Helsinki Skateboarding Guide

Helsinki Skateboarding Guide

Two of the best things about skateboarding are travelling and making new friends. Whilst away at the Vans Shop Riot finals in Belgium the other year we got chatting to Tuukka Helminen who’s the Marketing Manager for Santaco Sport, one of the main skate distributors in Finland about the Helsinki skateboarding scene.

Due to the wonderful world of social media we’ve kept in touch ever since so we recently hit him up to help us out with this quick guide to Helsinki skateboarding.

After reading this, checking out the spots and links it’s definitely one that should be on your ‘places to visit’ list!

Top 3 skate spots:

“Musiikkitalo” – Centrum – https://www.musiikkitalo.fi/en

“Taivis” – Töölö Photo Juha Pönkänen

Taivis - Tatu Engström Photo Juha Pönkänen

…and a classic “Kulma” – Kruununhaka

Helsinki Skateboarding Guide

All of these more or less curb spots all in a range of 3.5 km.

Top 3 skate parks:

“Olari” – Espoo – http://www.jannesaario.com/Olari
Suvilahti – https://www.instagram.com/p/oBwAZfFBYm/
Leppävaara – Espoo – https://www.instagram.com/p/4WuSP3lBeq/

Top 3 tourist things you really should see:

“Suomenlinna Sea Fortress”. Reachable by ferry (15 minutes) There’s so many places to see in Helsinki which only have an access by boat.

Helsinki Skateboarding Guide

http://www.suomenlinna.fi/

“Kotiharjun Sauna”. This is an OG public sauna. Almost 100 years old spot. Don’t expect to get any girls from here though, it’s not that kind of place!

Kotiharjun Sauna

http://www.kotiharjunsauna.fi/

“Vanha Kauppahalli” is the old market hall since 1889. Good food, fresh groceries and an authentic vibe right in the heart of HKI.

Vanha Kauppahalli

http://vanhakauppahalli.fi/en/

Top 3 non-skate activities to partake in:

Water! – Go swimming, hang by the water or try to get yourself on a boat. All the islands, which we only have 179 584, are beautiful. You can find them anywhere.

Swimming in Finland

Snowboarding. It takes only 30 minutes from the centrum to reach to the closest resort. Unless you’re here during summer of course.

Talma Resort

Go and have a beer at We Got Beef.
http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/we-got-beef-helsinki-2

We Got Beef

Top 3 Finnish dishes to try out:

1. “Poronkäristys” (reindeers meat on a mashed potatoes) is my favorite but you’d have to travel all the way to Lapland to find any good ones!

Poronkäristys

2. “Loimulohi” which is a Finnish fish preparation, in which salmon is nailed to a plank with wooden pegs and cooked over an open fire.

Loimulohi

3. Chanterelle soup – Creamy garlicky mushroom soup. (try it for yourself: http://www.food.com/recipe/finnish-chanterelle-soup-503567)

Chanterelle

Top 3 things about living in Finland:

1. Sauna – it’s a national pastime.
2. Nature – Being close to the sea and all the islands.
3. Climate – Even though people love to whine about how summers should last way longer, I think we’re pretty fortunate to be able to have good warm summer time as well as snowy cold winters.

Thanks for you time Tuukka (and sorry this took so long to get up on the site!). Want to let us know about your hometown, be it in
the UK, Europe or anywhere else in the world, please just drop a mail to info@skatepharmacy.co.uk