Magenta in Istanbul
"Istanbul aka Constantinople aka Byzantium aka Rome, the current most populated city in Europe – a promising pedigree for a skate adventure. There should be stuff to skate, some locals to share tips, sessions and a laugh with. It was the first experience of this special place for most of the crew and Istanbul delivered on all our hopes."
These are the opening words in the article accompanying Free Magazine's video coverage of the recent Magenta excursion to the Turkish capital and there is a particular sentence in there that should prick the ears of any true skate rat the world over; "there should stuff to skate..."
No need for spot guides, preconceived trick lists and the same old stairs jumped a thousand times before; the original ethos of street skating was getting out for getting outs sake, assuming there had to be summat to have a laugh on and the promise of finding something fun on which to play was all you needed to have a good time.
Though skateboarding as a multi million dollar industry may often forget those most innocent of roots, most of us skating day in, day out do not. We go out with our boards and skate around, venturing to different towns and cities, often with nothing more than the heartfelt assumption that "there should be stuff to skate" - thank goodness there are still brands out there legitimately keeping it real. This is definitely one to enjoy.
Read the article and watch the video here.