Skating Through Spain

Madrid: Our Arrival
After much drinking and eating since our arrival in Madrid, the Capital city of Spain, we were sick of partying and jonesing to skate. But, after a short session at the Plaza de Colon, Tim Brauch broke his board and we were stuck in the do-nothing zone of the Spanish siesta. From two till five pm just about every business in Spain closes, as people take a midday meal or nap. We were waiting for a skate shop to open so Tim could set up another board and we could go to the Alcobendas skatepark. In the interim we found ourselves in yet another bar, drinking beer and eating super rad Spanish food with Luis Matesanz, the owner of Nor Cal Distribution and the oddly named San Francisco Skate Farm skate shop. Nor Cal imports almost every skateboard found in Spain and SFSF is the best shop in Madrid. We really wanted to skate, but Luis kept ordering more strange food and drinks, saying, “One more beer... Ten more minutes, then we’ll go open
the shop...”

You have to understand that in Spain, people move at a slower pace than in the US, and that includes the skaters. We had been trying to make it to the skatepark for three or four hours but it just wasn’t happening. In Spain, nobody is in a hurry to do anything. Spaniards live a laid back lifestyle that is relaxed and totally different from the hectic pace of the USA. We finally left the bar with Luis and 15 skaters following him like he’s the Pied Piper of the Madrid skate scene, which isn’t too far from the truth.
Finally, Tim’s board was set up and after more indecision Jaime Fontecilla, a super rad local skater, agreed to escort us on the Madrid bus system to the skatepark which was about 30 minutes outside of downtown in a suburb of Madrid. “I can’t believe I’m taking the bus,” Jaime muttered disgustedly as we started off towards the bus stop. But luckily for us and our group of 13 that wouldn’t fit into the few available small cars, Jaime was a super nice guy and was willing to swallow his pride and take us out to the park on the bus.
Madrid has a huge, thriving skate scene. The skaters in Spain are world class and can hold their own anywhere. As we drove down the street on the bus, Jaime pointed out spot after spot. “See that handrail on that double set? My friend did a 50-50 down the whole thing. Over there’s The Bridge, we should skate there later.”
One very cool thing about Spain is that you don’t get kicked out of spots like you do here. At the Plaza de Colon and then later at The Bridge, we skated all day and never got hassled by cops or security guards. Jaime said that they’ve been skating The Bridge for ten years. Earlier, we had stopped at a big marble sculpture that Judd dropped in on, and the police stopped to watch and see if he’d make it. People in Madrid are very tolerant in addition to being relaxed.
We had set out for the skatepark around 1pm and we finally got there about 7pm. The sun set behind snow capped mountains as we skated the park. It was a session both fun and sublime. We were in Spain for 10 days, and barely a day into it, we were having so much fun that it already seemed well worth the time and money to get here.
We almost had 13 people on the plane over here. We had 13 seats booked, but Greg Goulet’s connecting flight was late and he missed the plane to Spain and caught up with us the next day. Greg rides for Palmer snowboards, and along with Lib-Tech rider Temple Cummins, was here to explore the Pyrenees mountains and see what they had to offer snow-wise. Heckler photog Chris Carnel and scribe Sonny Mayugba would be going with them to tell us about it. I was going to stick to the bigger cities in search of Spain’s many fabled cement skateparks and skate scene. Along to sample the concrete was Santa Cruz skater Tim Brauch, Creature skater and videographer extraordinaire and our own skate editor Mike Rafter, artistically inclined Foundation skater Judd Hertzler, ‘Why the hell isn’t he sponsored?!?!’ skater and photog Jeff Landi, Heckler Office Manager and photo guy Tommy Ryan. Also along for the ride was Heckler music contributor Rob Woutila, also our interpreter, punk rock bassist and pedal steel player Jay Onyskin and last but definitely not least, my wife, Maria. We were here to see and experience all that Spain had to offer for riding boards of one kind or another as well as just kicking it Spain style.
The snowboarders had left in search of snow but the rest of us decided to spend another day in Madrid because there was so much to skate and see. The Alcobendas park that we skated last night was super fun. It had two large bowls, a small snake run and a large street course with banked walls, a vert wall and a pyramid in the middle. It was also lit up night which was cool. The park was indicative of how accepted skating is in Spain. It’s in a suburb where they had built a velodrome (those big tracks with banked walls that people race bicycles around) and in the middle was a tennis court and this big cement skatepark. Bikes, Tennis and skating. Why not? The vibe was way too much fun. Lots of kids skating with their parents hanging out and watching along with the super talented Madrid crew; Jaime, Ruben Garcia, Sergio Alvarez, Adrian Morales, David Garcia, Tobias Namura, Miguel Angel Gonzalez and Roberto Aleman. Near the end of the session, Tim started ollieing some of the local kids. They were so stoked, they wouldn’t let him stop.
In the morning we went to the Reina-Sofia Museum of Modern Art, one of the best museums I’ve seen. Highlights included all of Joan Miro’s paintings and sculptures, a temporary exhibition of photographer Man Ray and Guernica, Picasso’s very famous painting. Guernica is 25 feet wide and was painted as a reaction to the former monarch of Spain, General Franco’s ordering Nazi warplanes to bomb a small Basque village in Spain named Gernika. The painting has come to represent the horrors of war and was only returned to Spain after Franco died. In the room holding the painting are many preparatory paintings and studies that Picasso did prior to Guernica, that further demonstrate the epic scale and scope of the work.
Later that afternoon, we had a ripping session at The Bridge. Everyone was going off but the highlights had to be Brauch skating the entire spot super fast with aggressive and creative lines that nobody else was even trying. Jaime stuck super clean tail-slides as consistently as the sun sets down the 10 stair ledge. But Ruben pulled the hands down ballsiest move of the day; a huge 10 foot high switch ollie over two flower beds. Altogether he must have cleared at least a 20 foot gap. His determination to pull it was so rad.

Street Spots: Start at the Plaza de Colon where you’re likely to hook up with some locals. Then skate North down the main street Paseo de la Castellana about a half a mile to “The Bridge,” a spot that’s on the right under the first bridge you pass under.
Skateparks: There’s at least two. The best is Alcobendas. Take the 127 bus from Plaza de Colon to the Plaza Castilla. Then you’ll have to transfer to the 153 bus. Keep looking to the left and when you see the baseball diamond, you’re there. The driver will also know where the Alcobendas/skatepark stop is. There’s another skatepark in Parque Puera de Hierro but the guys we were skating with said it’s not as good as Alcobendas. Check it for yourself and let us know. One local said to get there, take the 83 bus to El Pardo. Then, if you still haven’t hooked up with any locals with skate spot knowledge go the SF Skate Farm at Argensola 3 (Phone: 91-319-1455) and there’s bound to be someone there who can help you out.
Other cool things: Madrid parties, especially around the Plaza de Santa Ana where we stayed, which makes it easy to find cheap food and drinks. We stayed at the Hostal Filo whose owner is a bit excitable, but friendly. The rooms are nice and in-expensive in an old building that was featured in the Pedro Almodovar film, High Heels. (91-522-4056). There’s so much to see and do in Madrid that no matter what you do, you’ll be stoked. There’s tons of museums, and if you only visit one go to the Reina-Sofia to see among other things, Picasso’s Guernica.

Sevilla: Fun in the sun by the river.
After several days in Madrid amid much indecision exacerbated by missed flights and lost luggage, our group has finally split up and we are now en route to Sevilla on the high speed AVE train. Even though Sevilla is pretty far from Madrid, it only takes 2.5 hours to get there, so we’re doing it as a day trip and we’ll return to Madrid late tonight, just as all the bars and restaurants are hopping. In contrast, the same distance to Barcelona on the slower trains takes eight hours. Jeff, Judd, Tommy, Tim, Mike, Jay, Rob, Maria and our Spanish friends/guides Jaime and Ruben are all on the train. The view is spectacular; Castles, whitewashed villages and wide open yellow and green plains intermixed with olive groves. It feels good to be on the move again. When we get to Sevilla, we are picked up at the train station by the nice people from the Vertical Surf Shop which was rad, even though it only takes about 20 minutes to skate from the train station to the skatepark. The park is right by the river and is super fun. All cement with steel coping. Lot’s of quarters, hips, gaps, and a fun box in the middle. No bowls; the Sevilla park is more street oriented but is fun to skate no matter what style you like to skate, with lots of variety height-wise. Like all the parks in Spain, it’s super well made. Good trannies, smooth and well thought out. The parks in Spain all seem like they were built by skaters. A good session was had by all. I wanted to see some of the city though, so when everybody cut out to hit another park, Rob and I headed into the old part of town called the Barrio de Santa Cruz. It was chill, much like you’d expect in an old Spanish city. Sevilla is in Southern Spain, so even though it was still a little cold in Madrid and snowing back in California, it was sunny and almost 90 degrees in Sevilla. A good lunch and a few beers later, and we were feeling just right as we wandered around the narrow, winding streets of old Sevilla. We toured the old Cathedral, one of the most amazing works of art created by human beings I’ve ever seen in my life. Yeah, it’s pretty touristy but for an hour, my jaw was just hanging as I was wondering how this amazing structure was built even with help of some divine power!?!?

Two skate parks: One is right along the Guadalquivir River which runs through town. Find the Plaza de Armas bus station and then head towards the river. You’ll see the park on your right, just before you cross the river. There’s another park at Parque Mira Flores which is a little further out in a suburb, but Judd, Jeff and Tim weren’t super stoked on it. The local shop with the knowledge is Vertical Surf Shop (95-422-3920). Sevilla is a rad city, typical of what comes to mind when you think of Spain. Visit the Cathedral for sure in the old part of the city, the Barrio de Santa Cruz.

Getting There and Getting Around:
(Note: when calling Spain from the US, first dial 011 to get an international line and then 34 which is the country code for Spain, leaving out the 9 in the area code) The first thing to do if you’re going to Spain is to find a good travel agent. They can get you really cheap airfares if they’re good. We worked with Patty Kinsella at Patterson Travel (916-441-1526) and she was able to get us plane tickets for $450 roundtrip out of San Francisco. You could also try calling ticket consolidators like Cheap Tickets, Inc. (800-377-1000) but they’re not as good at juggling mulitple dates and people. If you go in March, it’s cheaper, the weather’s nice, but not super hot, and there’ll still be snow in the mountains. You’ll also want to decide in advance if you want to buy a Eurail pass. (www.raileurope.com) We weren’t riding quite enough trains to cover a pass, but if we were staying longer (and you should) it would have been cheaper. You can check schedules and fares online, and they also have rail/car rental packages. We planned things out in advance because we had a lot of people and a short amount of time. But, if you have a smaller group and more time, you can wing it more, especially in the Spring when there’s not a lot of tourists. The other thing you’ll need is a guidebook. The Lonely Planet and Rough Guide series are both good.

Top 11 reasons to go to Spain:
1. There are lots of free cement skateparks.
2. There are lots of good street spots where you don’t get hassled.
3. It’s very inexpensive once you get there and plane tickets can be obtained pretty cheaply.
See ‘Getting There’ above.
4. The people and skaters are super friendly, especially if you make an effort to not be a stupid tourist. Speaking a little bit of Spanish
helps quite a bit.
5. The food is super good, cheap
and very unique. But if you’re a vegetarian, you’ll probably disagree since there’s a lot of meat
and fish dishes.
6. The big cities stay up late and party hella hard. Restaurants stay open till one or two in the morning and bars stay open till the next morning. You can also get food in most of the bars. The drinking age is 16 or even
non-existent in some places.
7. It stays light longer and the climate is pretty mild with minimal rainfall except in the mountains.
8. The cites are beautiful with lots of insane old buildings and churches and lots of museums. In short, Spain oozes art and culture from it’s every pore.
9. The public transport (buses, subways and trains) is really good, so it’s easy to get around without needing to rent a car.
10. The streets are mostly pretty smooth and the drivers don’t freak, so you can see quite a bit just by skating around.
11. Because you can also go snowboarding at Baqueria Beret Resort likeTemple Cummins is doing right here on this very page!