The Dili Skatepark Interview: Grey Skate Mag

Fantastic longform interview/article by Jono Coote over at Grey Skate Mag. Whilst we have some information on the site here, including the skate park plans, this article goes into more detail and is a great way to understand a bit more about why we’re trying to build a new skatepark in Dili.

The article interviews our faithful president, Nick, our genius designer, Wade, and skate fundraiser/legend/all round good person Kirby from Decks for Change.

Highly recommended reading!

Wade’s recent Mozambique builds

Wade (one of our team members) recently returned from Maputo, Mozambique where he assisted in delivering two skate parks. Working with the local Maputo Skate and Association Skate of Mozambique organizations the projects were completed in collaboration with the international NGO Skate World Better and Wonders around the World, with funding donated from around the world. Most importantly, a team of locals and international volunteers were on site everyday to finish the parks from ordering materials, earthworks, concreting to ‘testing’ in 4 weeks. The parks (Maxaquene and Khongolote) are a mix of transition and street with elements ranging from beginners to more advanced, to ensure it caters for all. No doubt there will be some ripping locals (i.e. feeble grind down rails using the bottom of a quarter pipe as your run in!) whether its on their numerous transitions/banks, ledges and/or rails. As with any of these projects delivered in developing countries there were setbacks i.e. local bureaucracy, lack of supplies to mildly hot conditions! Nothing that the team of experienced builders who’ve worked on other similar projects (i.e. Iraq, Palestine, Morocco etc…) hasn’t experienced before. Several of this experienced build crew form part of the Timor team. More photos of the build on Wade’s photography site – https://sevenbythree.com/space/skate-park-maputo-mozambique

Globe International donations delivered

Just had a great afternoon chatting and skating with the locals, and plotting some more fundraising efforts with our local partners, Ba Futuru. The highlight was seeing eyes light up at the brand new set-ups donated by the kind people at Globe International, and how smoothly the kids rolled around the cracks on their new rides!

Decks for Change fundraiser

Kudos to Decks for Change and a crew of amazing artists (Claudia Garde! Sebo Walker! Heaps of other legends!) for a fantastic event, bringing awareness and funds for the Dili skatepark rebuild as well as continued support for the Suli skatepark in Iraq.

Head over to Decks for Change to learn about their upcoming events, maybe snag yourself an amazing piece of art while helping support skateboarding world wide.

Check out event coverage and plenty more photos at Slam Magazine here.

Timor Skate featured in Jakarta Post

Thrilled to be featured in the Jakarta Post this week, celebrating the Dili skaters’ efforts to build their own skateboarding community, and our efforts to support them.

It would give the already passionate and skilled skaters a place to further their craft and strengthen a culture embodied by freedom, creativity and a do-it-yourself attitude – something they are very much looking forward to.

It’s fantastic to get any additional press, and to have such a lovely article highlighting the aims of Timor Skate is really gratifying. Many thanks to Connor Foley and the Jakarta Post.

The full article is certainly worth a read, and can be found here: Full article.

Park design shown to Dili locals

Back again, with some impressively large print-outs of the design! Despite a mishap with our interpreter, through broken Tetum and English and liberal amounts of acting out skateboarding on imaginary features we all made sense of the design.

Exciting to see how excited the locals were by the plan.

My laziness with the camera doesn’t do it justice, but we got rather distracted by talking and skating.

With the design given the local stamp of approval, we’re ramping up fundraising efforts in earnest.

Park designer Wade visits Dili

So lucky to be back so soon after the last visit, and to introduce Wade to the local skaters. We again dropped off a bunch of gear, but more importantly spent a few hours talking about what they would like to see in a new park, aided by examples of some of Wade’s earlier projects.

Wade examined the land from every angle, watched the skaters in action, and started testing design ideas with the enthusiastic local crew. Next job is to shape up the design, and the all-important costing.

Helmet donation and skating

Amazing first visit back to the Dili skatepark since Timor Skate officially formed! Dropped off a stack of helmets donated by the legends at Globe Industries (many thanks to Mark Godfrey for arranging them), and skated with the locals till we could no longer see our griptape in the darkness. Given the brutal daytime heat, the evening’s the best time for a skate, and every minute of light is well used.

I was a little lazy with the camera so only captured the older crew, but was psyched to see so many young girls and boys making the most of the current park. Can only imagine how much a new park will strengthen their already established skate community, and what an asset it will be for Ba Futuru, the fantastic neighbouring youth-focussed NGO.