Skateboarding support three times a week

Local youth charity Sk8 it 4ward has secured funding from CLM Community Sport Counties Manukau to extend its ‘custodian sessions’ every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at Waiuku’s skate facility at Massey Park.

The charity formed as a result of Bella Payne and Sienna Newbury’s love for skateboarding, and their recognition that many underprivileged kids do it tough.

Bella’s mum, Shontelle Thomson, said her daughter picked up a skateboard as a result of lockdown boredom, and never put it down.

Bella and Sienna—already a keen skateboarder—tried out various skate parks around Franklin. Shontelle said, “The girls noticed how bad the poverty was, and wanted to help.”

Both Shontelle and Sienna’s mum Louise, along with the girls’ dads and siblings, now form the Sk8 it 4ward team in support of the girls’ initiative.

Friends since they were toddlers, the 13 year-olds recognised how helpful skateboarding could be in encouraging and supporting atrisk and underprivileged youth.

“People don’t realise what skateboarding can do for a child,” said Shontelle. “There’s something about the feeling of freedom they get… it can challenge you so much, to the point you’re just about to

BY TIFFANY BROWN

give up… and then there’s almost a natural high when you land a trick. They get so much perseverance from it. I didn’t realise myself until Bella started skateboarding.”

Kids from violent homes have described the feeling of refusing to let the skateboard beat them. Instead, they will think to themselves: ‘I’ve been through worse than this.’

Sometimes skateboarding is viewed in a negative light, but Shontelle said the people who ‘hang around at a skate park’ are not the same as those who skate, and that all the skateboarding families they’ve interacted with around Franklin have been very supportive. Sk8 it 4ward’s thrice-weekly sessions have helped to bring a positive change at the Waiuku skate park. “The regular custodian sessions have really changed the vibe. There are not a lot of youths hanging around anymore. Now the park is full of skaters and scooters.”

Bella and Sienna give lessons to kids who are keen to give skateboarding a try, and thanks to the CLM funding the team will also provide skate gear and food for the rest of this school term.

The girls and their supporters have plans to run a regular youth group, and provide skateboarding lessons at View Road School.