All photos: Leo Sharp/ Skateboard GB

The story of British skateboarding has ebbed and flowed across both generations and waves of popularity since the activity first briefly exploded as a global cultural phenomenon when the 1960’s gave way to the 1970’s and a new epoch began in the nation’s social history.

Many would point to the emergence of R.A.D. (Read And Destroy) Magazine from the embers of BMX Action Bike magazine in the late 1980’s as the point at which skateboarding in the UK began to express an awareness and identity of its own- an identity which would later coalesce around Sidewalk magazine, R.A.D.’s spiritual successor and a movement which strained every sinew to unify and celebrate all that is great about skateboarding and British youth culture combined.

If the early 1990’s represented a challenge to British skateboarding, then it was due in no small part to the near total countrywide absence of any indoor skateparks in a famously drizzly climate, which would see youngsters move to the Midlands market town of Northampton from as far away as Ireland and even Spain in order to be able to skate at the pivotal indoor Radlands skatepark on an industrial estate there.

And if that same era of Sidewalk and Radlands are confined to widely-cherished memory these days, then the celebration- a few years back- of a decade having passed since Northampton itself opened a permanent plaza facility named after the old Studland Road warehouse should indicate that skateboarding in the UK has nonetheless undergone a massive transformation in that intervening period.

The fact that Radlands plaza is by now but one of over 1,600 skateparks currently listed in the UK by governing body Skateboard GB tells one part of that genesis, but skateparks are only one of the touchstones by which this cultural explosion can be measured.

What’s different today, is that all the skateparks are multi-use- and skateboarding must make the case for itself against the myriad other distractions of modern life.

The sheer weight of numbers skateboarding in the UK post-lockdown had rarely been seen before, including all those previous peaks when skateboarding enjoyed a cultural moment in the sun (of which the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game era is one recent example).

Why? Like most phenomena, its actually a cumulative effect- in the first place of the hard work, passion and dedication of those who never quit during the doldrum years.

Secondly, female skateboarding finally took off under its own terms. The pioneering skateboarding of women like Lucy Adams and Helena Long helped kickstart what has been nothing short of a revolution within the UK skateboarding scene and helped develop what is arguably the most exciting aspect of British skateboarding’s current direction.

Thirdly, lockdown gave a lot of people of all ages the opportunity to discover- or re-discover- a pastime which represents escape, requires no teams and can be begun on a flat surface smaller than a tennis court out the front of your house. How many stuck with it beyond those days we cannot say, but all are doubtless glad they did.

Apart from girls beginning, the biggest discernible trend in the Great British Skate Off has been Rad Dad’s returning to the skateboarding fold, usually with offspring in tow.

Anecdotally, most of the independent skate shops in the UK could not source enough skateboards to sell over the first 18 months of the 2020’s, such was the demand- and all that was before Sky Brown bagged bronze for Blighty in a moment of rare drama at skateboarding’s debut in the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, which catapulted her onto the front page of every newspaper in the land- and led one tabloid to run the coverline ‘Let’s Get The Kids Skateboards!’

By the time Sky repeated the feat- dislocated shoulder and all- three years later in Paris 2024 during the most-watched skateboarding event ever, much of that industry boom has dissipated- the kids got their boards- but skateboarding very much remains on a cultural high-water mark in Britain right now.

The culture’s prismatic influence can be seen everywhere from the near-ubiquity of Vans shoes in the high streets and festival fields to the zeitgeist- defining Palace brand which has brought the commercial world to skateboarding’s door in a way the X-Games never could.

All those strands of British skateboarding’s rolling history interwove with one another once again at Cornwall’s superb Concrete Waves skatepark this weekend just passed, as Skateboard GB hosted the 2025 National Championship in Britain’s surfing capital- in what has already been a big summer for outdoor events in the UK.

Hosting the Championships in the skateboard-strong but geographically isolated Cornwall peninsula is another expression of Skateboard GB's commendable determination to move their events around to raise up Britain's skatepark scene, having held previous Championships in Manchester, Glasgow, Warrington, Hemel Hempstead and London. That fact doesn't get highlighted enough, and major knucks once more for it.

How wonderful is it to see the crowds return to British skateboarding events, as they once almost guaranteed?

Skateboard GB welcomed back once again the skateboarders and their families who travel the length and breadth of the UK attending SBGB’s community gatherings. New location, same energy.

A great weekend for British skateboarding and the thriving Cornish scene saw Lola Tambling bag her third National Championships title as well as Best Trick, while Margate’s Tay Cunningham made it his second UK Park National Champion title while likewise taking home the Best Trick honours.

Holding an outdoor event in the Great British summertime is always a breath-holder, and the three-day event- which welcomed over 2,000 people to the best competition bowl in the country- was blessed with a window of wall-to-wall sunshine, throughout a weekend which was otherwise bookended by downpours. A sign from above, surely.

World Skate extend our congratulations to Skateboard GB and Concrete Waves for another huge contribution to what was already a bonanza summer for UK events. We would also join them in wishing all healing thoughts to George O’Neill, who got hurt the night before finals.

The contest wagon train is gaining momentum after yet another event which can comfortably sit aside the Pioneer jams and Radlands comps and Crossfire parties as part of British skateboarding folklore. Why not? Great also to see many faces from British skateboarding's past in attendance, too!

SBGB would like to thank all the staff and volunteers from Concrete Waves in Newquay for hosting such a terrific event; enjoy the photography of Leo Sharp and see history repeating in the faces of everyone who made the 2025 SBGB National Park Championship the sunny jamboree it was!

Women’s PARK Results

1st Lola Tambling

2nd Olive Newman

3rd Mara Ilg Castro

4th Holly Tyack

5th Ruby Dolan

6th Isla Baker

7th Sophie Tyas

8th Ashlea Hooker

Men’s PARK Results

1st Tay Cunningham

2nd Harry Reilly

3rd Seth Hendrix Wilson

4th Kelly Turner

5th Harry While

6th Alex Hallford

7th Jack Harper

8th Reuben Edgar