Dropping in at Lahore’s first ever public skatepark

Pakistan does a few things like no other country: cricket, Chaunsa mangos, and beautiful Islamic architecture, from the beloved Badshahi Mosque to the majestic Lal Masjid. As a teenager, I felt a timelessness in Pakistan; life there felt simultaneously old school, but ever modernising. You come to expect blazing hot days, zipping through bazaars on the back of tuktuk and picking out moreish street food to try. So, when collecting football shirts and picking out salwar kameezes no longer passed the time in Jhelum, I began to wonder about skate culture in a country where most people would ride-or-die for their national cricket, hockey or football teams. 

Maybe it was the endless hours I spent playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 or the curiosity of what skate culture with a South Asian (Mc)Twist could look like, but, back then, most people either didn’t know the sport or claimed it couldn’t compare to the buzz of cricket or kabaddi. Nowadays, though, Gen Z are rewriting Pakistan’s cultural image, and skateboarding is central to it. Qasim Sharif, a co-founder of Skate Pakistan, first started skating when he was 15, inspired by his older brother. Pulling together a group of friends and self-taught skaters, Skate Pakistan was launched online in 2010, first on Facebook and later on Instagram in 2021 as a space to connect like-minded fans of the culture. ​“A lot of people feel skateboarding is not a proper sport, or that it would destroy the landscape, but they didn’t really understand what skateboarding is – it’s an art. It’s more than people being rebellious or punks,” Qasim explains, calling from Islamabad. 

As Skate Pakistan gained more momentum and connected with young audiences online, the team were approached by the Los Angeles non-profit Salad Days of Skateboarding. ​“In 2022, the Salad Days crew planned their first trip to Lahore, met me and scoped out the area,” Qasim adds. Skate Pakistan set up meetings with Pakistan’s local government, eagerly broaching the idea of building the country’s first free skatepark. In 2023, the brand new space, fitted with quarterpipes, rails and ledges, was constructed in the heart of Lahore. ​“We hold skate sessions every week. Kids who are not very well off have found a new purpose in their lives, or they come to skate which makes them feel alive. We also have art classes,” he adds. ​“We try to mix a lot of different things with skateboarding because it’s a community. You make a bunch of friends and everyone cares for each other. We’re always open to the idea of anybody just turning up, even passersby!”

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Now, with over 7,400 followers, Skate Pakistan has transformed from a DIY enthusiasts page to an online hub for skate lovers and newbies seeking out mentorship and intercommunity. They even hand out free, fully kitted out decks for people to use during their session. With their platform blowing up online, Nestor Judkins, the founder of Salad Days of Skateboarding, spotted the account on social media and saw an opportunity for collaboration. A former pro skater from California, Nestor found himself facing a change in purpose. No longer wanting to indulge in personal travelling, he decided to use his platform and resources to help like-minded upcoming skaters. 

“I founded Salad Days in 2020. Being a pro skater, I have had access to too much free skate equipment and the ability to travel with expenses paid for over 20 years,” Nestor says. The skater started declining sponsored trips and the responsibility of creating content; instead, deciding to kickflip his business model. ​“Around 2018, I made the conscious decision that I no longer wanted to use my resources as a pro skater to benefit myself, and would rather use these resources of travel and free equipment to go to places where skaters exist but lack resources to skate,” he reflects. While a relatively new non-profit, Judkins set up Salad Days’ first major project: working with local skaters in three different cities in Pakistan. ​“We made contact in 2020 to skaters in Lahore, Islamabad, and Hyderabad. At the time, there were very few skaters and no access to skate equipment,” he says. 

After deciding to visit Skate Pakistan co-founder Shaihan Hassan in 2022, their blue sky skatepark plans started to fall into place. ​“I had never imagined building a skatepark until Wonders Around the World (WAW, a French NGO who build skateparks globally for social skate projects) contacted me a few months before my first trip to Pakistan,” Nestor reveals. ​“With Skate Pakistan co-founder Shaihan, Salad Days set up meetings with the Lahore Parks Department to pitch the idea of a skatepark that would be a joint effort, fully funded and constructed by Salad Days, WAW and locally managed by Skate Pakistan, holding weekly free skate workshops for the youth, and community events.” 

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Over the next year, Salad Days, WAW, and Skate Pakistan pulled together a strategy to get the skatepark fixed. However, things quickly got derailed when the Punjab government collapsed in 2022. To make matters worse, the head of the parks department, which Salad Days, Wonders Around the World and Skate Pakistan, required sign off from, was swapped out. As a result, all the non-profit’s backup money and their 20 volunteers’ situations were placed in jeopardy in early 2023. But, with everything on the line, Nestor, Skate Pakistan and WAW pushed on, soon receiving a permit and permission to build the park in Lahore. They were relieved, with Skate Pakistan co-founder Shaihan Hassan anticipating pushback and the prospect of ​“navigating the Pakistani bureaucracy”, but he admits that the crew ​“got lucky”.

It’s a monumental achievement. Set in the city centre’s Bagh-e-Jinnah botanical gardens, it’s an idyllic, accessible space. ​“The most rewarding aspect of having gotten the skatepark built was that we actually insisted on getting the skatepark built right at the centre of the city, Lahore Central Park, and is open and accessible to everyone,” he says proudly. With the new skatepark opening, Skate Pakistan has been able to adapt from being a digital safe haven to a real-life support network for all ages. They have even created two digital pages to showcase their growth for both Lahore and Islamabad. ​“A lot of very young children from underprivileged communities are joining and getting very comfortably integrated into the skateboarding community,” Shaihan explains. ​“The rest of the skateboarding community contributed in mentoring these kids into not just becoming good skateboarders and well-versed in the culture, but also better at their educational pursuits, improving their overall mental health.”

You might wonder why it’s taken until 2026 for Lahore, with a population of over 15 million citizens, to unveil its first-ever free skatepark. Well, the reality is: skateboarding isn’t accessible to everyone. A skateboard can cost north of 1,000 rupees (£2.65 GBP) in Pakistan, which might not be a steep figure in the UK, but is costly for the everyday working-class person in Lahore, especially those living on the poverty line. Sports like cricket are comparatively much more accessible and affordable. I remember stories from my dad (born and raised in Pakistan) of how he and his friends would share cricket bats, kit and equipment at school in the ​’70s. There, you didn’t need to have your own gear to be part of a sport. Skateboarding, however, can be costly: a deck, trucks, grip tape, and a helmet can add up. Today, Pakistan has a national women’s cricket team and field hockey team. But, skateboarding remains a rather gendered sport. You have to look long and hard to find young girls and women picking up a board, but Qasim says the trend is shifting. ​“I would say [the sessions], mostly, had younger people and between the ages of 16 to early 20s: ​“Initially, it was all boys – you wouldn’t find one girl skateboarder! But, slowly [the sessions] have opened up, and now you get female boarders as well.” It might take time, but Skate Pakistan is creating necessary inroads to spotlight the sport of skateboarding – and they are bringing people from all backgrounds along with them.

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The group’s progress feels pivotal for Pakistani communities, especially for younger generations. With young boys and girls signing up, Shaihan feels the page and programme has become a real, tangible space to bring education, exercise and a sense of local companionship to some of Pakistan’s biggest cities. ​“One of the primary reasons that motivated me to bring skateboarding to Pakistan was actually the community aspect,” Shaihan shares. ​“Growing up abroad, I was part of skateboarding communities, and I definitely felt that it was one of the most inclusive and diverse and non-judgmental, non-discriminatory, and creative communities I could find.”

As for what’s next, Skate Pakistan might’ve got Lahore’s skatepark running, but the planning hasn’t stopped there. Nestor, Shaihan and Qasim have already set their sights on Karachi to build another skatepark. ​“Pakistan was our first big project and has also been the most successful project. I hope to recreate this or aspects of what we accomplished working with Skate Pakistan into all the places Salad Days operates,” Nestor says. His crew are currently working with local skate community leaders in Guatemala and Bhutan, while he is also putting plans into place in Native America (Lakota and Navajo Nations).

For Qasim and Shaihan, the success in carving out a physical and cultural presence for skateboarding cannot be understated. The duo are eager to replicate the blueprint success of the Lahore skatepark in other cities and help create long-lasting infrastructure within the country, while proving that skateboarding can be a sport as beloved as cricket, and even see Pakistani representation on the global stage. ​“Now we are working with different international and local NGOs to bring skateboarding and co-curricular educational programs to the underserved communities,” Shaihan shares. ​“Finally, we are definitely working on building Skate Pakistan into a leading authority on skateboarding as a sport – locally and internationally.” 

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Follow Skate Pakistan on Instagram.

Z. Raza-Sheikh is a freelance journalist. See more of their work on their website.

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