“Malaysia is the most underrated country in Asia.”
A scene nobody talks about
Mike Boisvert didn't even know there were skaters in Malaysia. Then he arrived straight into a six-day, all-day contest, and found a huge, healthy scene. “I won like three boards in one event. They were giving boards.” He has been back three times, about a month and a half in total, and made around ten videos there. Skateboarding has been around in Malaysia for decades, he says, and skaters are everywhere, even if most of the scene is in Kuala Lumpur.
What makes the country special for him is how people live together: “You're going to see a Chinese temple, you're going to see a mosque, you're going to see a church, all in the same street.” He spent Christmas there. “Malaysia is an example.”
Skaters to know
Ian (@glatusmaximus) is Mike's number one pick: young, super stylish, a good street skater, and still underrated outside Malaysia. Pa'din Musa (@padinmusa) is the legend of Malaysian skateboarding. Mike says he won the X Games about 20 years ago, and today he works with Vans and runs a skatepark building company. Mike went looking for him, and they skated twelve hours straight and rode 50 kilometers on their motorbikes in one day. “This guy has so much energy.”
G (@g76press) is the flatground master, the best pressure flip skater Mike knows. He skates every day, twice a day, and Mike says he teaches music. “You can't beat him in a game of skate if he starts on offense.”
The names to follow: Thieves, a skateboard brand from Kuala Lumpur and, for Mike, the coolest one there; Cool Element Skateshop (@coolelementskateshop); and the photographer Mark Khor (@mark_khor).
Where to skate
Mike's number one place to skate is Ampang Skatepark, a plaza in Kuala Lumpur. The city's main spot is a public street plaza right in the center, near the Petronas Twin Towers. Bukit Kiara is a semi-indoor private park that hosts a lot of contests. In Penang, Pokok Sena skatepark has a bowl and street. And somewhere in Malaysia there is an empty temple complex Mike filmed in: “one of the craziest places I ever skated.”
If you go
Kuala Lumpur is clean and safe, a beautiful city to skate. Penang Island has street art and culture, and Langkawi is a small paradise island. Malacca, “the Venice of Asia,” has its own skate scene with a DIY and an indoor park. Mike's plan for a short trip: two days in Kuala Lumpur and one in Malacca, and eat Indian, Chinese and Malaysian food on the same day.
The barrier is the number of skateparks and skaters. What would help is a full JACKALOPE event. And the most underrated thing about Malaysia, for Mike: “The whole country is underrated, one of my favorites in Asia.”
Photos and videos: Mike Boisvert / The Skate Nomad. Part of the JACKALOPE Skate Atlas, one country at a time, with the skaters who live there. See every country on the map.
