Introduction

Are you fed up with all the kids at the skatepark? or tired of always going to your local park?

Urban Life will talk about extreme freestyle sports which are practised in the street.

 The seven most popular freestyle sports which you can practice in the street are snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding, freestyle scootering, bmx riding, inline skating and freestyle running.
If you are a freestyle scooter rider, or skateboarder, or bmx rider, then you are on the right page!

Rémi Bouchard - One foot grab in Winterthur

Ali Boulala - Massive ollie 

Garrett Reynolds - Uprail icepick

A bit of History...
The oldest discipline of the above three is skateboarding which appeared in 1960s. And then, in 1975 appeared bmx riding, a totally new freestyle sport. Freestyle scootering appeared much later, after 2000 but the scootering scene grew up incredibly fast.

In every freestyle discipline, there are two different ways to practice it. Either in a skatepark, where it is  much easier to ride and do tricks, because the ramps are built for that, or in the street, which is the opposite. 

Street riding is a lifestyle. Since the beginning of all these three sports, riders have always been looking for spots to ride in the cities. Today, some spots have become so famous that riders from all over the world come to ride. For example the spot of Bercy in Paris, which unfortunatly doesn't exist anymore.

"Blocs de Bercy" in Paris

What's so exciting riding in a skatepark?
After a few sessions, you will get bored with the ramps and you won't be thrilled anymore, unless your creativity has no limit...
That's why many cutting edge riders are constantly in the search of new spots in the street. You've got to be patient and you might discover rad spots.

People who have no idea of the sport would think that park  riding is more impressive than street riding because making big airs and crazy combos of tricks is very impressive to see. Of course no beginner would manage to perform a massive 540 grab on a quarter! But when you are a real freestyle freak, there is more than that.
 Street riding is more about technical tricks on a curb or rail which must be less impressive to see but requires a high level of agility.

massive air at Woodward 

Matt McKeen - Fs Lipslide

Now we see more street sections in skateparks which are a reproduction of  urban spots you could find in the street. However, since it has been designed to be a part of skatepark, it is easier to ride than a real set of stairs in the street.

For example, in this picture we see a set of 8 steps with a handrail in a skatepark. This is exactly the same as a random set of stairs in the street but for having seen this ramp in live, I can say that the stairs are really not steep at all and the handrail has been deliberately designed for skaters. Nevertheless it is good to practice on this kind of ramps.

This set of stairs in the street has exactly the same number of steps and an identical handrail as well but I can say that it has got nothing to do with the previous one in terms of riding difficulty.

To finish, here are thre famous videos from professionals and sponsored riders filmed in the street only. You will recognise spots from a video to another.

Maxime Legrand is a french scooter rider sponsored by different companies. This video is about two years old but still one of the best scootering videos.

Garrett Reynolds is one of the craziest bmx rider in the world. This is one of the most impressive bmx videos.

You can't compare Rodney Mullen to someone esle. He is one of the first skaters and one of the best in the world. His flatskills will prove how far he can go with a tiny board.

The development of freestyle street riding into a genuine sport is happening right now. Today it's one of the most popular urban sports.