How Skateistan gave skateboarding a mission for change

Skaters have had many faces: from Cal­i­for­nia-drought delin­quents to Olympic Gold medal­ists, fash­ion icons to aca­d­e­mics. Over the past 60-odd years this sub­cul­ture has bro­ken the mould again and again. But today, with the help of glob­al non-prof­its like Skateis­tan (and ambas­sadors like Tony Hawk), a new sto­ry is being told. Skate­board­ing is becom­ing a move­ment for change.

The world of skate­board­ing looked very dif­fer­ent back in 2007, when Skateis­tan began. Skate­board­ing was embed­ding itself with­in the cul­tur­al main­stream, with the release of EA’s skate. and Nike SB’s first video ​‘Noth­ing But The Truth.’ Mon­ey was stream­ing into the indus­try and every­body want­ed a piece.

Unsur­pris­ing­ly, that mon­ey wasn’t very even­ly dis­trib­uted. The progress skate­board­ing has seen since, in terms of issues of iden­ti­ty and equal­i­ty was in its infan­cy. And the ​‘social skate sec­tor,’ as it’s today known, did not exist. Skate­board­ing was first-and-fore­most a boy’s club, its rep­u­ta­tion as a place for the out­casts of soci­ety quick­ly waning.

Mean­while, in a dis­used foun­tain in Kab­ul, Afghanistan, Oliv­er Per­covich was run­ning around try­ing to get his skate­board back from the local girls and boys who would repeat­ed­ly pinch it from him and demand lessons. Upon find­ing this ​“toy” in their com­mu­ni­ty, these kids were plant­i­ng the seeds of an entire­ly new, alter­nate image of skate­board­ing: as a tool for edu­ca­tion and empowerment.

The phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal ben­e­fits skate­board­ers had been expe­ri­enc­ing since the Six­ties were sud­den­ly cast in a new light. As Skateis­tan grew – open­ing edu­ca­tion and skate facil­i­ties in three loca­tions across Afghanistan, as well as in South Africa and Cam­bo­dia – more organ­i­sa­tions began to pop-up around the world, too. A lin­eage of sorts began, with vol­un­teers at projects like SkatePal, going on to found their own projects, such as Free Move­ment Skate­board­ing, and so it went from Cuba to Kenya, Bangladesh to Brazil.

Over the decade that fol­lowed, Skateis­tan grew to reach thou­sands of chil­dren every year at its schools, offer­ing skate­board­ing and cre­ative learn­ing for girls and boys who need­ed it. But the broad­er ​‘social skate sec­tor’ was grow­ing faster and fur­ther than any one char­i­ty could have imag­ined. Thanks to celebri­ty ambas­sadors like Tony Hawk, as well as the work of cul­tur­al advo­cates (Mimi Knoop, Kim Woozy, Nef­tal­ie Williams, the list goes on), main­stream skate cul­ture was begin­ning to shift across the board.

This was a ​“new wave” of skate­board­ing. The com­mu­ni­ty-led approach to start­ing new projects proved that indi­vid­u­als want­ed to work togeth­er to ​“spread the shred,” and as rep­re­sen­ta­tion grew for women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, new alliances were born between fringe and main­stream actors. Push­ing Board­ers and sim­i­lar net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties saw uni­ty on a scale nev­er before seen, with speak­ers com­ing from all over the world. Skaters were once again break­ing the mould of what their cul­ture could be.

In 2018, with the glob­al skate­board­ing com­mu­ni­ty now in con­tact like nev­er before, ques­tions were being asked about how con­ver­sa­tion could trans­late into ​‘action’. Enter The Good­push Alliance, start­ed in 2018 as a free plat­form cre­at­ed by Skateis­tan to unite the glob­al net­work of social skate projects and volunteers.

Just one of many enter­pris­es chan­nelling skateboarding’s new­found thirst for progress, Skateistan’s The Good­push aimed to change how the grow­ing social skate sec­tor com­mu­ni­cat­ed and act­ed, through demo­c­ra­t­ic and inclu­sive prac­tices. Five years on, The Good­push has over 800 reg­is­tered mem­bers from every con­ti­nent (except Antarc­ti­ca, for now), and offers resources and grants for projects work­ing in spe­cif­ic areas, like LGBTQ+ rep­re­sen­ta­tion, racial equal­i­ty and migrant support. 

In 2020, the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic hit in ter­ri­ble uni­son with anoth­er seri­ous chal­lenge for Skateis­tan, its staff and stu­dents: the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. With huge changes in its oper­a­tions, espe­cial­ly across Afghanistan, Skateis­tan took a hit and had to adapt. But, as the stu­dents in their pro­grammes show every day, falling breeds true resilience. This was an oppor­tu­ni­ty for new learn­ings, new part­ner­ships and a new chapter. 

“The Good­push was a grow­ing part of our work back in 2020, and it was show­ing us the pow­er of col­lec­tive impact across the sec­tor,” says Hala Kha­laf, Co-Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Skateis­tan. ​“With the lim­i­ta­tions mount­ing on our schools dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, and in Afghanistan after the gov­ern­men­tal change, we focused more than ever on expand­ing to new loca­tions.” So began ​‘Skateis­tan In A Box’ (SIAB).

SIAB was a new way for Skateis­tan to part­ner with exist­ing organ­i­sa­tions in new loca­tions, sup­port­ing them with fund­ing, syl­labus­es, net­work­ing and equip­ment. Today, SIAB exists in har­mo­ny with the schools and Good­push, rather than instead of. But with grow­ing needs across migrant com­mu­ni­ties, as well as risks placed on young peo­ple by cli­mate change and con­flict, SIAB offers a diverse range of safe spaces where chil­dren can learn, play and shape their futures in oth­er­wise uncer­tain contexts.

It’s 2023 and many are call­ing this the time of poly-cri­sis. For the mil­lions of young peo­ple exist­ing at the inter­sec­tion of war, envi­ron­men­tal col­lapse and inequal­i­ty, oppor­tu­ni­ties for edu­ca­tion are scarce and play is, at best, a lux­u­ry. Many chil­dren can’t just be chil­dren anymore. 

Con­cur­rent crises demand uni­fied action. That’s the bot­tom-line of Skateistan’s new cam­paign, launched this week with the help of long-time Skateis­tan advo­cate Tony Hawk. 15+ years of exper­tise, 20+ pro­gram loca­tions and a net­work of over 800 social skate projects are the engine behind this glob­al move­ment for change. Dubbed The World On Board, this alliance is stronger than ever, thanks to the con­nec­tions that skate­board­ing has fos­tered over the past two decades. 

Huck has sup­port­ed Skateis­tan, as well as count­less oth­er ini­tia­tives in skateboarding’s ​“new wave,” for years now. But Skateistan’s The World On Board aims to show that the true face of a skater is not the rebel or the medal­ist, nei­ther the icon nor the aca­d­e­m­ic, but all of these indi­vid­ual iden­ti­ties unit­ing as one, in an inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and a sin­gle call. 

So, with the NGO already well on their way to a $1,000,000 goal by the end of the year, allow­ing them to reach 10,000 month­ly par­tic­i­pa­tions across 50 coun­tries by 2027, this is a call for uni­ty. A call for peo­ple every­where, skaters and non-skaters alike, to join the move­ment to give chil­dren what they need to just be children.

You can donate to and sup­port The World On Board over at Skateis­tan.

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