“Doing a skate tour with Shape Foundation across the country.”
The craziest skate trip
“I had the craziest trip of skateboarding ever in Nigeria.” Mike Boisvert spent ten days there in 2025, on tour with Shape Skate Foundation, and they crossed the country: the first weekend in Abuja, then Uyo, and the last weekend in Lagos, with five flights and cancellations along the way. Mike travels solo 99% of the time; this was his first tour with a crew, and his job was to make videos, take photos and do demos. The first surprise was getting in. It took four or five hours just to get out of the airport. The second was the heat.
Imoh Ekasi-Otu and Shape Skate Foundation
The tour was Imoh Ekasi-Otu's. Imoh (@sk8bdhomi) is the co-founder of Shape Skate Foundation. He was born in Nigeria, grew up in Washington, DC, and his mission is to grow skateboarding in Nigeria. He has made the trip several times; this time he brought 50 pairs of shoes sent by New Balance, boards and a lot more. Mike met him at JACKALOPE Virginia Beach, on Mike's first trip there, and the two share a birthday. Imoh took care of everything on the road, and Mike calls him the leader. “He's a real one, for sure.” Mike's video about him is below.
A scene at the very beginning
Mike compares skateboarding in Nigeria to skateboarding 30 years ago. More than 200 million people live there, and by his count there might be 300 or 400 skaters; on the whole tour, they met maybe 100. There is one skatepark in the country. In his words, it's a small subculture that is getting more trendy, and the youth are starting to see the appeal. He doesn't put Nigeria in Africa's top three yet (his list is South Africa, Ethiopia, Morocco and Uganda), but he sees the potential in a country this young. “Everywhere I went to Africa, they love it.” What it needs is more parks, more equipment and more skaters. The national federation's page, Nigeria Skateboarding, is working on training skaters for the Olympics, a work in progress.
Lagos and the WAF skatepark
Lagos is the biggest city and the heart of the scene, and the heart of Lagos is the WAF skatepark, built by Wonders Around the World. WAF is also the only skate shop in the country, and a fashion brand that has worked with Adidas; the owner isn't really a skater. The park is Mike's number one place to skate in Nigeria, the best and only one, a beautiful spot with a lot of people hanging out. It gets crowded. Skateboarding is so new that there is no skatepark etiquette yet, so everyone goes at the same time. “It's a bit annoying, but understandable.”
Skaters to know
Henry (@heyhenryyyy), in Lagos, is Mike's number one pick. “Henry is the best. Good style. He doesn't have a thousand tricks, but what he does, he does it well.” He is pushing his own scene forward. In Abuja, the capital, Mike skated with the Go Skate NG crew and with Giles (@giles_ist_genial), the best skater in the city. “He's a warrior, that guy. He doesn't have much tricks, but, like, he does the best he can do with what he has.” Tall and super nice, Giles skated every spot, all day, every day. Mr Tura, an artist and skater, is another name to follow.
If you go
Eat jollof, the spicy rice in tomato sauce; Mike has eaten a lot of rice around the world, and this is one of his top five. In Lagos, take the boat, a sketchy boat, out to the beach, which is really nice. Bring US dollars in cash. And go with the right people. Mike says Nigeria can feel sketchy: there is a lot of poverty, and tension between the mostly Muslim north and the mostly Christian south. He never felt unsafe himself, because he was with the right people. He also saw what skating can do there. In Abuja, Muslim and Christian skaters skate together, which usually doesn't happen. “So skateboarding is a way to bring people together.” And the most underrated thing about Nigeria, for Mike: the people are really friendly.
What would help the most, in Mike's view, is simple: build them a skatepark. “But, you know, once skateboarding is going to get popular, Nigeria is going to get popular.”
Mike Boisvert: “Skating in Nigeria is a small subculture that is getting more trendy. The youth are starting to see the appeal.”
Photos and video: 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.
