20 October 2023, Issue 1182
Real-life learning Six-year-old Thea Wanden, pictured, is a protégé of Girls Skate New Zealand – an Auckland outfit “empowering girls through skateboarding, boosting confidence, mental toughness and physical health”. So an education on wheels.
She and sister Quinn are from Tirau, but three or four times a week they travel 70km across the Kaimai Range to do what they love most at the new Pāpāmoa skate park at Gordon Spratt Reserve on Parton Rd. Mum Jessica says the girls are home-
schooled. “So we look to educate them as much as possible through real life experiences.” And that can involve perching on the steep edge of a skateboard bowl and ‘dropping in’ – face-first towards the concrete.
There’s no lack of faith – Thea wears a helmet but knee and elbow pads are neither cool nor comfortable. The story of the skateboarding Wanden girls is on page 16-17. Photo: John Borren.