ABSTRACT
Skateboarding thrives in the kinds of spaces that are increasingly recognized for being toxic and destructive: the modern city. This chapter explores how skaters seek pleasure among the social, legal, and environmental hostility of the city – conceptualized as “grey pleasure.” Performing a prefigurative politics centering on road access, leisure, and salubrity, skaters use the steep hills of San Francisco's Dolores Street to find a sensorial thrill not easily commodified or illegalized. Despite the overwhelming greyness of the built environment, these skaters manage to reconcile with their green, natural environment through trick play – and find pleasure and salubrity on every turn.
