Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Check out the cities around the world where you just have to skate!
Our Greetings From series of videos takes you street-level in some of the world's most talked about skateboarding cities – jump in and watch them all with us right here.
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Greetings From... Richmond, USA
13 min
Virginia
Enjoy a different side of American skateboarding culture, ripping up the Virginia skate scene with the locals.
Jonathan Mehring’s snapshot of a moment in time from one of those relaxed, inter-generational heartbeat skate scenes of a lesser-seen America is its own kind of wonderful. Richmond, Virginia, is one of those city scenes which will resonate with anyone who comes from a skate scene of tennis court box-ledges and edge-of-town ‘cheese grater’ ditch spots and DIY parks built in the footprint of demolished buildings.
"It’s so cliched to say ‘our spots are rough and crusty,' but they are," says Richmond local and pro skateboarder Gilbert Crockett.
Ian Mondragon - Tailslide
© Jonathan Mehring
It’s so cliched to say ‘our spots are rough and crusty,' but they are
Good examples of Richmond’s skate terrain are the Midlo Ditch and River Bowl – the first complete with spined Jersey barriers only a local could handle, the latter a DIY micro-bowl on a massive concrete slab overhanging a fast-running section of the James River.
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Greetings From... Johannesburg, South Africa
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.
No time to play
© Karabo Mooki
I buy from whoever has, I sell to whoever doesn’t!
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. In this episode, Mooki takes us through some moments from the past 12 years of documenting the Joburg skate scene and sharing his experiences of the generational changes in skateboarding.
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Greetings From... London, England
What makes London so great for skating is the Tube. London’s underground network means you can buy a one-day travelcard and traverse the city from sun up to sun down (please note – sunshine not always provided), going from mini-ramp session to concrete skatepark to street sessions, taking in the incredible diversity of the city all the while. Ever-evolving, the myriad skate scenes of London have in recent times become ever-more diverse and welcoming, while less-than-bohemian property rental prices have seen Zone 6 scenes pop up further afield.
Southbank, London
© Rich West
There are so many facets of skateboarding, and in London they are all being pushed
Touch base with some of the best-regarded people at the heart of the capital’s skate communities, learn about the community DIY spot created in a derelict pub car park in south London and explore the environs of Bay Sixty6 skatepark underneath the four-lane Westway flyover, which has been keeping London skaters dry since 1997. As Daryl Dominguez says: “There are so many facets of skateboarding, and in London they are all being pushed.”
03
Greetings From... Philadelphia, USA
17 min
Philadelphia
Go street-level in one of skating's most influential cities with the locals who make up the Philly scene.
Skating in Philadelphia is hard. Rugged terrain, uneven sidewalks and every weather condition imaginable is hurled at skaters whose goal is to thrash the City of Brotherly Love. “The streets are rough. The spots are rough. There’s a lot you’ve got to battle” says Kerry Getz, owner of iconic Philly skate shop, Nocturnal.
Greetings from Philadelphia
© Colin Kerrigan
The streets are rough. The spots are rough. There’s a lot you’ve got to battle
But adversity breeds creativity and that’s the message Greetings From Philadelphia communicates loud and clear. This episode takes a deep dive into the skateboarding culture of one of the world’s most iconic cities.
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Greetings From... Glasgow, Scotland
Meet the locals behind the many DIY skate projects which 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 thirty years ago), Glasgow’s skate scene has a feel and energy all of its own.
Jamie Foy – Front Crook
© James Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
At a point we thought, ‘Is this going to die out in this city?’, so to see how healthy everything now is really… it’s a lovely thing
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.
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Greetings From... Santiago, Chile
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 skateboarders.
Marcelo Jiménez in Santiago
© Nicolas Gantz/Red Bull Content Pool
There are always skaters around, sessions are mellow and there are spots everywhere
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!
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Greetings From... Manchester, England
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.
Jake Wooten – Frontside Air
© James Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
It’s just constant – it’s just growth, man – it’s never going to stop, I don’t think
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. As Eddie Belvedere notes during the episode: “It’s just constant – it’s just growth, man – it’s never going to stop, I don’t think.”
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 is going on within the skate scene in one of the UK’s most character-filled cities.
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