Welcome to The Grind: Vol 5! Can you believe it’s already the middle of August? We’ve got some details to share to get you ready for Early Access — remember, coming at the end of this Summer (Northern Hemisphere) — as well as some Playtest details and some questions submitted by you, the skate. community. This volume of The Grind is gonna touch on customization, music and sounds in San Vansterdam, and we’re going to share a bit about our Seasons (starting shortly after Early Access drops) and the skate.Pass.
At the end of July, we invited over 1 MILLION skate. Insiders to join us in San Vansterdam, and it’s been wild. We’ve got up to 150 folks in each server, throwing down, completing Challenges, having fun. With Early Access coming soon, it’s going to be insane!
I’m seeing videos - when can I record/share/stream?
Reminder: the Council and some creators were given special access with a watermarkless build, but the NDA is still in effect for all Playtesters. We know you’re excited — we’re excited to see your content. We’ll be lifting the NDA before Early Access, so keep your eyes peeled for that NDA-lift announcement coming near the end of the month.
Customization
The Skate Shop offers (optional) premium cosmetics for purchase using San Van Bucks (or “SVB”) to customize your character beyond the free rewards you'll receive. You will see exactly what you are getting when you use SVB in the Shop. As we’ve mentioned in previous volumes of The Grind, there's a lot to unlock by simply playing the game and earning rewards -- we'll talk a bit more about that below.
When you first load into skate., you’ll need to create your skater.
First, you set up your appearance. Choose your build, height, body shape and size, and more to customize your look, then hit that right bumper to choose Locomotion (how you move off-board through San Vansterdam). Next up is your face shape — and there’s a lot of options. After that, pick your hair style, color, and shade, then slide over to your eyebrows to make your selection. Eyes, nose, and mouth are next, and you can choose facial hair and color if you want. Select your skater’s voice, and you’re done.
Now it’s time to get dressed.
Apparel, Accessories, and Boards are where you set your style. Starting off, you’ll have just a few options, like the “I ♥️SV” shirt, some basic pants and shoes, and basic deck setups (design, griptape, trucks, wheels).
That’s where those Challenges and Missions come in. Complete Challenges to earn Rip Chips (only earnable through gameplay) and then hit the Shop to turn those Rip Chips into gear. Open a box of gear with your free Rip Chips to get great cosmetic rewards and also up your Rip Score, which will unlock even more items. With each tier of the Rip Score AND each tier of your Neighborhood score, you get more items to customize your skater with (hats, helmets, shoes, socks, shirts, pants, shorts, skirts, decks, trucks, stickers for the decks, grip tape and grip tape designs, and more).
But wait! You’re not done! Quick gestures are customizable, so check out the Gestures option to select which of the four Quick Gestures you wanna have locked and loaded.
DID YOU KNOW:
You can do Gestures while pulling tricks in skate. - like this one. (You can even Gesture when you’re flying through the air. Warning: The flapping wings gesture does NOT make you fly better.)
Music in San Vansterdam
As mentioned in The Grind: Vol 4, we’re taking some time to discuss music in San Vansterdam.
First, the soundtrack is big — like, 100 songs big. The team focused on emerging artists and threw in some deep cuts to help you discover music you may not have heard yet.
You can browse the soundtrack by pressing down on the D-Pad and then highlighting the headphones icon.
From there, you can choose the Playlists you want to jam out to when cruisin’ the streets of San Van.
You’ll see the main soundtrack in the Featured section - split into three playlists - DO A KICKFLIP!, SV Local Classics, and Down Low Radio. See that one titled San Van Jams? That’s the skate. community favorites - based on the songs most liked by all players across all platforms.
You can favorite whole playlists or individual tracks to make your own favorite playlist, and you’ll see them appear in the Liked section. You can use the left and right triggers to adjust the volume, if you want it blasting or if you need it to be a little subtle. When in the world, you can mute the speakers by pressing down on the D-Pad (to open the Quick Access wheel) and pressing Y (or Triangle).
And you can discover music just by skating around San Van - you’ll hear it blaring out of speakers in skate spots, teasing you from the top of buildings, and even from passing cars. Just run up and use Grabster when prompted (hold down on the L stick) to collect it! It will show up under the Newly Discovered category in Grabster.
And if you’re liking the soundtrack, stay tuned! The team will be adding lots of new tracks every season - and making sure the ones you listen to and favourite the most stay in the game for longer!
Now, we know music is a part of skateboarding culture - and not one specific genre or style, but all types of music (just like there’s all types of skaters and all types of gamers). Our music team is currently curating the skate. Soundtrack (coming soon to Spotify), but we wanted to drop a sample of some of the artists right now to get you vibin’ and ready for Early Access.
Some Artists from the skate. Soundtrack
Turnstile
Denzel Curry
Little Simz
Skegss
Earth, Wind & Fire
MF Doom
Just a little taste, a tease of some artists on the soundtrack, and there’s a LOT more. The soundtrack for Early Access will have around 100 tracks, and we’re just getting started.
We’ll share the Spotify link soon, so stay tuned to our official social and community channels.
Seasons and the skate.Pass
We’ve mentioned seasons a few times in The Grind. You’re probably wondering, “How will skate. do seasons? How long will they last? When do seasons start? Is there a skate. Pass?
Quick answers (full details coming in The Grind: Vol 6 next month):
Yes, skate. will have seasons and seasonal content. The world, game features, in-game events, and even the soundtracks will be updated to celebrate each season.
On average, the season will last about 3 months (so we’ll have 4 per year, like a real calendar!).
Our first season will start shortly after the Early Access launch, and more information will be available next month in Vol 6 of The Grind.
With each season, we'll be adding new cosmetics and customization items, more music, and more to do.
We will have a skate.Pass - with a paid and free track with various rewards, Seasonal Challenges, and activities to keep you on your board.
Stay tuned - we’ll have all the details about our skate. Seasons and the skate.Pass next month, so get ready!
What’s happening with the skate. Insider Playtest?
As of June 27, we closed sign-ups for the skate. Insider program. From the time we opened up sign-ups in 2022 to June 27, 2025, over 1 MILLION future San Vansterdam citizens signed up. And we spent all of July getting invites out to everyone who did sign up. Signed up but didn’t get an email? Are you sure you checked the right email?
Quick reminder: Our official Discord is not the spot to share feedback, bugs, and issues - but we DO want you to share them with us. If you’re a playtester, head to the Playtest forums and let us know what’s going on. The feedback we’ve received already helped us get to 0.27 and 0.27.5 (coming soon!), so keep it up! Thanks for coming with us on the road to Early Access - we’re getting closer every day.
Let’s dive into your questions. Keep them coming!
Your Q’s, our A’s.
What can you tell us about the future of the game's visuals?
It’s important to remember that Early Access is just the beginning. Everything from the gameplay to core features to visuals will continue evolving and improving during Early Access and beyond.
This is a new game, a new world, and we’re excited about where it’s headed. We think this is the best skateboarding experience we have ever created.
Will the visuals change over time? Absolutely. You'll see the characters and world evolve to include even more detail and personality through our future updates.
Thanks for your continued support. While we can’t respond to every piece of feedback, rest assured that we are listening.
Is early access free? And if so, does everybody get it or is there a way to ensure I get in?
Early Access is absolutely free-to-play. Everyone who wants to jump into San Vansterdam when Early Access launches is welcome!
Was wondering if it would be possible to implement a type of party finding system for co-op missions?
Playing together in the open-world of San Vansterdam is so much fun, from Throwdowns to Co-op Challenges. As we continue to improve and develop skate. through Early Access, we’ll look into more ways to improve the social experience and co-op/group play.
Will server sizes increase even more? It would be crazy to have like 500 people on one server.
It would be crazy - not sure if it’s the crazy we want to ensure stability. That being said, with Early Access, we’re just getting started and crazy ideas may make sense down the road. Currently, our sweet spot is up to 150 skaters per server, but that could change in the future.
Will any extra skaters be available to play as like in previous games? Any pros?
skate. is all about you and what you're doing in San Vansterdam. That being said, it doesn't mean we won't see the occasional new visitors in San Van sometime in the future.
Will we be able to re-enter the tutorial area and explore it freely? It’s so cool; I would like to go back like in Skate 3 going back to Skate School.
“I’m going going, back back, to the Isle of Grom” is definitely a jam, and we will be opening the Isle up at some point during Early Access so you can refresh the basics or get crazy, Isle-style.
Are there going to be any collab's with show's, movies, etc.?
Through skate.’s live service, we want to bring a lot of events and experiences through the Seasons, so we’ll share more as we get closer to the seasonal drops whenever we might incorporate these elements.
Are you looking into custom/player-created gear or designs?
We don't have something to share today, but this is definitely something the team is very excited about. When we have something concrete to share, like a timeline, we'll make sure to let you know.
Don’t forget to drop your questions in the Q&A channel in The Grind category of Discord, and we’ll pull some to answer for our next volume of The Grind. Join the community at https://discord.gg/skateEA.
See you in San Vansterdam,
The skate. Team