When you think of camping activities, the usual suspects come to mind: hiking, fishing, swimming, stargazing, maybe climbing or biking. But skateboarding? That one probably caught you off guard. Still, action sports and camping share more overlap than you might think. Let’s dig into it.

Some activities have been tied to camping for centuries — hunting, fishing, and hiking, to name a few. But action sports highlight a more modern connection: camping isn’t always the end goal, it’s the enabler.

Take motocross. Tracks are often far from hotels (and let’s face it, nobody wants to reload bikes every night and keeping all the gear at the track is much safer). That’s why you’ll see rows of RVs and campers at motocross tracks. Riders aren’t camping for the sake of camping; they’re camping to ride. Call it “glamping” if you want, but after a long day in the dirt, a shower and a good night’s sleep are nice things to have. That’s especially true when someone is racing competitively. For them, the story isn’t “I went camping,” it’s “I spent the weekend at the track.”

On the other end, look at skateboarding or BMX. Riding the same local park gets repetitive, so road trips to new parks keep things fresh. But what happens when the park you want to ride is hours away? You camp. Sure, most parks are in urban areas (where “stealth camping” is its own subculture), but the U.S. has another advantage: campgrounds usually aren’t far. For example, Des Moines, Iowa has the largest outdoor skatepark in the country, and there are campgrounds just 15–20 minutes away. That’s a whole weekend trip made possible by a tent and sleeping bag instead of a hotel bill.

Whether you camp just to camp or camp to make an activity possible, both share the same spirit: getting outside, challenging yourself, and doing what makes you happy. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re stargazing, hitting the trails, or riding the skatepark — camping ties it all together.