Shetland, the sea girt citadel. Skateboarding probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, but where there is a will, there is a concrete wave, and a remarkably healthy skateboard scene exists on these islands, which lie halfway between Scotland and Norway. I’d like to lie and say we started by hewing our boards from the longships of Vikings but I’m not going to.

We started like a lot of kids in the this decade: Tony Hawks Pro Skater. Therefore skateboarding up here isn’t remarkably different than anywhere else, apart from perhaps the weather and the light (or lack of). Old people still get mad at us, cars still screech to a halt in front of us and we still walk home at night clutching our boards to our chests to keep the rain off. We had our Tom Penny’s in older skaters, like Wayne who told tales of breaking his ankle ollieing off a portakabin. We later found out it was over a drain, but thats beside the point. Skateboarding here is a bit like Vladimir Putin: harsh but fair. I would say come and visit us, then I thought about it and on reflection, you’d probably be wasting your money and time (12 hour boat journey). There’s a reason we
religiously sessioned a spot named ‘the shit banks’ for years on end.

flickr.com/boyson

This entry was tagged as david cooper, shetland isles, SKATE., Skateboarding.