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Smoothing the edges: Skating in Barcelona

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In May this year, Barcelona played host to one of the world's biggest skating events, the 2016 Street League Skateboarding (SLS) Nike SB World Tour. Skate tourists from around the world flocked to the city, which is renowned for its liberal attitudes to skaters and held in high esteem by the global skating community. Yet, some years ago, like many other cities that became popular among skaters, Barcelona introduced restrictions on skating in public spaces. So what makes a city a skateboard paradise and how has Barcelona managed to retain its international pull in the wake of legal restrictions?

Barcelona native Sebas Pérez owns Furtivo Skateboarding, a skate shop in Poblenou. He has been a regular on the city’s skate scene for many years and witnessed the sport’s modest beginnings. “In the Eighties, Barcelona was nothing in the world of skateboarding,” he said. “It wasn’t really a great city to skate.” He went on to describe how the Sagrada Família area was one of the first places adopted by skaters. It wasn’t long, however, before residents of the area became fed up with the commotion attributed to the skateboarders and took matters into their own hands. In his thesis, ‘Reinterpretando la ciudad’, Xavi Camino describes scenes of skaters being attacked by neighbours who refused to tolerate the disturbance. And so began the ongoing struggle between skaters, locals and the local government.

The 1992 Olympic Games saw the city undergo a huge urban transformation, conducive to a style of skating known as ‘streetstyle’, which involves the use of public spaces and buildings to skate. Smooth surfaces and concrete ledges appeared around the city, making it a skater’s paradise. Today, Plaça dels Països Catalans and the square in front of the MACBA are still two of the most frequented spots in the city. At the same time, the branding of Barcelona as an international holiday destination unwittingly added to its image as a top skate city. 

Between 1990 and 1992, in the run-up to the Olympics, numerous skateparks and ramps were built around the city in an attempt to lure skaters away from central public spaces. These skateparks, such as Turó Park and the Bowl in Glòries, were not used as much as the council had hoped and skaters continued to favour the city’s architecture as a natural skatepark, ideal for experimenting with new tricks and socialising. “In this city, when the council tries to do something to help skaters, they do it badly,” said Sebas, summing up his vision of the relationship between the council and skaters.

At the same time, Barcelona was putting itself firmly on the skate world map. “There was a time when you had to go to San Francisco or Los Angeles if you wanted to become a professional, but suddenly, you could succeed in Barcelona,” explained Sebas. “Every skate video had to have a clip of Barcelona in it.” In addition to its architecture, the city's abundance of squares, benches and public spaces—there to cater to its population during the warm months—were attracting skate tourists from around the world, all year long. 

As these skating spots became more popular, friction with local residents increased. People began to complain about the noise and damage the skaters were causing and it wasn’t long before the council was on the case. As in cities such as Bristol and Los Angeles, skaters were beginning to be seen as a problem, damaging the city’s architectural structures, misusing public spaces and disturbing the local community. In their defence, skaters presented it as a redefinition of public space, with banks, car parks and museums doubling up as areas of cultural growth, filled with the art, music, dance and social integration that skating brings with it. 

Photo by Pacho Fandiño

Despite the skating community’s opposition, in 2006, the city council introduced a bylaw through which it prohibited begging, prostitution, black market sales and skateboarding outside of specifically designated areas. Fines from €750 to €1,500 could be dished out to those who disobeyed the new laws. Until this time, the city had permitted skating in small numbers. If a large group of people formed, the authorities normally advised them to leave the area until the crowds cleared, without needing to fine anyone or confiscate equipment. Now, far from being considered a sport, skating was instead categorised as an anti-social crime. This attitude continued with the election of Xavier Trias as mayor in 2011. In his first year in office, 236 skaters received fines. Yet, in an effort to regulate the sport, and on the back of the 2013 X Games, which were held in Barcelona, Trias did prioritise the building of three new skateparks to accommodate the growing number of skaters and lure them away from the city centre.

Fines and confiscations have done little to subdue the city’s skateboard fever. Even in 2011, as the skate community lamented the high number of fines, Barcelona was dubbed a ‘Mediterranean skateboard Mecca’ by TransWorld magazine, and today the MACBA continues to swarm with skaters from all over the world. Many skateboarders agree that it just takes wits to stay under the radar. Skateboarder and MACBA regular, Inty Shishishi, moved to Barcelona from her native Morocco five years ago. She said that the police don’t really bother the skaters. “They’re more interested in dispersing people who are drinking. If you move along when they come, they won’t bother you. It tends to be tourists who don’t know the system who end up getting fined.” 

In Sebas’s opinion, since the arrival of the new council, headed by Ada Colau, there have a been a lot less police around to patrol skate sites. Many skaters have become aware of the movements of the police and make sure to avoid them the best they can. Fines are sometimes handed out and boards are confiscated, but very little else is done to stop the activity, thus allowing Barcelona to keep its reputation as one of the world’s most liberal cities to skate in. 

At the beginning of the year, Colau gave the image of Barcelona’s skaters a boost. At the inauguration of the Spanish Forum for Prevention and Urban Security, the mayor spoke about an incident when she was approached and verbally abused whilst walking home alone. Feeling vulnerable, Colau explained how a young man who had been skateboarding by subsequently walked her home, ensuring she was safe. “For me, the image of security in this city is a young boy on a skateboard because it was one of the happiest discoveries of my life.” 

A lot of skaters want to find a sustainable solution to the ongoing controversy surrounding the use of public spaces. Xavier Camino suggests adapting certain structures by, for example, installing metal edges so as to avoid wear and tear by skaters. Sebas spoke about using the fines to contribute to the upkeep of public spaces. With so many pressing issues, such as housing conditions, anti-social behaviour and unemployment, skating does not appear to be at the top of Colau’s agenda. And so it seems that Barcelona will, for the time being, leave its skaters to their own devices and retain its title as a skating Mecca of Europe. 

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