Inside NCR’s Sunday Skating Scene: ‘A Skateboard Is What Connects Us’

‘Did you see? I just landed a kickflip for the first time!’ exclaimed a skateboarder gliding through Central Park last Sunday, as skating communities across NCR marked Go Skate Day during their weekly meet-ups. For many participants, these sessions have become more than a nostalgic return to a childhood hobby — they’ve turned into a form of self-care, offering a break from work routines and screen-heavy lifestyles.

‘Our Sunday mornings are reserved for skating. It has become a non-negotiable for many in the community,’ says Nishchal Singh, founder of the Delhi Skating Community (DSC). ‘Every Sunday, new people join in, and some are absolute beginners. After the session, we all jam to some music, and some members volunteer to teach skating at NGOs. The community aspect allows beginners to learn without fear and judgement.’

Karolina Bamotra, a Polish native now based in Delhi, recently joined DSC. ‘I used to skateboard back in Poland. My children are seven and four, and this is one of the few activities they happily wake up early for on a Sunday,’ she says. Skateboarder Rakshit Verma notes that ‘streets are our only practice ground,’ adding that NCR’s skating communities remain beginner-friendly.

For Anirudh Kashyap, a Noida-based startup founder who started skateboarding four months ago, the sessions are a weekly reset. ‘After slogging through the week, skateboarding on Sundays is my way of unwinding. When I am on wheels, I feel a lot of freedom,’ he says. Shashwat Sunil, who co-founded Mandi Monkeys — a group that skates at Mandi House metro station every evening — describes the sport’s pull differently: ‘Skateboarding has united a lot of us from completely different fields – artists, musicians, theatre people, corporate workers. A skateboard is what connects us. It was never about competition.’

Siddhant Dhankar, founder of Backyard Skatepark, points to a gap the community keeps running into: ‘Most skaters in Delhi rely on private facilities, streets, parking lots, plazas and improvised spots. A public skatepark would make the sport far more accessible, fun and safe.’ Until then, as Shashwat puts it, ‘we’ve learnt to make the city our skate park.’