We watch a sunlight dust dance,
and we try to be that lively,
but nobody knows what music those particles hear.
Each of us has a secret companion musician to dance to.
Unique rhythmic play, a motion in the street we alone know and hear.

The Sufi poet Rumi wrote those words back in 1200 AD. An expression of his experience of the divine in life; the way things seems to spark and crackle with energy when you suddenly escape the duality of the world and become one with the universe. He was born in what is now modern day Afghanistan or Tajikistan (jury is still out on his exact birthplace) but traveled from there throughout Iran and eventually ended up in Turkey. Based upon his ability to express these mystical experiences, it’s safe to say that if Rumi was alive today he would no doubt be in a faded Motörhead shirt sneaking into a vacant property to skate an empty pool.

Alas for poor Rumi, skateboarding wasn’t invented until seven hundred and fifty years after his time but those words still resonate with how it can feel. Those times when you’re out there with your friends, locked into the entirety of the moment and absorbed by the world around you. Pushing furiously through a city street at twilight as the pink waves of the setting sun splash against buildings and get lost under streetlights. Like the dancer he describes as hearing music no one else can, a skateboarder sees a street, a parking lot, a drainage ditch or an empty fountain in a way that others simply can’t. It’s Rowdy Roddy Piper in They Live, once you put on those skate goggles nothing looks the same again. It’s that vision and those moments that bond us all in a collective community.

The Sultans of the City contest is bringing that same energy of a common love and reaching across borders, cultures, countries and conflicts to celebrate it. It’s an interactive and online skate event encouraging skaters throughout MENA (Middle East and North Africa, which was expanded beyond the classical definition to include Pakistan and Afghanistan. So, Rumi could’ve participated) to get their crews together, register and compete in a series of challenges. Similar to Thrasher’s King of the Road or The Skatewitches Witch Hunt, but thanks to “the magic of social media,” it does not require you to be a pro team or even physically at an event.

*SOTC graphic drawn up by Mob Beyond Culture*

Teams are working from a list of tricks and challenges created by the organizers. All tricks must be filmed in the Middle East or North Africa and points will be awarded based on difficulty, creativity, humor and enthusiasm. Challenges include traditional skate-ish things like:

Longest manual/nose manual
Highest ollie
Most stairs ollied
Bomb a hill with more than 1 person on a board
Teach a security guard how to skate

as well as a number of other bonus events and scavenger hunts.

*Oman Skate studying the challenge book*

Once a team has completed as much as they can within the timeframe of the event, they must put all their completed challenges into a final video edit to be reviewed by the judges. If you search the hashtag #Sultansofthecity on Instagram you can see the wide variety of crews participating— from Casablanca to Lahore — and the energy they’re bringing to the event. Prizes will then be awarded based on the judges’ scores.

The idea for the contest came from professional skateboard legend Kenny Reed and Hass Aminian of Millenial Events. The two met while organizing skateboarding events in Singapore. In 2020 they created the Lockdown Challenge to help young skaters throughout Asia find creative ways to get through the isolation of the pandemic. By the time that event finished they had over 160 entries from 30 different countries.

I spoke with Kenny the night before he left on a skate outreach trip to Pakistan and he expressed that the response has been great so far, with teams registering from all over the region. The complex logistical challenges of communicating and organizing over such a large area means they’ve relied on a number of different organizations and accounts to connect with all of the participants.

In the weeks ahead we hope to have updates on Sultans of the City Competition and shine a light on different teams, stories and skaters involved. While there are plenty of events for, and much attention given to, the healthy skate scenes in Europe and North America, Sultans of the City is a way to help skaters in places where skateboarding is just starting to take root to develop their own voices and identities.

As skating becomes more accepted by the mainstream, there’s this new narrative that explains skateboarding like it’s some sort of social advancement tool. It’s a mindset that relies heavily on an Olympics-style conception of sports as a rationalization for why kids all over the world should be encouraged to skateboard; maybe it can lead to notoriety and sponsorship—a way out of present circumstances. While it’s certainly awesome when anyone is able to improve the quality of their lives through their talent and passion, that’s not really the point.

Skaters all across the world hucking themselves repeatedly onto the concrete in pursuit of an elusive trick are most likely not motivated by podiums, Wheaties boxes or even paychecks. They’re doing it for the freedom, the love and the community that skateboarding brings into their lives.

The knowledge that sometimes nothing in this world is more sacred then the laughter of friends, gathered in an ignored area of a city, watching one of their own just miss a trick and shout “one more try!” That’s what Sultans of the City gets right with this contest, a spirit of collective celebration for “a motion in the street we alone know and hear,” or, as the late Jake Phelps once famously said, “the sound of living.”

Sultans of the City

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