Warschau/ Warsaw - Heaven of Skateboarding

(Report by Andrzej Laka, Pics by WZRR)

Although Warsaw is not the world skateboarding capital, it's one of those places on the globe that international teams of riders choose to spend a few days in and shred on the local spots.

Maybe it's because the city is full of marble ledges and stairs that the long gone and forgotten political system built not necessarily for skaters. The other reason is that, with the help of local fellows you can find the places that give you so many opportunities in riding that you feel heaven taken. Of course it's all accompanied by the beautiful girls passing by, who the whole country prides in, and sometimes the police officers, who, when see you shredding, ask for you ID, check you up , ad usually let you keep going without a fine.

Talking about the city itself, it's divided in half by the river, with most of the fun on the left (western) part, where you can find most of the sights, tourist attractions and entertainment after a day of skating. Communism left the most recognizable building in the center - the Palace of Culture and Science, which for most of the skaters is the real place to be - all surrounded by marble ledges of different shapes and heights. Usually most of the local riders meet there for a few hours every day - you can see local pros there - mostly supported by three Polish skate companies - Fenix, Malita, and Syndrom, as well as the young kids trying to ollie on the flat. The city has also many erected monuments which are also a perfect rider's destination with all the stairs etc. The most popular is Witos monument located opposite to Sheraton hotel in the center. It gives almost infinite opportunities, with a little disadvantage - it gets crowded at times. Of course you can find tens of bigger and smaller spots around, so the best advice is to ask a local rider about the good places to go to. Usually the Polish skaters don't speak good English but they'll be happy to help anyway.

 

When it comes to the right (eastern) site of the river it's trying to catch up with entertainment and offers quite a few cool spots, but it gets rough sometimes, so if you'd rather not to get into trouble, it's recommended to stay on the left side - especially during the night. Anyway, you can have the best KEBAB there on Francuska street and many ridable monuments with stairs, gaps and rails.

The great local riders you can meet on one of the spots around the city are Gutek Szymanski (Fenix), Krzysiek Jurkowski (Fenix), Goly (Syndrom), Michal Juras (Malita - Polish skater of the year '06), Tomek Kotrych (DC/Quiksilver) and many others...

 

In the rainy days, guys always meet at the skate park located in the Blue City?shopping center. It's the only good skate park in the city, but thanks to it, every year you can see more and more young kids shredding..

Wer jetzt mehr Bock auf´s Shredden in Warschau bekommen hat, sollte sich zu diesem Thema das von uns mitorganisierte Woodcamp auf boardcamp.com. Letzter Stand der Dinge ist, daß unser Partner Skateboardtravel.com zusammen mit Woodcamp.pl mindestens einen Tagesausflug nach Warschau planen, an dem Ihr von den local Pros von Fenix und Malita ein perfektes Spotguiding durch Warschau bekommt...Das solltet Ihr Euch nicht entgehen lassen....