I met the most polite skateboarders in my life on a cold, windy day in North London in Finsbury Park (Seven Sisters Road and Stroud Green Road/Blackstock Road). Tweens, almost none of them wearing pads or helmets (technically, helmets are required) would call out “S’cuse,” as if to say “Excuse me,” when they wanted to jump something near where a fellow skater was standing. This free park is small, and extremely tight, but its bowl and connecting shallow end has plenty of coping and lots of options for various maneuvers. But a big, rectangular block in the middle of the shallow end is a buzzkill; it makes carving serious, fast lines difficult.

The full blog post, on London’s skateparks, is at the NEW YORK TIMES