Escape the urban grind

by Will Harmon

Marble, granite, and smooth concrete – for a skateboarder the presence of these urban materials generates a grin.

Skateboarders approach the urban landscape in a somewhat different manner than the average human being.

Metropolitan cities create a constant lure by providing endless amounts of ‘skateable’ structures.

Steps, benches, and handrails are usually not given a second thought by the average city pedestrian, but to a skateboarder, these are valuable ‘skate spots’ where they can perform any amount of maneuvers on their skateboards.

Concrete playground

Iain Borden, an architecture professor at University College London says: “It has often been remarked that decades of urban technology have unwittingly created a concrete playground of immense potential, and that it sometimes takes the mind of a 12-year-old to realise this potential.

"This comment refers to the urban practice of skateboarding."

Skateboarding saw its beginning in the ‘50s in California.

Roller skating wheels were fastened to planks of wood so surfers could emulate riding the waves while being on the street.

Over the years, skateboarders discovered schools in Southern California with asphalt embankments surrounding their playgrounds.

Skateboarders began riding up and down the ‘banks’ simulating the carving of a wave on a surfboard.

This was one of the earliest forms of ‘street skating’ and footage from this era has been brought into the mainstream by Stacy Peralta’s popular documentary Dogtown and the Z boys, which became a hit at film festivals throughout the world in 2001.

The film also showcases the talents of early skateboarding pioneers in empty backyard swimming pools.

In the ‘70s, skateboarders had the vision to turn an un-used empty swimming pool into a teenager’s playground and this became common practise through the decades as skateparks were developed.

In the ‘80s, a majority of the skateparks around the world closed down due to skateboarding’s demise in popularity.

Without many skateparks, skateboarders began skating the streets more and thus spawned what is now commonly referred to as ‘street skating’.

Street skating differs from skateboarding in a skatepark, as skaters constantly have to adapt to whichever surface, obstacle, or obstruction comes in their path.

Thrilling

This adaptation to ‘skateable’ architecture of the city, that is not meant to be skated on, can be quite thrilling for a skateboarder explains Nick Jensen, 25, a Chelsea College of Art student.

“I prefer skating street to a skatepark.

"The city landscape is not specifically designed for skateboarding.

"It’s like having a blank canvas.”

The constant search for skate spots unintentionally turns skateboarders into urban explorers.

The quest to find the perfect ledge to perform a ‘backside tailslide’ (and other tricks) leads skateboarders to unknown and often unused parts of the urban environment.

For instance, in London a skateboarder would know that there are some incredible snake-like benches at a park in Pontoon Dock in the Docklands, or there are some benches with flat railings leading off them in a park in West Brompton.

“Skating through the city makes me more aware of my surroundings; I have to be wary of certain things like the

roughness of the ground or other people around me,” says Goldsmiths student Jin Shimizu, 19.

“As a skateboarder, I feel I explore the city more thoroughly as I’m always looking around to find something new to skate on, I see something amazing that any other person would walk past and pay no attention to.”

London skateboarder Gustav Eden, 30, says: “As a skateboarder you filter the built environment through the capacity of the physical objects to accommodate skateboarding.

"You may spend a big part of your day thinking about a grimey, piss-stinking alleyway because two sections of sidewalk are separated by a particular distance, sneak past security to skate some polished marble around Liverpool street, or find yourself spending hours in an utterly boring square because it is close to your house and the ground is alright.”

Cities become a street skater’s own massive ‘skatepark’.

Endless enjoyment

By finding quiet, vacant alleyways, forgotten squares, or deserted spaces on a Sunday, the city offers endless amounts of enjoyment to a skateboarder.

Borden remarks that: “Skateboarders threaten accepted definitions of space, taking over space conceptually as well as physically and so striking at the very heart of what everyone else understands by the city.”

He continues by summing up the common mindset of an urban skateboarder by saying: “Skaters do not accept cities as they are; rather than trying to section off their own little piece of land, skaters want to use all of the city, and in a particularly unconventional and active manner.

"By using their youth, and in particular by using their own bodily pleasure, skateboarders create their own space, their own cities, and their own architecture.”