Jeddah's Skaters Push for the City's First Skatepark

When Omar Safadi started Silly Boys in 2020, the aim was simple: share his love of skateboarding, help people new to the sport, and give back to Jeddah's growing skating community.

Silly Boys is a skateboarding collective, a crew of friends who skate together and organise events for everyone else who does. It has since grown to include Mahmoud AlSibai, Ahmad Assiri, Mazen Soroji, Abdelaziz Nour and Yazan Alharbi.

The name is a joke. The ambition behind it isn't. The group wants Jeddah to get its first proper skatepark, something they see as essential if the sport is going to keep growing in the city.

"It started as something fun, and it still is," Mahmoud AlSibai says. "We just want to help the community grow."

Most of their work is about making skateboarding easier to get into. They run regular meet-ups and competitions, backed by local brands Galag, Urbn Lot Skateshop and CRKD GURU, and they hand out skateboarding gear through community giveaways.

For AlSibai, the giveaways come down to money. "Many people can't afford to replace a skateboard deck every few months," he says. "The equipment is expensive, so we try to help where we can and encourage people to continue skating."

Skateboarding has become more visible in Saudi Arabia lately, but AlSibai says Jeddah's scene was built well before Silly Boys came along. "I don't think skateboarding is new in Jeddah," he says. "The local scene began around 2016 with Ali bin Mahfouth, one of the first Saudi-born skaters, alongside Mohammad Assiri and others. There just wasn't much support back then."

He reckons that started to shift around 2020, as social media put skateboarding in front of more people and attitudes softened. "People appreciate it much more now," he says. "Before, the attitude was, 'what are these dumb kids doing?' Now people understand it better, especially because there are recognised competitions and organised events."

National support helped too. The Saudi Arabian Extreme Sports Federation runs regular skateboarding competitions, and the sport featured in the Saudi Games between 2022 and 2024.

For all that recognition, Jeddah still doesn't have a dedicated skatepark. Riyadh has built several since 2021, while skaters in Jeddah make do with public spaces, mostly Al Nawras Corniche.

Even that hasn't been simple. The Corniche is open to the public but managed by a private company, Rotana, and security staff regularly asked the skaters to leave. Instead of giving up the spot, Silly Boys worked with Rotana to get permission to hold their Go Skateboarding Day events there, turning it into an official place for the city's skaters to gather.

The following keeps growing. "Since 2024 we've seen a lot more people joining us, particularly after the recent Go Skateboarding Day events," AlSibai says. "We're continuing to see new faces."

The group pulls in skaters from all sorts of nationalities, which fits Jeddah's mixed population. Most are between 18 and 30, though older skaters show up too. "Skateboarding is for everyone, and more people should have fun doing it," he says.

For now, merchandise and any bigger commercial plans can wait. What the group wants most is the infrastructure they think Jeddah's skaters need. "If a skatepark opens in Jeddah, that's when we can breathe," AlSibai says. "We're very limited right now. The Corniche is great, but it's all flat ground. As skateboarders, we need range. We need stair sets, ramps. Flat ground isn't enough."

Before we wrap up, AlSibai wants to give credit to the people who backed the group early. "Galag, Urbn Lot Skateshop and CRKD GURU have supported us from the beginning," he says. "They've helped us with so much, from communication, securing locations, providing equipment and even apparel. We are very thankful to them."

As skateboarding keeps finding its place in Saudi Arabia's changing sports scene, Silly Boys has become a good example of how grassroots groups help keep that momentum going.

In a city that still doesn't have the facilities, they've put their energy into building a community rather than a brand, one that keeps growing on enthusiasm, mutual support and a refusal to quit.