While exhilarated shouts from playing gully cricket and football can be heard in the streets, a different breed of sports enthusiasts are enjoying getting back to skateboarding, surfing and slacklining. It definitely seems like the best time to try out these offbeat activities
The number of skateboarders, slackliners and surfers has been on the rise in the city and with the Covid-19 pandemic, it is just the right time to take up these off-beat sports in the city. Photo Courtesy: Priteesh Nama/Russell Lopez/Suyash Rawat
“There has been an explosion,” says city-based skateboarder Russell Lopez, just before starting his weekend session with other enthusiasts at the Nerul skatepark in Navi Mumbai. He is talking about the increase in the number of skateboarders in Mumbai since March 2020. There are roughly around 500 new skateboarders in the city, reckons a happy Lopez, which means both the skateparks are packed with patrons all the time. However, he informs that it is not just downtime in the pandemic that has led to this spurt in interest but also the fact that a new skatepark opened up on Carter Road in Bandra West just a few months before the lockdown in 2020.