Hull Pledges to Become UK’s Most ‘Skateboard Friendly’ City

Hull plans to become a well-known hub for skateboarding, and host a National annual skateboarding event in a bid to create a ‘Skate Legacy’ for the city.
The 10-year plan which kicked off on Tuesday is part of the city’s cultural strategy and anticipates a boost as skateboarding becomes an Olympic sport in Tokyo 2020.

Hull is already home to 10 skate parks, and plans to link them via various ‘Skateboard friendly’ projects in dedicated spaces throughout the city.

Among its aims is the hope to encourage young people to take up the ‘sport’ in a safe and considerate manner.   

Mark English, Owner of indoor skatepark Rock City since its opening in 1994, said: “It’s a really big step for Hull“, saying  “it was exactly how local councils should work”. The growth of the sport in the city had “happened organically” over several decades.

Hull is to be 2017 City of Culture and hosting such an event had already helped “change people’s perspectives from kids on the street to the council“. Hull could become the “first city” for the sport in the UK, he added.

One of the country’s former top professional skateboarders, Scott Palmer, is from Hull and started in the city’s parks and says…

“Skateboarding is one of the most progressive sports or activities, people are pushing the boundaries all the time.“

Councillor Terry Geraghty said: “As a city we support the mainstream sports well, but we also need to ensure we support the more diverse sports such as skateboarding.”

Part of the strategy plans to compose a ‘Code of Conduct for Skateboarders‘ to try to promote a safe and practical set of guidelines for skateboarding amongst the public.  

Huge congratulations to Hull for setting the groundwork on this in the UK, we hope other cities follow suit! 

Keep up to date with Rock City on Instagram @rockcityskatepark

Diversion Skateboards welcome Wings Chan!

Dartford born, Brighton based skateboarder Wings Chan is the latest member to the Diversion Skateboards team, congratulations!

Check them out on Facebook!


Photo by John Paz

Has the Fashion industry changed skateboarding?


Stefs latest article on how she believes fashion has changed skateboarding, and vice versa, has gotten the skate community talking. She argues that skateboarding in mainstream fashion is a good thing…

“As a person who loves to participate in sports, I would scathe at being called a ‘Tom Boy’ as a child, I would think, “I am a girl… Why do they have to label me some sort of boy just for wanting to have fun?” Why is masculinity attributed to anything interesting I want to do?

For this reason, the seemingly clueless inclusion of skateboarding in shows at London Fashion Week, and in magazines such as Vogue and Marie Claire, (which I imagine had most skateboarders rolling their eyes in disgust), has brought a sideways smile to my face.” – @stefaninurdingxx

Read the rest of stefs article to find out why… 

National Geographic explore a rural South African skate camp  

Within the Valley of a Thousand Hills in rural Durban, South Africa, there’s a group of young skateboarders practicing on a half-pipe and a bowl. They’re all part of the Indigo Skate Camp, a movement that looks to nurture sustainable skateboarding environments for rural and vulnerable youths, and Andile Msomi is one of them.

 The camp looks to empower local Zulu villagers to learn and grow through the language of skateboarding—and that they do. 

This short documentary by Jess Colquhoun follows Andile and his friends to their first competition, where the most important thing is not to win but to enjoy the ride.

Girl Skate UK at SLS: Feat. Lacey Baker & Vanessa Torres


It was the second time the women’s competition was on at Street League and I was in the states already so obviously wanted to go check it out. I had been in Chicago for the first stop last October and was intrigued to see how things had changed.

 The night I arrived in LA, Helena was already in town too so we headed to see the Quit Your Day Job premiere. It was an emotional moment for all the skaters involved and the industry- the premiere had an amazing turnout and lots of supporters. It really showed my how much can change in a year (with a lot of work from the women’s skate scene!).

That weekend was Street League so Helena came with to check it out. We enjoyed watching the competition, and women’s skate going down on a massive platforms- live on Fox, live in the arena.. The pressure was real! After the comp I had the opportunity to interview Lacey for Huck Magazine about the win second time around. 

But, after such a high pressure competitive day, Helena wanted to ask some funny questions and keep it real. She’d scribbled out a load of things to ask (created in partnership with Kristen Ebeling of Skate Witches). So we went hunting after the comp to track down Vanessa Torres and Mariah Duran- they were the two we really wanted to chat with. 

We had a laugh and hope you will to, so check it out…

Words by Hannah Bailey

TRANSWORLD LACEY BAKER INTERVIEW

TRANSWORLD interview Meow Skateboards pro rider Lacey Baker on what it was like growing up as a female in a male dominated sport, quitting her day job and the struggle to live off of her contest winnings, most recently Street League 2016.

Read the full interview here…

“…the difference between men and women—men are just biologically stronger than us, so they can take harder slams and jump higher and do more shit like that. But the ability to understand skateboarding and the physics of it doesn’t really change.                                             I feel like if I was a dude, or had the body that could take a slam like that, I would probably be doing gnarlier shit. As far as working hard and skating every day, we don’t do anything different than the guys do. They just do gnarlier shit.” – Lacey Baker