“Skateboarding is a universal language. Even if we don't speak the same one, if we skate together we understand each other.”
The JACKALOPE Skate Atlas is one idea carried out one country at a time: go where skateboarding is growing without any cameras pointed at it, skate with the locals, and come back with the story. Mike Boisvert, better known as The Skate Nomad, does the travelling and the filming. We sit down with him after the trips, and we turn what he saw into an article: the parks worth the detour, the skaters worth following, and what it actually takes to push a board in a place most skate media never visits.
This page is the map. Every country we publish gets a pin, and the list right under it takes you straight to that country's story.
The map
Drawn on Equal Earth, the equal-area projection the UN recommended in September 2026 after the African Union's Correct the Map campaign. Every country covers the share of the map it covers on Earth, so Africa is the size Africa actually is.
- 9 countries mapped
- 102 countries visited
- 197 countries, the whole goal
Every pin is a published country. Pick one below to read it.
Who is Mike Boisvert
He started skating at 11 in Trois-Rivières, Québec, and wanted to turn pro, which is a living almost nobody makes. What he had instead was a camera habit and a hunch about travel. Years of hesitation ended in one realization: a skateboard is a passport. “I love travelling, skating and video,” he says. “I told myself: let's go.”
The channel found its shape by accident. Early on he filmed places, landscapes, skateparks. It took him six months to understand what people actually watch: other people. His first video that really worked was shot in the Philippines, the first one built around a single person, and it did 200,000 views. Around 200 videos later, each one roughly 30 hours of work, he keeps about a fifth of what he shoots and throws the rest away.
The rest is logistics and nerve: missed buses, no internet, no shared language, nobody coming to help. “You really have to figure things out.” What he found on the other side of that is the part he did not expect. “I had less hope in humanity before I left. The generosity I got is incredible.” Follow the road as it happens on his YouTube channel, The Skate Nomad, and on Instagram. We first profiled him in 2024, when the count stood at 40 countries.
102 countries visited, 95 to go
Mike's stated goal is a video in every country on Earth, all 197 of them, inside five years. He has already set foot in 102, a count he updates on his Instagram as he goes. He also wants to start a foundation that donates boards and builds parks in the places he visits, and to keep handing out JACKALOPE Golden Tickets. Further down the list, in his own words: skate on an erupting volcano, skate in a submarine, skate in a plane, skate in North Korea, Bhutan, Afghanistan. Eventually another planet. “That's my biggest dream.”
What is in every article
Every country in the Atlas follows the same shape, so you can read one or read all of them:
- Where to skate. The parks and DIY spots actually worth your time, with map pins.
- Three skaters to know. The locals who carry the scene, each with a JACKALOPE athlete profile.
- If you go. How long to stay, what it costs, what to see when you are not skating.
- The story Mike keeps telling. The thing that happened that he cannot stop talking about.
The JACKALOPE Golden Ticket
The Atlas is not only something to read. Once a year Mike travels with a couple of JACKALOPE Golden Tickets in his back pocket, wild cards he can hand to a skater he meets on the road. A ticket covers the flight, the hotel and the travel support it takes to get that skater to JACKALOPE in Montréal. For most of them it is the first time anyone has offered to fly them anywhere for skateboarding.
The first one went to Kenji Jordan in Hua Hin, Thailand, who flew to Montréal with his dad. Mike still calls it the best day of the whole project. “He told me it was the best day of his life. I was really touched. It was one of the best days of my life too.” The second went to Orapan Tongkong in Bangkok, who filmed her entire video with Mike in two hours.
Nobody applies for a Golden Ticket. Mike shows up, skates with people, and decides. Read more about the program.
What is coming
New articles land through the week, and every one of them puts a new pin on this map, wherever Mike lands next. Bookmark this page if you want the whole atlas in one place, or follow the countries as they go live.
Photos and video: Mike Boisvert / The Skate Nomad. Interviews by the JACKALOPE team. Part of the JACKALOPE Skate Atlas, one country at a time, with the skaters who live there.
