We travel to Bangkok, Thailand to explore skateboarding in Asia. We met up with Dan Leung and Jasper Dohrs of New Balance Numeric to talk about skate culture and the experience of skating in Bangkok Shanghai and elsewhere in Asia.

“You don’t need to know the same language in the skate world to communicate, because skateboarding is already a language,” said professional skater Dan Leung. Both skaters grew up in multicultural upbringings. Dan was born in Hong Kong to a Scottish father and Cantonese mother, before relocating to Shanghai where he grew up gliding the marble foyers and underpasses of skyscrapers. While Jasper, was born in Seattle to a diet of TransWorld SKATEboarding and Thrasher magazines before heading to his mother’s hometown of Bangkok once his high school education was finished.

Having frequented skateboarding mainstays Thrasher in addition to fronting their sponsors Helas, 30 Purse and New Balance Numeric, both have cemented their place in the genre as ones-to-watch in Asia, while also garnering the attention of patrons from across the pond in the West Coast. Yet, with Bangkok, Shanghai and Hong Kong having a much smaller scene compared to that of the sport’s birthplace, skaters are faced with restrictions that could hamper their creative growth, but Dan assures us that the limitations work only as a catalyst, “The kids here are fucking hungry because there’s less options so they’re killing it.”

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