“Of all the stans, Uzbekistan was my favourite country to skate.”
Where the old city meets the Soviet grid
Mike Boisvert crossed four Central Asian countries on one trip and Uzbekistan is the one he would go back to first. Part of that is the community, which is bigger than the neighbours', and part is the ground: Tashkent is an ex-Soviet capital, so everything is square and everything is marble, which is another way of saying the street spots are enormous and largely unskated. Put it in context and the number gets more impressive. Turkmenistan next door has no skateboarding to speak of, Tajikistan has about six skaters, Kyrgyzstan fewer than forty. “For a landlocked country surrounded by almost no skateboarding, they're doing pretty well.”
Where to skate
Cosmonaut Plaza is the spot to be, the one the city skates. The free park under a bridge in Tashkent is the daily driver, covered, which in this climate is worth more than perfect concrete, and there is a second wooden park across town. The locals are harder on that covered park than Mike is. “Mini Alex said he didn't like it. I told him, bro, it's a blessing you have this. You have a roof and everything. I've seen way worse.” In Samarkand the park is rough and there are three skaters in the entire city.
The one that got away was a marble hubba by an army building, the kind of spot Mike describes as a dream. One set of guards said yes, the next shift said no, and it stayed unskated.
Three skaters to know
Mini Alex (@minialex_sb) is 19, has no sponsor, and is Mike's favourite skater of the whole trip. “He can do anything on a skateboard. If he tries something, he's going to do it for sure.” The style is not the traditional one, which is exactly why it stands out: fakie hardflips down stair sets, on command. Alexander Barsukov (@pluxury_sb) is the contest skater of Tashkent, the first skateboarder from Uzbekistan to compete at international events and to place at them, and he was injured the week Mike was in town. Nikitka (@nikitka.sk8) is one of the three skaters in Samarkand, barely posts, and rips anyway. Behind them is Padla Crew (@padla.crew), filmed by Farrukh Akhtamov (@farrukh_akhtamov).
The video that went around the world
In Samarkand, Mike did the thing he does most days: handed his board to somebody who had never seen one. This time someone was there to film it. The clip went past a million views, a young woman rolling for the first time, holding onto his arm over the fabric of her sleeve because he could not touch her skin, laughing the whole way. The comments turned into an argument about what she was and was not allowed to do, which Mike found absurd: “Uzbekistan is super chill.” He then tried to raise the money for a board for her, got called cheap for asking, and deleted the post. Strangers sent her donations anyway. They still talk.
If you go
Tashkent for the marble and the Soviet architecture, Samarkand for one of the oldest cities on the planet, and the Aral Sea if you want the strangest day of the trip. Eat plov with your hands from the shared plate; every country in the region claims the original and Uzbekistan claims it loudest. And a detail for anyone who watches the channel: the vest Mike has worn in every video since was bought here, on country seventy-one of the hundred-plus he has now reached. It has been to thirty-two countries since.
Mike Boisvert: “Uzbekistan was my favourite of the four countries I did in Central Asia. That's the one I'd go back to.”
Watch the full Uzbekistan series
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.
