Desert skating – Ryan Sheckler (skateboard legend) and friends shred the Moab Desert, Utah.

Images and vid: Russell Houghton

Skateboarding’s come a long way, that’s for sure. Just as with surfing there’s a style of skating to suit all terrains and moods. From longboard cruising to street; if there’s a surface worth rolling then chances are someone with roll it.

Long time fans of wheeled deck riding this recent vid caught our eye for a number of reasons. Firstly it features skate legend Ryan Sheckler and second the terrain the gang are ripping is pretty unusual.

Utah’s Moab Desert is known for being a mountain bike paradise with natural sandstone geology that creates wacky transitions and gnarly land ramps and rails. There are no man-made obstacles here, instead it’s ancient seabeds and petrified sand dunes created during the Jurassic period around 145 million years ago.

The resulting skate sesh can be seen in the Petrified Park edit below, which we’re sure will blow your mind (as it did with NCW).

If you fancy something like this yourself then heed Sheckler’s advice: ‘bring gloves – gloves are a lifesaver!’.

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