Skateboarding Special II: stories of independence

In Volume II of our Skateboarding Special – a part editorial magazine part lookbook in collaboration between Levi’s® Skateboarding and Huck magazine – we explore the standalone spirit embodied by most in skateboarding’s savage solar system; from the European cast adrift in California to the individuals pioneering a new scene in a totalitarian state.

Skateboarding attracts outlaws – the act itself disrupts the physical and cultural landscape – but the skateboarding community has laws unto itself. Together, these artists and photographers and writers and explorers, are more independent than alone; from the group of volunteers building skateparks to unite the kids of a war-torn country, to the girl who found herself mothering a skate empire after she got bored of her ballet lessons.

Skateboarding is kind of like prison: You arrive wayward, you eat shit, you get back up again and you leave reformed. What you choose to do with that experience, like any independent mind knows, is totally up to you.

Featuring: Third-culture kid Marius Syvanen, Zen master Pat Moran, Antisocial head honcho Michelle Pezel, Palestine skateboarding charity SkatePAL, Tommy Zhao and the Shanghai skate scene, K-Dub’s community skatepark in Oakland, and more.

You can find The Skateboarding Special at select skate stores around the world and a selection of stories and videos inspired by the issue will be published at huckmag.com over the next month.