12 Hours at Pitt Street - with Knox, Birch, Diggs and more!

Jeremy Jones - switch bluntslide revert.

Even if you somehow don't know the name Pitt Street by now, you'll have definitely seen Portsmouth's new indoor skatepark all over Instagram in the weeks since it officially opened. Built in what was previously a Sainsbury's supermarket in Portsmouth city centre, the community based, not for profit project is the brainchild of Jacob and Jenna Skinner, and has quickly become the TF of choice for skaters from all over the south coast and beyond.

Probably owing to the traditional Sainsbury's height ceiling, nothing at Pitt Street encroaches on Street League/"oh Christ..." levels of towering impending doom/heroics, and - as such - the whole park can be thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, regardless of whether today is your first day on a board, or your 14,610th. Also, how many times have gone to do your shopping and thought to yourself, "the floor in here is so smooth I bet I could do nollie hardflips like Kareem Campbell in Trilogy"? Well, now's your chance to put your daydream theory to the test, as the whole park has been built on top of the authentic Sainsbury's floor that physicists eagerly rank as one of the top 3% smoothest surfaces known to mankind.

Alright, I just plucked that faux-scientific nonsense out of thin air, but the floor is next level smooth. Bit of a nightmare to stop on at speed whilst trying to follow consistent skateboarders about with a camera in your hand though, as myself and Josh Hallett found out, but as far as facilitating Catalan levels of flatground prowess, the near-frictionless tile badboy gets a solid 10/10.

Having closely watched Pitt Street's build over the course of 2022, then seeing the place being sessioned solidly since its doors opened on December 10th, it was obviously our top priority to go sample this unique park's delights for ourselves as soon as we physically could. Thankfully, the final days of January proved to be conveniently blank in the diaries of a handful of enthusiastic and intrigued heads from all over the country, so an evening lock-in and an daylong session were arranged, and we made our merry ways to the Great Waterfront City.

Along for the mission were Diggs English, Cam Barr, Jeremy Jones, Will Sheerin, Evan Johnson, Pete Johns, Phil Russell, David Mackey, Mark Baines, Garry Woodward, a recovering Charlie Birch, and Tom Knox, who was fresh back off an Atlantic Drift trip to Bangkok.

Have a scroll here to see for yourself what went down across our combined 12 hours at Pitt Street, then enjoy the full edit at the bottom of the page.

A massive thanks to Skinner, Jenna and the rest of the crew at Pitt Street for all of the hospitality, and for giving us free rein of the place during our stay. Be sure to pay them a visit and skate this amazing setup for yourself as soon as you can!

Head to the Pitt Street Instagram page - @undercoverskateparkproject - for all the info you need...

All photos: Leo Sharp.