Shop Madrid: Caribbean Skate, Surf, Snow and Sport

The name Caribbean will most likely sound familiar to skateboarders that live and roll in Madrid. It is, after all, the oldest skating store in the city that specializes in American style sliding sports: skateboards, long boards, surfboards, snowboards, wakeboards and other forms of extreme sport that can get you hurt. Skating and surf have become increasingly popular since the stores beginnings in 1975 and with it have come numerous other skate shops, but Caribbean has kept up a good name and a wide range of evolving products (it isn’t known for its low prices though). While other skate shops may only be well outfitted with skateboarding equipment, this store sells harder to find objects like long and wake boards—along with, of course, hoards of related paraphernalia including clothing, shoes, books, hacky sacks, stickers, style accessories and the like.

Especially important when it comes to buying sports equipment or their spare parts is to have knowledgeable advice from the store, and in this department Caribbean has no problem. It is still run by its original owners, who have seen the evolution of skating and its derivatives as well as experienced the ups and downs of the business in Spain. Jose Antonio Muñoz, a part owner who is usually at the front of the store, can lecture you in skating history: the surf inspired birth of the homemade long board in California in the sixties, the skate explosion of the seventies and its subsequent downfall in the early eighties, the coming of new school skating in the mid-nineties (and with it Tony Hawk and a lot of videogames) and now, the newborn popularity of commercial long boarding. If Caribbean could be the first to sell long boards in the seventies and could survive the skating business depression of the early eighties, Muñoz says, he’s sure the store will keep its place along Columela Street for a long time.

There are over fifty different brands in store that work with different types of skating: long skate, slalom skating, downhill, street, free style and old school. The different board brands to choose from are many: Powell Peralta, Zoo York, Gravity, Loaded, Lush, Powell, Surf One, Sector 9, Katin, Pukas, RRP, Z–flex, among others. They are accompanied by spare accessories—specially a large selection of wheels—from Bones, Cadillac, Kryptonics, Carver, Bennett, Randal, Bear and more. As for shoes, caps, backpacks, hardware and other accessories there are many to choose from: Ezequiel, Vans, Spitfire, Oakley, Volcom, Independent, Globe and more. They also deliver to any national and international address.

The store also involves itself with events that fall in its specialty. They organize unofficial skating reunions in the Parque del Oeste every Sunday from 11 a.m. until about 14:30 p.m., and they were one of the sponsors of last May’s first Skating Slalom Race of Madrid.

For a detailed list of their products and prices visit the Caribbean website at here.

Caribbean
Calle Columela, 5
91 576 11 17

By Daniel Sznajderman