Skating New Heights

Thanks to encouraging signs on a national and local level, the sport seems set for vigorous growth over the next few years.

The City of Cape Town has opened the promenade between Mouille Point and Queens Beach to people on wheels: from rollerbladers to skateboarders; from bikes to trikes.

If there are no issues during the trail period of one month, the experiment will become permanent.

Andrew Nero, 25, a passionate skateboarder and owner of Africa Skate, says that they will take it slow and easy in several planned group rides along the prom, which started Monday this week, when they rode from Mouille Point to Queens and back again. "We want to respect the people who walk there."

While the jury is out whether Sea Point will become as cool as Venice Beach in California, this is a huge leap forward in making our urban landscape more suitable for alternative forms of mobility.

In the past few weeks, several skateboard events around the country have also boosted the sport.

The second annual Maloof Money Cup took place in Kimberely at the end of September. Dubbed the world championships of skateboarding, the big money event has moved from the US, lured to the Northern Cape in a shrewd move by the provincial tourism authority. Amongst the sponsors were Anglo American and Kumba Iron Ore.

“The Maloof in Kimberly is a six year plan,” says Nero, “and really proves that it is sustainable. Guys in government are recognising that skateboarding can bring crowds and revenue.”

The Northern Cape apparently adopted a strategy to become an extreme sports destination. They built a world class skate park, and facilitated the world land speed record attempt by the Bloodhound supersonic car, which is being constructed this year. The rocket on wheels should reach 1,600 km/hr when it attempts the record in 2013 and 2014 at Hakskeen Pan, where a 20km strip 500 metres wide has been prepared by the Northern Cape Government.

Many skateboarders hope that forward thinking strategies like these will spread to other cities.

Even with steps to make Cape Town more hip and happening, Cape Town skaters struggle in competitions. For example, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng skaters dominated the Backyard Burnout in Pretoria last weekend.

“We might think skating is big in Cape, but we remain smaller than other cities,” says Nero. The reason?  Skate parks.

Marketing manager Dane Patterson at Quiksilver, who sponsored the Backyard Burnout, said there is a big gap between Cape Town and other skaters because other cities have built skate parks for their community. These give riders the chance to perfect big moves needed in competition.

Nero agrees, saying that Cape Town skaters are good freestylers who tackle street obstacles with aplomb, but lack experience on quarter pipes, ramps and other obstacles found in skate parks.

City of Cape Town, are you listening?

INSPIRED READING

http://futurecapetown.com/
http://www.capetownpartnership.co.za/tag/national-skate-collective/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Skate-Collective/313344875389908

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