For skaters, emptiness can be bliss.
Whether it's a drained swimming pool, a smooth stretch of hill-coasting road, or a multi-floor staircase, a city offers myriad tantalizing surfaces for skateboarders. And yet, all too often, especially in a place as densely populated as Vietnam, these areas are occupied or inaccessible. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing change in people's relationships with public spaces, however, offered rare opportunities for the intrepid.
One shoe company took great advantage of the situation to highlight their newest product. RieNevan, a Vietnam-based skate apparel company, filmed The Quarantine 2020 after the official quarantine period had ended but while Da Nang was still largely desolate.
In the video, filmed and edited by Hit Nguyen, five local skaters can be seen performing tricks and simply cruising around some of the city's most iconic landmarks, including the Dragon Bridge, Trung Vuong Theather and Con Market. Fans of slick skating, as well as admirers of Da Nang's architecture and aesthetic, curious to see it devoid of people have great reason to check out the four-minute video below:
Video via RieNevan's YouTube.
