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Managing Director Usama Ahmed Executive Editor Augustine Rutasingwa Contents Submission africaskateboardingdiary@gmail.com Contributors Sedrick Kidiima Felix Altreus Rieyaad Saban Yann Gross Ali Tamara The views and options expressed in the editorial and advertisements within Africa Skateboarding Diary do not necessary reflects the opinions of Africa Skateboarding Diary nor of its any associates. Africa Skateboarding Diary welcomes all letters, emails, pictures, stories, feedbacks and more from you. We will review all the contributions we receive and assess whether it or not it can be used as print or online content.
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Welcome to the Africa Skateboarding Diary, tell brief about who you are? Hey guys I’m Brandon Valjalo and I am a skateboarder from Johannesburg, South Africa. How do you feel to be an Ultimate X 2017 Skate Champion? To be honest with you, the feeling is so surreal, I actually still can’t believe it myself just because of the quality of skateboarders that competed at the contest as well as the level of skateboarding. It was a privilege to be able to compete against the best in Africa and for that alone I am grateful. I couldn’t have been more stoked to skate with such amazing skateboarders who helped me push my boundaries. Any key influences in your skateboarding? Firstly, My brother and his friends are the main key influencers cause without them I wouldn’t have started skateboarding in the first place. But other than that I’ve always looked up Ryan Sheckler who was my childhood hero but now as I’ve gotten a little older it’s kinda shifted to Trevor Colden. What are your future dreams? My future dreams pretty much just consist of skateboarding everyday and letting it be my guide in life. I’m going out to LA in a few days time as well as Europe for a while to see if I can possibly make a greater impact on the skate industry outside of our African bubble. Hopefully everything works out and goes to plan and I can just travel the world doing what I love which is skateboarding. Any credits and shout outs! Firstly I wanna give a big shoutout to my family as well as all my sponsors for all your guys support. Secondly I wanna just thank all the skaters for coming out to the event and for killing it all weekend. It’s always amazing skating with friends from all over the continent. Lastly a big thank you to the man upstairs as well as skateboarding as I whole. Peace out guys! Until next time.
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The NGO board issues the certificate to operate by the end of April. Some of the objectives of the USU include: - to provide a positive and fun outlet by promoting skateboarding, art, culture and education among the youth of Uganda in order to combat idleness and boredom - to helpt create bright and aware members of society so it will enforce the importance of education, teach the youth about health and sanitation issues, and educate the youth on HIV/AIDS - to raise awareness around the world of the situations of poverty, illness, HIV/AIDS and orphans in Uganda 2010: The „Skateaid“-program of Titus Germany, the Titus Dittmann who is seen as the father of the german skteboarding-scene, gets involved in the USU. In 1978 he travelled to California in order to import boards to Germany and found one of the first skateshops in Europe: Titus Rollsport. Titus also helped to build up the skateboarding-scene in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the 1980’s, by smuggling boards over the inner-german-boarder. The support for the USU includes rennovations and a extention of the park and the supply of hardware. In July 2012 there are 52 members within the USU and 35 skateboards have been donated from abroad since 2010. July 2013: Brian raised over 10.000 $-CAN through an online fundraising-campaign called „indiegogo“ and travells back to Uganda in order to film a documentary until october. January 2014: The USU is being awarded with the 5000€ Skate-Aid-Award of the European BRIGHT-convention. The money will be used to set up the USU office and storage room close to the park.
PHOTO | BRIAN LYE
UGANDA SKATEBOARDING UNION April 2006: Jackson Mubiru and a South African friend called Shael Swart build Uganda’s first and only skateboard ramp in Kitintale, Kampala with locally made bricks. Jack’s family supplies the land and a department store donates two skateboards to the ramp. July 2006: Jack meets a Canadian filmmaker and skateboarder from Vancouver named Brian Lye. Through good friends in Canada several Skateboards reach Uganda and the skaters. Brian lives in Uganda from 2005 to 2007. September 2006: After Jack and Brian made a plan to build a small course beside the ramp, the construction of the new skatepark begins in order to build Uganda’s and even East Africa’s first skateboard park. To avoid paying a construction fee, they tell the authorities they are building an enclosure für a pet crocodile. The park was designed by the Canadian designers Matthew Morgan and Brian Lye. Further design specific advice was received from Grindline Skatparks, based in Seattle, USA. The whole park is built by hand by the youth of the community and funded by friends from all over the world; Canada, Japan, UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Burkina Faso, and from within Uganda. The first session goes down on december 23rd. March 2007: The main issue facing the sustainability of the project is the ability to receive skateboards. In order to receive donated skateboards without having custom taxes added the project is developed into a nationally registered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Uganda Skateboard Union. PHOTO | BRIAN LYE AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //12
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Yann Gross is a Swiss skateboarder and photographer, born in 1981. After Highschool he studied at the Univeristy of Art & Design in Lausanne, Switzerland. He came to Uganda in 2008 for the first time and, while spending most of his time on the board and assisting the Union, started to shoot the still ongoing “Kitintale” series. Ever since Yann supports the Union by coordinating sponsors and advising from abroad. Hi Yann. When and how did you get into photography? When I was 16 years old, I found an old mechanical reflex camera in one of my father’s drawers. I was studying at high school and there was an optional photography course. Actually, we were only two students who had shown interest for this course, so the teacher explained me how to use my camera and gave me the keys of the darkroom, instead of giving a real course. I spent all my noon breaks there, developing my films. I was fascinated by the process, the darkroom was kind of magic for me. Who and what are your works influenced by? Mostly film makers like Takeshi Kitano, Carlos Sorin or José Padilha… daily life stories. What made you come to Uganda in the first place? Girls, girls, girls. My girlfriend left Switzerland to work with a Non Governmental Organization in Congo (D.R.C.) and Uganda. I went to Uganda to visit her, and then I stayed there for a while. How are you connected to the Uganda Skateboard Union? Before my girlfriend left Switzerland, I taught her how to skate. Then, during her stay in Uganda she looked for a place to skate and that’s how she met the skateboarders and found the skatepark. Since I had already planned to visit her, I found some sponsors in Switzerland who donated some skateboarding gear to bring there. But I didn’t want to give away the stuff and go back home, so with their leader, Jack Mubiru, we decided to organize the first Ugandan skateboarding contest. We also wanted to enforce the community of Kitintale to invite the parents and relatives of the skaters to meet each other. Also, the kids were very proud and wanted to show their skills, the result of their tough training. We wrote down the project and contacted local managers of several brands in Uganda in order to get sponsored. Before the contest, we went to local newspapers and TV Channels to explain what the game was about. We invited the national council of sports’ minister and members of the parliament to attend the event. And that was the time when you also started to shoot the “Kitintale” series? On my first trip, I spend two months in the suburb and skated almost everyday with the kids. A few weeks before i left, i realized i hadn’t taken any pictures yet, because it wasn’t my first purpose. AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //16
. I just took a few pictures during my last two weeks. I started to shoot it in 2008 and after my stay in 2009, I published a newsprint in order to get international attention. In 2012, we shot a specific feature for the New York Times magazine. But the series is still ongoing and think it could end with a great book in a couple of years: we would see the evolution of the skaters and the suburb itself. Please give us an impression of the local photography scene. The art scene isn’t very developed yet, though I don’t know much about it. Most of the photographers own their studio and are portraying individuals or families for ID cards or souvenirs. Only a few people own a camera, so when they need or want a picture, they go to the photographer’s studio. A printed photography is very precious in Uganda. it’s special. People don’t have so many pictures of themselves (birth, marriage, burials…).
YANN GROSS SWISS SKATEBOARDER PHOTOGRAPHER
UGANDA SKATEBOARDING UNION
ADVISER AND SUPPORTER
In Uganda it is not easy for a white person to avoid attention. What are your experiences being a photographer in an Ugandan setting and a “Muzungu” at the same time? Explaining the kids why we shall sit down half an hour and wait for some clouds in order to avoid to many shadows on the pictures and build a consistent series of photographs. It’s the same problem in Switzerland, for a photographer the light is very important in a picture, but if you are not used with the media you don’t think about it and even don’t notice it. A picture with or without shadows doesn’t make a big difference for most people.
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But the context was different, I was in an African suburb and wanted to shoot a series, being as precise as possible. So, as soon as the light was getting fine, I had to hurry up and stress everybody. it was funny for them because they didn’t get what I wanted to do: I was like a clown, a ridiculous white boy in the middle of the slum jumping around with his tripod and his camera.
I’m frequently in touch with the skaters and I try to go back, because I’m interested to follow the evolution, but also because I miss the kids a lot.
One of your photographs portrays a skater, Nico, wearing a shirt with an anarchy print and another one holds a skateboard with a stencil graphic of Ernesto “Che” Guevara. How do you see political views among the youth?
What are you looking for when working on a series like “Kitintale”?
The boy who owns this board didn’t know who Che Guevara was. It’s really difficult to find any board in Uganda, so he couldn’t choose the design of its board. There’s a huge flea market in Kampala, and you’ll find extra supply coming from the western countries. He was just happy he found a board there. The youngsters don’t expect to much from politics, according to them the country is ruled by corruption. What does your work have to do with capturing history? For me this is part of the skateboarding history, because these youngsters are one of the first African skateboarders. But on the other hand, my approach is still ambiguous, it has more to do with iconography. I also made a short movie which is actually more documentary but less asthetical than my photographs. I wish I could compare my work with a good bottle of wine, the elder it gets the better it may become. . Time will tell. Actually, it is a long run project for me. AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //18
Development seems to be a word regularily associated with African topics. How do you see your work within that context? As a photographer I don’t really know. Sometimes I get the feeling my pictures serve more the western media than the skaters. But when I sell my pictures, the money is saved to support the skateboarding project. But of course, the kids are very proud to see their picture in magazines, they get the feeling to be part of the skateboarding world.
I like human beings and I don’t consider myself a reporter. I look for daily life stories in a poetic way, far away from the media rush. Everybody is somehow looking for happiness and sometimes it creates improbable situations. The sense of belonging to communities is important, because you can share your dreams, projects and ideas. Taking pictures is a way to enter into communities. I learn a lot from the people I photograph, and as I said before, the experiences I live are even more important than the pictures themselves. Please tell us what a photographer’s life is like. Man, a photographer’s life is a roller coaster, you never know what’s coming next! I mainly work on my personnal projects and produce books and exhibitions. That’s the interesting part of the job and my office is the world, depending on what my preoccupation is on the moment. It’s a great life. On the other hand, I don’t make much money with these projects. So, I used to teach photography at University of Art and Design Lausanne, Switzerland, and worked for various international magazines to finance my personnal projects. But as the press branch is collapsing, I had to find the ressources somewhere else. I was lucky enough to get some grants to keep working on what really matters to me. Let’s talk about that next year again… Thank you very much! www.yanngross.com
Yann Gross is a Swiss skateboarder and photographer, born in 1981. After Highschool he studied at the Univeristy of Art & Design in Lausanne, Switzerland. He came to Uganda in 2008 for the first time and, while spending most of his time on the board and assisting the Union, started to shoot the still ongoing “Kitintale” series. Ever since Yann supports the Union by coordinating sponsors and advising from abroad. AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //19
Meryem Goumi, she is 23 years old girl skateboarder from Agadir, Morocco-North Africa.. Currently she is a University student studying English. She grew up in Morocco and she started skateboard about 10 years ago. Over her experience of skateboarding as lifestyle, and culture, she is remarkably considered to be among the best female skateboarders in Morocco. We had a privilege to interview her and being able to bring this article to you. Meryem shared a lot to us about skateboarding in Morocco. One thing that she has noticed, is the lack of sponsors from corporate international sponsors. This is one of the reason and comment that many Africa skateboarders have been telling us! Despite the lack of sponsors, she also comment the lack of good skateparks with international standard. Despite all the challenges, she said that skateboarders in Morocco are very committed and they skate because from beginning it has been about being happy and enjoy. However currently there are many skateparks under construction in Morocco and some are due to be opened this year! It is believed by the end of 2017, five new skateparks will be opened in Morocco starting with the biggest being built in Marina. Skateboarding in Morocco has so many key players inlcuding few skateshops such as the Tamara Skateshop, with brands like Atlas Skateboards and the Big Up Distribution. These people are marked to have significants changes into skateboarding in Morocco.
MERYEM GOUMI MOROCCAN SKATEBOARDER STARTED WHEN SHE WAS 12 YEARS OLD
NOW SHE IS 23 YEARS OLD
A UNIVERSITY ENGLISH STUDENT
The few skateshops made us thing of business opportunity in Morocco, Meryem believes that the skateboarding communiy in Morocco needs more than the few named shops with believe there is a need for new brands and shops to enter the market. Also she notice yet that many skateboarders are now fleeing from skateboarding. Out of skateboarding Meryem is also a freelancer photographer and graphic designer. This has made her to leave a missionary life with skate gropus. Meryem also went to skateboarding mission and once she has visited Barcelona. She noticed the lack of sponsors to be a challenge! There are few sponsored skateboarders from Morocco who are working with local brands. For her local brands have a very long way to go, and in order to get further in a short time then getting international brands in Morocco is inevitable. Yet Meryem believes working to get a local brand to international level requires time and commitment. Speaking of street skateboarding, Amal Square appeals to be the hub for skateboarders in Morocco. May goes there to watch skateboarding and this has created a sound place yet the business around the square have not realised the benefits to invest into skateboarders and their lives. AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //20
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Meryem who is among lucky few she once travelled to France and Spain. This has made her thing skateboarding needs much in Morocco. In her time in Barcelona, she witnessed many girl skateboarders compared with situation in Morocco. Meryem mostly go skateboarding woth her boyfriend whom they met out of skateboarding and school. In her town there are other two girl skateboarders; Wafa Heboul and Faiza mouman. Meryememphasizes that thee is an important number of skateboarders and they are real good ones, all needs sponsors and get exposure into international skateboarding events. She acknowledge the skills demostrated by few of them including El Mehdi Anys who has been invited and attended the second Africa Skateboarding championships. Also there are need for many events in Morocco. L:ast time there was a good event past summer of which she couldn’t attend because of security reason for it was a night event and as a girl security is a big concern. She is thankful that Moroccan skateboarding scene has no segregation against female skateboarders. People are very surprised to see girls skateboarding in the city. Meryem welcomes many other girls into skateboarding, she says skateboarding is a tool that gives people confidence and freedom. It makes them to be powerful women!!!
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Felix Altréus @ Herrblykke Instagram
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MACK | PRO SKATEBOARDER TALK WITH ASD INTERVIEWED BY SEDRICK KIDIIMA
Hi Mack how are you ? Hi, I’m good, but missing the sun during the European winter. Africa has better weather for skating! Where do you live and when did you start skateboarding? I moved from Africa to Berlin, (the capital of Germany), when I was 13. Before I left Durban, East coast of South Africa the skateboard scene was going wild! I got my first Board when I was 11years old. It was a powell mini logo, bones bearings and great blank wheels that I skated for two years. How did you start skateboarding? I had played with boards before, like sitting down on the board and going down a hill, but the slow boards were from the toy-shop and I spent more time pushing the board than rolling. I would say it really started rolling when I was 11 and had a proper board. When you were a kid, what made you decide to skateboard? I actually wanted to go surfing, but my mom was worried I would drown and didn’t trust me to go to the beach on my own. She suggested I stay in the area and „play“ surfing with the skateboard. It was a great way to explore, play and meet new people while enjoying the outdoors. I had always seen that crazy things could be done on a skateboard, but I never thought I would learn any of that. Skating was and still is so difficult! I just wanted to have fun and learned really slowly. It took me 8 months before I even knew how to Ollie! Who were your favorite skaters growing and who are they now. I always liked the local hero! Guys that I saw were real. They would fall so many times and always get back up. That impressed me and motivated me more than the videos. But I did get lucky and received a 411VM tape for Christmas one year. The videos changed everything, because I saw „professional“ skateboarding on stuff I never dreamed of skating. I liked Steve Cabellero, Bob Burnquist, Ryan Sheckler, Brian Anderson etc. those were the stars back then. Now it’s Bastien Salabanzi, Chris Cole, Nyjah Huston and Elliot Sloan! What does a day in the life of a professional skater consist of? If you are a pro Skateboarder you have to be smart about your body and as fit as any other athlete. It’s important to live a healthy lifestyle, like eat healthy, keep active, stay away from drugs and be beneficial for the skateboarding community around you. That means helping the people starting out, working with local businesses and making sure you plan in enough time to try new tricks and keep doing the old ones to make them come easy. Those are the essentials, so any good day in the life of a professional skater will start solid with a good breakfast. Then I take care of the stuff that has to be done, like all the things that are not related to skating. Education and other work is important, no one can be a Professional for ever, so it’s important to further your options as a person, not just as a skateboarder. AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //28
That’s what makes you marketable and individual. What is your favorite trick? It’s not just the trick, but were you do it and when! I love doing a 50-50 on something that has never been skated before! I love the 360*Flip. Airs in the Ramp are the bomb, like Vert and Bowl riders have so much style! The best Tricks are always the ones that take forever to land… when you finally get it and everyone goes wild and throws a party for making it!!! :-D haha. For me that is what you are looking for in skateboarding. It’s special because of all the other riders you get to celebrate these unique moves with. When did you realize skating was becoming less of a hobby and more of a profession? When I started to go to other countries to skateboard, that’s when I noticed things were stepping up. Then getting Sponsors that were making it happen, and when I realized how much time I was investing into helping people sell and make products, organizing events, that’s when I realized one can do anything with skateboarding. There are no rules! It’s an artistic lifestyle. I realized sometimes you have to be less to be more, and I invested more time into skateboarding than anything else. Do you design your own decks too? Yeah, I make all the designs for the Graphics myself so far. But I am ready to feature other artists and develop new ideas for more graphics. Next stuff will be interesting. Photo Prints, new themes and other guys are already working with me. What are your favorite shoes for skating? I always ride Globe. The Eagle (David Gonzales) Pro Shoe is my favorite now. Would you like your own signature shoe? I would love to have a signature shoe! That would be outstanding!!!
It’s made by me with the help of people that also know a great deal about skateboarding. That’s the big difference… I choose the Deck Shapes, make sure they are laminated with epoxy-glue, try all the samples before I go into production. Is over a one man company ? There can only be one boss ;), but there are team riders, an advisor, some desingers and engineers that actually develop the factory production and friends that help a lot. Who inspired you to start up your our brand and what’s planned for over in the future I wanted to do more than just skate. I just want to keep developing and expanding. What is your say about skateboarding in Olympic 2020 Tokyo Japan ?do you think it’s a good idea or ? I think it’s a great idea! I mean, how would the olympics stay interesting without skateboarding? I just wonder how they are going to develop a fair Judging system? Like how do you say if a Backside Lipslide or a backside Nosegrind is harder/better? It will be interesting. At least it gives a lot of people a chance to represent their country, who otherwise might never see the lime light. Any last message to the people out there Take all the negative energy and turn it into shredding on your skateboard to keep you doing good. Get creative and make it happen. Good things don’t always come easy.
According to your Facebook profile it says you studied economics – not exactly the sort of thing you expect a pro skateboarder to be doing with their time? Yes, like I said, Education and further options are super important! Imagine you get injured, what you gonna do? Can’t sit around an cry about it… Keep busy! Any message out there to the young skaters who want to turn into pro Try to see the bigger picture and work your way into it! No body wants to build a skatepark by themselves and no one skates it alone! Try to work together, it works out better for everyone! We had some rumors from sedric kidiima that You now have your own board range (Over“) which you launched in 2014 is it true ? It’s not a rumor, I met Cedric and told him a bit about it. I started OVER in 2013! I’m super stoked about making skate-accessories. The Logo was the easy part. Making good quality skate equipment and distributing it, at a good price, that’s the hard part. What’s does the name over mean? Original Version Earns Respect I mean where did you get the idea for calling it over and what makes over different from other brands ? AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //29
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ASD: Natalie, if we are correct. Welcome to Africa Skateboarding Diary Interview. We are grateful to have you and thanks for your time. Will you give us details about who you are and your skateboarding? Natalie: Awesome to be able to this interview and honoured to be able to be featured in the africa skateboarding Diary.I am Natalie Bramley from kimberley South Africa. I use to be in the hostel when I was in high school and I was not allowed to skate there. So when I came home at the end of the month and during school holidays I would try to skate on a daily basis. I started skateboarding after my brother started and he had a great influence in my skateboarding, skated for 3 and a half years now ... started in 2013 ASD: How do you compare life before you started skateboarding! and now living as a skateboarder? Natalie: My life before skateboarding was so plain, and I didn’t take the risk to start skateboardign. Before skateboarding I used to be just a normal person, but skateboarding has given me an opportunity to live full ife and see things in different ways. I learnt how to be more creative and how sweet to be out of my comfort zones. ASD: So skateboarding gave you an opportunity into active life style. Have you influenced any of your friend to join skateboarding? Natalie: When I started skateboarding, I had a friend “Calista Van niekerk” but she later moved to Botswana and she still skateboarding there. I also influenced other girls into skateboarding, and I try as much as possible to help them to see how awesome skateboarding real is! ASD: What are challenges facing girl skateboarders when start skateboarding? Natalie: I was quite nervous skateboarding in the beginning and use to skate at the vert... ended up becoming really comfortable with ramps in that way. But the guys are always super supportive always try to help out where they can. ASD: How do u feel to be a girl skateboarder at a very young age? Natalie: Haha never really thought of that but I guess it was an awesome time for me as I learned how to skate but didn’t feel much different compare to the guys. They were always there to help me and had the same hype to learn something new. I guess girls are just afraid of falling and humiliating themselves infront of others when they start skateboarding. ASD: I think Damian did a great job as a brother and coach. So now we want to know, from your town Kimberley how many parks are there? and where do you like going skateboarding to?! Natalie: There were 2 skateparks; the kdc park and the church skatepark, unfortunately Church skatepark has recently been close. I like skating the kimberley park and when I’m in bloem the 29° skatepark. AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //32
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ASD: What is so special from skateboarding in ur lifetime since u started skating? Natalie: Skateboarding is a way I can express myself. Skateboarding gave me the opportunity to meet some of the coolest and most humble people. I met some really good friends through skateboarding that encourage me to do my best. I have had some rad memories through all the street sessions and tour. Skateboarding has made me see things in a different way which made me appreciate the smaller things in life. ASD: What else do you do apart from skating? Natalie: I’m at the moment working and about to study soon. Otherwise I try do filming missions around. ASD: What can you comment on South African skateboarding scene? Natalie: It is definitely growing.... skateboarding is becoming bigger, more and more girls are starting to get involve in South Africa. ASD: Who is the most female and male skateboarder do u really got inspired from in Africa? Natalie: Female skateboarders are Kelly Murray and shane jacobs male Skateboarders: horowits,trae rice, Khule those are only to name a couple. ASD: We know khule, and we have met him in 2015 and surely is one of the best we ever met. Thanks for your time, would like to send shoutouts to your sponsors! Natalie: Haha thanks for having me!! This was good
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Well we would like as well as our reader to hear about your background and self introduction!
a whole new level of skating. The chances of going pro are very high
I’m Ian Madekurozwa as you know, I am the first born in a family of 3 brothers. I started skating when I was about 13 years old..I got my first board when I was on a trip to Zimbabwe
Speaking of chances what are you referring to! how many skate events goes down in your town in a year?
So Zimbabwe is your skatebirth place, as a brother in your family. How has it affected your other family obligations? Yes Zimbabwe is my skate birth place. It hasn’t really affected my family obligations. My family is very supportive towards my skating So proud to have a supportive family always. Who gave you your first skateboard deck? My mum got me my first board in Zimbabwe That proves their support, well across years growing in Zambia and skateboarding what have you always noticed changing? Well the skate scene is always growing..There are more skateboarders all over the country than i could remember. I see guys posting clips from towns I didn’t even think knew what a skateboard is As an inspiring skateboarder under this ROAD TO PRO section, what are your views on pro skateboarding life and chances in Zambia? I feel becoming a pro skater here is very possible. Everyone here has the ambition and the skill to go pro and that’s what is taking us to AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //38
I’m referring to the opportunities we have. Like for instance last years KDC qualifier. well at the moment we have 3 skateboarding events in a year namely street culture. It happens 3 times a year. They are the ones that hosted last years Kimberley Diamond Cup qualifier which sadly didn’t happen but it showed us that we can go out there and represent our country in an international championship. and what about the Doyen Incarnation events? Well the Doyen competition is still a growing contest and I feel they could do better
My last contest was Back to school by Doyen SkateShop. I placed 2nd Great!!! With major brands in Africa, what is dream company to work with? I would love to work with Bun&Bunee Skateboards!!!!There skateboards are awesome. I am currently doing a tutorial series with them. So it’s pretty awesome. I would love to permanently work with them We wish you luck on that one!, well so is there anything you would like to tell us I would like to thank ASD for everything you guys are doing for the African Skate scene. You guys are doing a grew Job. we hope to see more contests in Africa and more companies investing into skateboarding
Being committed is a key to Pro life, how often do you skate? I make sure I skate as much as I can.. I skate all the time apart from Saturdays. I mostly just hang with friends on the weekends and chill out.. then back to skating during the week. Work hard play hard typa thing. I always strive to get better than I was the day before Are you sponsored? Well local contests I would put myself on the top 3. But skateboarding changes everyday. You never know who’s gonna pop up and take it. What are you standing from last event you attended? AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //39
Greetings African Skateboarding, we are Desart Crew. We started the crew about 2 years ago, however we just started filming about 1 year ago. We are a group of 12 featuring 10 skateboarders and 2 roller skaters, usually we skate at bay of Luanda, the place where we meet. We also share the same love for skateboarding and blade, most of us have a lot of difficulty to get material, the only skate shop is at Belas Shopping and it’s very expensive, so we help each other with what we have, like sneakers, bearings, boards, etc. By the way, we don´t have skate parks here in Angola, we skate by ourselves and the only thing we can do is in the streets. Skate in Angola is something new that´s why we need supporters. Desart Crew is about sharing Ideas, make music, create new vibes and the most important SKATE, Blade and have Fun. Words By Bruno Feijó, at Desart Crew.
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KBSC
KING BEACH SKATE CREW BY RIEYAAD SABAN
The King’s Beach Crew started like many others skate crews anywhere in the world, I would guess, just friends skating together. The one difference and something that has maybe made KBSC unique, is the fact that a middle aged dude who had not skated for 20 years and had no more friends his own age who were skating, was able to start and grow a more unified skate scene and crew in the city of Port Elizabeth (PE), South Africa. Late 2012 I started skating at the King’s Beach Bowl after work, during the week, because I was embarrassed to be trying to learn to skate again at 39 years of age, but this is where KBSC all started. The basketball courts area had been the centre of the skate scene in P.E. for many years and there was a great vibe there and that’s what kept me coming back every afternoon and soon it was weekends too. I was scared of being laughed at by the youngsters but that never happened, they were open to skating with me, giving me tips and advice and just hanging with the “OG”. Soon I started getting a few old school tricks back & kids were also starting to learning the no-complies I still had in the bag. AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //42
It was during this time that I had met some of the good skaters at King’s Beach and I started wondering if there were any pics or videos of these guys online. I searched online but did not find much and that’s when I decided to film the guys, so that at least they could see themselves skating in videos. I started the King’s Beach Skateboarding FB page in Feb 2013 and it started off with really poor quality pics and clips of the locals at the Bowl. Mark Stoutjesdyk, Yongama Mnyani, Jaundre Campher, Themba Jack and homeless kid ripper, Jay-Jay, these were the guys I had met first and the guys always at these evening sessions with me. I bought a cheap digital Sony video camera and we started filming lines and tricks at the Bowl (the basketball area), soon we were missioning to street spots filming whatever we could. I’d post crappy little clips and tried editing music into the videos and would post them on the KBS Facebook page. People started following the page and it slowly started growing. The new King’s Beach Skate Plaza was under construction and the news of the new park brought some new and old faces to the Bowl. I started meeting so many guys & taking more guys and different “crews” out on street missions and filming them, making more edits and posting footage as much as I could, thanks to a new Go Pro camera which I had managed to buy.
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Once the Plaza was completed and we started skating it, it brought a different dimension to P.E. skating. New and better tricks were getting laid down, guys were progressing much faster, new talents emerged, creative skating was developing and the filming and editing started progressing.
LIAM BROEK NOSEGRIND
There had always been different crews around and some did not get along with others which is quite normal in any social environment but I got along with probably everyone and tried to film everyone, so guys who never really skated together started skating with each other on street missions and in the park. While filming and waiting your turn, it teaches you patience and to support on another when struggling with a trick. Most guys have become friends and part of the KBS Family. Guys who had messed up attitudes, negative vibes or who were just plain dicks, quickly fizzled out and we are now left with the amazing bunch of guys we have in the crew. Some of our homies have left town or even the country but through social media they are still there, as part of our KBS crew. They know who they are. The younger guys are the ones without any hang ups, they just wanna skate & have fun. Talking nonsense, making fun of each other, chillin at a street spot eating cheap chips and drinking cheap cool drink, sharing whatever we have. It’s aswesome!The crew has really grown over the past couple of years, from just a handful of guys to about 40+ skaters from different backgrounds, cultures and religions. 2016 saw a lot happen for KBS and for individual guys in the crew. We ran our events, did collaborations with
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different people and guys even received sponsorships.
on the infamous Morgan Street 11 stair handrail and he got the opportunity on one crazy day we I have been organizing local spent with the guys from Trancontests for the guys and we have sworld Skate Mag, after the KDC 3 annual comps now. The Kings event in 2015. We had heard that of the Ledge, March this year, Go they were in P.E. and just wantSkate Day Contest and the Haled to see some pros skate, so we loween Night Jam in October. We jumped in my van and headed entered 7 videos in the Volcom to the park but found the guys Wild in the Parts contest, with filming in Central P.E. town area. our rider Dewald Von Waltzleben We went down and joined the coming in second and me taking guys but being very careful not to the Filmer prize, probably for hav- get in their way or distract them, ing done 7 edits. just trying to show some respect. Another highlight was an advert These guys were amazing though, we shot for Unicef, right here in they had respect for us as the Port Elizabeth, about 7 of us were locals and we spent the whole day in the advert as extras, with Ighskating with them. saan Murphy taking centre stage, having to intentionally bail down a Brain Delatore was attempting 5-0 6 set for about 2 hours straight, for on the Morgan Street rail on his the advert. own and I could see that Dewald was thinking about going for the Session Skate Magazine in S.A. 5050. It was the perfect moment. contacted us and invited us to do a A pro skating and filming in our crew feature in their mag. We did city and a young local with the not have any photos or a phoballs to go skate a rail with him, tographer, as I had now just had that they’ve both never attempted the Go Pro which I was filming before, epic! The run-up and landon. Ryan Claasen stepped in as ing is sketchy and the gap between our photographer, thanks to his rail and wall is quite narrow. wife allowing him to use one of Brian took a couple run-ups and her cameras. We had a deadline then hit the 5050 as his warm-up. and the guys all pulled together Damn! Dewald just stood at the to get some photos done for the run-up spot with him. The Brain article. It was like a dream for started attempting the 5-0 and most of us. I filmed & Ryan got Dewald started taking his run-ups the pictures. We’d post some of towards the rail. It was amazing to the stuff on Instagram but tried to see the two of them encouraging keep the good stuff for the mageach other and at the same time azine feature. It was a whole lot weird for us watching, this unof fun, acting as if we’re pros! We known local skating this rail with even had our own little premier a pro skater. But on they went. of our video when the magazine Dewald got used to the run-up he came out in P.E. Video is called went for his first attempt and took Outlands and still up on Session’s a bit of a bail, no too bad, he was webpage. fine after that and committed to it. Brain got his 5-0 after a few tries During the filming of our Outand everyone went crazy. Pressure lands video Dewald had decided for Dewald, you rolls up a couple that he wanted to attempt a 5050 times again and then just goes for it, gets on the rail perfectly, AFRICASKATEBOARDINGDIARY.COM //45
lands but unfortunately snaps the tail. It’s been a long day and a couple heavy bails later and it’s decided to come back to the Morgan Street rail another day. That day came a few weeks later, when we were invited by a group of “Creative”, artists, designers & photographers from Colours of You SA to join them in an Instagram shoot around P.E.’s Central Town area. It was a fun day with colour smoke bombs filling the air, photographers everywhere and about 7 of the KBS crew just skating around, bombing hills, hitting ledges, stairs and whatever we could. We eventually got down to Morgan Street and I told Dewald that today was the day, we had a crowd, we had photographers and guys from the crew for support. He didn’t think twice about attempting the rail and it took only 3 tries before Dewald was perfectly locked into 5050, nailed the landing and rolled away down the hill with the crew running, screaming and throwing boards and confetti into the air, behind him. It was too sick! All our guys seem to be going harder since that day…which is great! Street missions are the order of the day. Jumping in the van, looking for new spots and figuring out what new tricks they can bust out. We’ve stacked a few clips but we’re still early in the process of shooting the new KBS video as last December was just about having fun at King’s Beach, enjoying the sun, sea and sand. Taking the boys to try surfing, playing volleyball and then skating the park.
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Just good summer vibes. Oh yeah, we found this insane empty pool late November last year and December started with a bang, skating this crazy fun pool! We’ve just had a successful event this past weekend, The King’s Beach Summer Festival, which includes a basketball tournament and a skate competition. I was Contest Director for the competition and assisted by Rejaun Van Der Riet from Madibas Youngbloodz Skate Academy and Danny Wiiliams (Music and DJ) with organising the event. The skate competition was amazing, with the kids going all out for prizes sponsored by Element South Africa. Ighsaan Murphy took the top prize as Open and Overall event winner. Thanks to our other event sponsors on the day, the Mandela Bay Development Agency, Madibas Youngbloodz Skate Academy, Water Fountain S.A. and Okabashi EPDM Rubber Waterproofing, who sponsored some cool medals and trophies for the winners and Red Bull ZA. We’re planning the same event for December this year and it’s going to be even bigger and better. Stay tuned! We’ve been doing trips to KDC every years but that’s out the window now, so last year we had a weekend trip to East London and skated a competition hosted by Johno’s Skate Shop at Johno’s park there, so much fun! Like I said earlier, the crew are pushing themselves to skate harder; we have our new video in progress, which has to be better than the Outlands video. Hopefully we’ll be doing a few more trips out of P.E. this year and filming everything! Plus still some events on the way for this year.
Will take some time and hard work but we’ll get there. At the end of the day, we all love skateboarding and we all just want to be able to skate with our homies, that’s’ what it’s always been about and that’s what it will be, till the end. Peace and Love to all our skateboarding brothers! Rieyaad Saban Founder King’s Beach Skateboarding @kingsbeachsk8crew +27 79 700 9054 ironman.rieyaad@gmail.co.za
Tamara Skateshop was started in 2004 by Ali Thamara, a Moroccan Skateboarding Activist, and Surf Guru. The shop started with small stock and a blog that counting all the products imported from France mustly from a small brand in Lyon called Doble skateboards. To promote his shop Ali invited Doble Skateboards team to come to Morocco in 2007 and since then that was the big bang after their edit went out with some local skaters and bunch of virgin spots. Since then european teams were visiting morocco like Woooow Such as element, vans and Gopro The spots aren’t virgins anymore even the desert was skated!
We would like to see all skateboarders here are united and they work together. With all the skateboarding association here united we will be able to start a national Federation and promote skateboarding in the country. This initiatives shall prepare Moroccan skateboarders for Olympics and to benefit skateboarders. Thats will also be a bonus for my shop and who know i can be an African distributors inshallah. Thanks a lot Africa Skateboarding Diary for this!!!
Tamara sho started with10 decks in stock. Today it imports over 400 decks per year. Also we are trying to sponsor some events and kids too , even if its not easy to satisfy everyone. Since 2010 in agadir, we opened the real store and do distribution to other shops in few cities. Some of my riders went even attened worldwide like participating in international contests as KDC in south Africa ,WSC in cheque République and Austria. Our dream is to see the Moroccan skateboarding scene grows bigger.
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Our Distributors STONE DISTRIBUTION 91 287 62 82 http://stoneskateboards.com/ stone@stoneskateboards.com Stone Skateboards SL FOR: SPAIN MIKOLJA Locals Skateboards Manufacture FOR: POLAND, CZECH, SLOVAKIA, GERMANY, LITVIA, FINLAND localsskateboards@o2.pl BEN we.gnassis@gmail.com FOR: BELGIUM John Peter Dadson Art Director Disk Jockey Sound Engineer +233241979191 jpdadson.com FOR: GHANA ALL VIEWERS CHECK ONLINE ON LINK BELOW https://issuu.com/africaskateboardingdiary
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