The sound of skateboarding offers skaters a therapeutic way to connect with the city
The sound of a skateboard trick communicates a world of sensory information to skateboarders. The power of “skatesound” – the noises of the board and the environment it comes into contact with – is so distinct because it relates to an experience that is both heard and felt.
Despite the sound of skateboarding frequently being an issue of public complaint, many skaters find it therapeutic, calming and a source of joy.
The visually spectacular activity of skateboarding is often presented as an exciting, iconoclastic pursuit. Despite its inclusion in the last two summer Olympics, it remains sub-culturally distinct. Some skateboarding practices are perhaps even arcane and cult-like in their reverence for banal concrete steps and metal benches.
Research my colleagues and I conducted argues that the niche world of skateboarding endures because of its dense sensory culture – one that is heard and felt by skateboarders.
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For skateboarders, skatesound is an augmented experience of the world multilayered with insights about the body, movement and the texture of the city.
Imagine the skateboard itself as an amplifying tool, one that gives fine and detailed information about terrain, efficacy and possibility. It is as if the skateboard is an extended sensory appendage, to feel and hear the world at large.
The sounds of the city
A series of research on sport and sound has explored how physical ability can be enhanced by music, the motivation and communal experience of spectator chants and even hearing loss.
Our research in skateboarding highlights new areas of consideration. One of the most distinct issues relates to how skateboarders have a dynamic understanding of skateable urban spaces that are unknown to other street denizens.
What skateboarders hear is also what they feel – the sound of the pavements or office plazas becomes part of their sensory world. Skateboarders can hear the sound of a skateboard and be aware of not just the environment it is being ridden through, but also the embodied experience, “the feel” of it for the rider.
One middle-aged Canadian skateboarder told us that when she heard the sound of someone skateboarding it both gave her joy and a sense of connection to the rider. Sound might therefore tell us something of the shared community and bond skaters report. They connect with each other because they share such a wealth of specialised knowledge.
Generally, skateboarders love the sound of skateboarding, describing it with a range of adjectives as the “sound of freedom”, “happiness”, or simply “lovely”. Yet, they are also keenly aware that, by some, skateboarding is considered unpleasant noise.
The paradox of skatesound is that skateboarders are able to hold both opposing notions simultaneously. We collected numerous accounts of skateboarders deliberately avoiding certain locations and times so as not to disturb, startle and annoy other city users. Yet, their own experience of hearing skatesound unexpectedly while at work, or in the street below at home, was always met with excitement.
A universal among skateboarders is what we have termed the “head whip” – the immediate instinctual turn of the head to seek out the origin of skatesound. The association of this sound was reported as an invitation to adventure, a feeling of fraternity with an unseen but clearly heard member of the tribe.
A surprising feature of our research was that several participants reported some form of neurodiversity, either being on the autism spectrum or having ADHD. The sensory experience of skateboarding, of feeling what you see and hear, was reported in positive terms as a way to calm sometimes overpowering senses.
For these skaters, skatesound has become part of a full-body connecting experience engaging the physical, mental and emotional with the board and the world at large. It represents some form of craft and mastery of the chaos of everyday life.
For the past 15 years, the A-Skate foundation provided skateboarding opportunities for children on the autism spectrum in recognition of these therapeutic processes. A range of therapists worldwide are incorporating elements of skateboarding into their support of people’s needs, spanning anxiety to learning disabilities.
The art of skateboarding
Bridging the gap between skateboarder and non-skateboarder, artist Max Boutin’s Texturologies art installation (2022) enables those curious about the sensory world to get a no-risk taster.
Using dynamic sound, large visual screens and static boards that pulse with the skatesound being played underneath, Boutin’s art offers a sensory experience of the skateboarder’s unique relationship to urban space. As a consequence, hearing like a skateboarder becomes one of the simplest ways to feel like a skateboarder.
Boutin’s work advocates for the specific knowledge embedded in the act of skateboarding. It speaks of those who find joy and revelry in often neglected and unloved urban realms that have lost their enchantment to a public chaperoned endlessly into spaces of consumption.
As contempt for the city deepens, skatesound can allow us to feel our urban spaces in new ways.
Paul O'Connor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.