One of my favorite things to do in life is travel. It’s something that’s been instilled in me by my family since early on. My father by his early 20s had travel to lots of part of Colombia and after marrying mom and having two boys (brothers) they moved to the US, where they lived for 8 years. That’s where I come into the picture. My entire family is Colombian, so I’m Colombian by blood although I was born in Providence, Rhode Island. We moved to Colombia (Bogota, D.C.) when I was 5 years old and by my mid 20s I had lived half of my life here (in the US) and half of my life there (Colombia). Nowadays I’ve been longer here, but you never know what the future holds, and there’s some exploring I still would like to do.
Traveling is one of the most essential parts of skateboarding. I mean think about it, after you conquer the street in front of your house and hit up all the spots in the neighborhood you start exploring further and further. Skateboarding is very much about finding the spot and possibilities can only arise when you’re physically there. I remember getting the crew together and going all over the city, at first we would skate to places, then moved on taking the bus to finally being able to drive. We went all over, and we still missed so many spots, that’s the beauty of skateboarding, possibilities are endless, so the quest of finding the perfect place to skate will live forever.
I’ve had the chance to travel to some pretty cool places and ever since I became a skateboarder I enjoy it even more. You can skate instead of walk so you get to explore more and most likely you’ll meet other skaters (depending on where you go of course), and if you do they’ll take you places no travel book could ever suggest. You get a real sense of the city or town you’re visiting. I want to talk about some of the places I’ve either lived at or spend at least 3 months exploring and getting a sense of the culture. I don’t really have an order, I’ll just mention the ones that had an impact on me.
Colombia
Bogotá
This is where it all began for me in the skateboarding world. I learned to skate in Bogota, my first crew is all from there, and we would go out looking for spots. Not without conquering the neighborhood one’s first, of course. I grew up in El Batan which is a neighborhood located north of the city in between two big malls (Unicentro and Bulevar Niza) some 15 blocks to either one. Both of those had spots and going to either had more spots on the way. There were manny pads, stairs, gaps, ledges, benches, handrails, and more. The ground is not always the smoothest, but you make it work.
The city is a big mess, being that is the capital of the country and there’s a big influx of people coming in from all over in hopes of better opportunity. There’s always construction going on and it can be dangerous at times, but you learn this trait that is called “no dar papaya” – which essentially means “don’t give a chance”. Bogotá is not for everyone, but it does have its charm. I love it and I believe having lived there is why enjoy living in a big city as an adult. Because of the roughness of the ground, the brick and concrete of the city it can best relate to skating in the east coast, minus the snow. My favorite spots to skate: La Fiscalia, Carulla de la 85, El Polo (one of the few covered spots, perfect on rainy days) and Downtown as a whole.
Brazil
Sao Paulo
Brazil has a special place in my heart. It is the country I have travel to the most. Both of my brothers moved there over 20 years ago (although one of them moved to Colombia not long ago) and if you remember is where I got my first skateboard (if you don’t click here to read about my first board). Also my wife is Brazilian. Like I said, it has a special place in my heart. I’ll talk about Sao Paulo because this is the place I got to explore most. I don’t think I have to tell anyone how good Brazilians are at skateboarding (and other things), some of the current top skaters like Tiago Lemos, Luan Oliveira, Carlos Ribeiro, and many more prove the point. Sao Paulo is like New York. Known as the concrete jungle, it’s a gigantic city and while the capital of Brazil is Brasilia, Sao Paulo is where the action happens. Skating around Paulista Avenue is definitely an experience and being able to get some açaí after a long skate session is definitely a treat.
I remember in one of my trips I met these two skaters at Praça Roosevelt, we talked for a bit and skated for the day, they took me to several spots, and we shared our stories about skating and life in general. At the end of the day we went to Galeria do Rock. Picture a skateboarders’ and musicians’ mall, every single store was either a skate shop or a music store. Is like heaven for a skater. I even got some girls number that day (good day). Being that Sao Paulo is such a big city I would say there are spots everywhere but some of my favorite spots to skate were: Anhangabau, Praça Roosevelt, Parque Villa-Lobos and Morumbi park.
Spain
Madrid
Now most likely you’ve heard about Barcelona being a skate capital of the world (along with LA). But let me tell you about Madrid. It is awesome. Life just seems to happen at a later time than anywhere else I’ve visited or lived. You can easily find an entire family having dinner close to midnight on a Sunday. And when I say family I mean, mom, dad, kids, grandma, auntie, everyone is out until late at night. I’ve had the chance to visit a handful of times but the first time I got to stay close to 4 months where I all I did was skate. That’s when I was enchanted by the city and hopefully one day I’ll get to call it home (no rush, I’m happy where I’m at right now). I went to visit one of my brothers who lived there at the time and is the reason I got to stay for that long doing nothing but skate.
He lived in a very central location and once I got there I began to explore on my board. Once again on the skateboard you get to explore more, and during this exploring I ran into Plaza Colon. You may have heard of this little spot called “Macba” (the museum in Barcelona), well, Plaza Colon is most definitely the Macba of Madrid. The plaza is amazing, there are benches, manny pads, ledges, stairs, gaps, drops, and more. And of course there’s a giant Spanish flag in the middle of it. This is where I would go every day to skate. Now at the time I wasn’t aware, but a lot of the skaters that would met up at the spot where professional skateboarders for local brands and/or euro teams. Everyone was nice for the most part and the talent was incredible.
I truly believe in those 4 months my skateboarding advanced a year, after that trip I had a different flow and confidence in my skating. I gravitated towards this group of south americans, some dudes from Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru. They took me everywhere and introduced me to their friends and really took me in as one of their own. My favorite spots to skate: Plaza Colon, Ruben Dario, Hard Rock Cafe and skating on Gran Via.
United States
Boston
I had the pleasure of living in Boston for 6 years. From 2008 to 2014. To me Boston is the most European city in the US. There’s a lot of brick and the city itself is small but surrounding cities and towns make the metropolitan area big. There’s a wide variety of people from all over the world. Both from generations having lived there, as well as students from everywhere. Boston is home to various universities, the most famous being Harvard and MIT. My first few years there I lived in South Boston and would often skate to Boston while exploring the area. I didn’t really know much about Boston, but there’s one thing I did know, that’s where PJ Ladd’s Wonderful Horrible Life was made. When I was skating around South Station I ran into the ledges (window seals) that PJ did all those wonderful lines at. Little by little I started to recognize more spots from skate videos as well as finding some new ones on my own.
Skating in the east coast is rough, the ground is rarely smooth and you have at least 3 months of snow with a couple more of cold air. You really have to make the most of it when you can skate, those cold days with snow all over give you a sense of appreciation. Because the city is small (like most European cities), you can rely on public transportation, walk or skate to a lot of spots and you’re not obligated to have a car. To me skating in Boston reminded me a lot about skating in Bogota. Minus the snow of course. I later moved to Somerville and from there skated all the “Squares”, Davis Sq, Porter Sq, Central Sq, Harvard Sq and Kendall Sq. I also happened to lived really close to RAW (Ready Amongst Willing) skate shop where I got some education of the rich history of skateboarding in New England. My favorite spots to skate: Eggs, South Station, Somerville Plaza and skating around Downtown.
Los Angeles
I call LA home since 2014. The first time I came to LA was back in 2003, 18 year old me had just graduated from high school and my plan was simple, move to LA, work at a skate shop, settle and hopefully in a couple of years start community college. But nothing worked like I planned, places I had called to stay had either raised their prices or rented already, and I was left in this limbo of finding work without an address and not being to find a home without a job. With the little money I had left I took a bus to South Carolina where I worked for a few months before moving back to Colombia to start university. But I had fun, I remember going to the X-games at the Staples Center and seeing all of my favorite pro skaters. I skated around downtown and it was quite different to how things are now. Even with my fail attempt to stay, LA made a positive impression on me. It took 11 years to come back.
I’ve always wanted to live in LA and being a skater is one of those dreams that I think a lot of us share. In the 6+ years I’ve been here I’ve experienced so many good moments both in skateboarding and in life in general. LA is the mecca of skateboarding, when you go out to skate you’re highly likely to run into a pro skater. You know how people get excited when they see movie stars? Well I get excited when I see professional skaters, specially those I grew up liking and trying to mimic. Like for example I’ve met Chad Muska in 4 different occasions and every single time is an amazing experience. He really takes the time to listen and talk to you. We’ve talked about skateboarding and art and is really humbling feeling his positivity. You know how they say don’t meet your heroes because they might disappoint you, well in this case it just made me like him even more. I will say that while LA is warm most of the year, it can get cold and if you drive a couple of hours to the mountain there’s snow. You can even see the peak of the mountain full of snow while you’re wearing a tank top in the middle of LA, something unique.
There are skate spots everywhere and most likely every trick has been done on every obstacle you can think of, but that doesn’t stop me, I’ll go anywhere and skate. On any given Sunday, I’ll wake up and take my dog for a walk. At the courthouse in downtown I’ll see the Baker crew, you know Andrew Reynolds, Spanky, Erik Ellington, Beagle and more. Then I’ll eat breakfast and head over for JKwon where I’ll meet the homies and I’ll see the DGK crew, you know Stevie Williams, Dane Vaugh, Boo Johnson and more. That’s what skating in LA is like. My favorite spots to skate: DTLA Courthouse, Jkwon, Venice and DTLA as a whole.
And that’s my story of these 5 cities I have visited and/or lived in. Maybe in the future I’ll talk about those places where I spent a day or a week that impacted my life. Like Barcelona for example, some of the best 10 days of my life. What are some of your favorite places to travel? Have you visited any of the cities I mention? Where do you skate?
