Lyon
The gastronomic capital of France is also a stronghold of skateboard culture.
19
New York – don't sleep
5 min
Greetings From: New York City
A ride around one of the best cities to skateboard in the world, New York City.
Lots of people wax poetic about skating the New York of yesteryear, but if you look around today, the city’s skate scene is thriving. With new spots and parks popping up all the time, and independent brands and shops that support the community, great things are happening all the time in NYC.
20
Buenos Aires – boulevards and beauty abound
3 min
Greetings From Buenos Aires
Greetings From Buenos Aires
A big spot for the scene is the small shopping centre Bond Street. This underground centre is filled with tattoo shops and skate shops – Sound Systems being one of the oldest and owned by Javier Bianco, a local legend who was actually the first Argentinian to make it into Thrasher. In the past few years over 20 concrete public skateparks have been built in the city. Today the city is full of skateboarders. If you have time and no destination, Buenos Aires might be the place to go – and the friendly locals will make sure you have a great time!
21
Glasgow – no mean city
15 min
Glasgow
Explore the legendary skate scene in the Scottish city with Margielyn Didal, Jake Wooten and Jamie Foy.
Meet the locals behind the many DIY skate projects that have filled a physical and cultural gap left by an ambivalent local council and discover how a skate scene survives partially undercover in a country where rain is no stranger.
A bluesy and soulful place with a historically resourceful and independently-minded skate scene (one great early example of which was the success of Clan Skates’ locally sourced Poizone clothing label of 30 years ago), Glasgow’s skate scene has a feel and energy all of its own. Among the total dons we linked up with in Glasgow for this episode is Danny Aubrey, who's personally rescued thousands of skateboards, raised good money for skateboarding non-profit organizations and given a platform to more than 50 artists – all from a business started in a garage back in 2010.
22
Santiago- rolling deep
18 min
Santiago
Around 20,000 skateboarders live in the greater metropolitan area of the Chilean city – let's roll with them!
Chile is the sleeping giant of South American skate culture, with capital city Santiago being home to an estimated 20,000 skaters.
It wasn't until the emergence of Go Skateboarding Day in 2004 however that Santiago city council realized the demand for skateparks and the city began to become a skateboarding trailblazer – not only as a destination for skateboarders throughout Chile, but wider Latin America as well. This episode hears that remarkable story, as told by the skateboarders who made it all happen. Just wait until you see how many skaters hit the streets of Chile's capital city every year to wild out.
23
Johannesburg – where the heart is
20 min
Johannesburg
Meet Brandon Valjalo and 30 more top dogs from South Africa's biggest skate scene in our super city report.
What Johannesburg lacks in perfect surfaces, it makes up for in heart. It's one of the friendliest and most unified skate scenes we’ve come across on our journey to connect grassroots skate scenes. The theme of 'do it yourself' is the through-line of our city report from the streets of South Africa – from the Westdene DIY skatepark, which was created from nothing by brothers Jarryd and Brandon Barnard, to Skate Society Soweto, fronted by the charismatic Sechaba The Bakersman.
Among those like-minded souls we connected with in Johannesburg is Thato Moet of the Island Gals skate crew, who’s become the emerging face of what’s new in the Johannesburg skate scene, thanks in no small part to the sterling photographic work of local ripper Karabo Mooki, who has spent the past 12 years documenting the Joburg skate scene and the generational changes in skateboarding.
24
Richmond – the good kind of crusty
13 min
Virginia
Enjoy a different side of American skateboarding culture, ripping up the Virginia skate scene with the locals.
We highly recommend you stop in Richmond, Virginia if ever on a cross-USA skate trip. One of those relaxed, inter-generational heartbeat skate scenes of a lesser-seen America, which is its own kind of wonderful, Richmond is one of those city scenes that will resonate with anyone who comes from a skate scene of tennis court box ledges, edge-of-town ‘cheese grater’ ditch spots and DIY parks built in the footprint of demolished buildings.
Good examples of Richmond's skate terrain are the Midlo Ditch and River Bowl – the first complete with spined Jersey barriers only a local can handle, the latter a DIY micro-bowl on a massive concrete slab overhanging a fast-running section of the James River. Any trip to Richmond should begin with a visit to Venue Skateshop for the lowdown on all matters skate-related in the parish.
25
Philadelphia – all love
17 min
Philadelphia
Go street-level in one of skating's most influential cities with the locals who make up the Philly scene.
Philadelphia has proven pivotal in skateboarding's history. Seat of the 1990s East Coast movement and home to uber-spot Love Park throughout that era, Philadelphia has it's own energy, style and codes of conduct.
With passing generations and see-sawing municipal attitudes to young people and civic space the Philadelphia scene has spread prismatically throughout the city in new and exciting ways. As we say, it's all love in Philly, but don't go expecting perfect spots because that's not how this city rolls.
#BestSkateCities
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