skateboarding

Back in 2022, I wrote a blog post titled Canberra needs new skateparks, skate spaces, and a skateboarding + skatepark strategy, highlighting my love for Canberra’s skateboarding scene and why we desperately need new skateparks. A lot has happened since then. While we’ve kept updates flowing through Canberra Skateboarding Association’s social media, I figured it’s time to take a pause as we step into 2025, summarize everything in a new personal blog post, and share some personal insights....

Canberra has always had a great skateboarding scene. We host one of Australia’s more significant annual weekend skateboarding events, Belco Bowl Jam and the other festivities around it: We also regularly have free “Learn to Skateboard” sessions at a grassroots volunteer level at local skateparks: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Canberra Skateboarding Association (@canberraskateboarding) Local skaters consistently produce awesome skate videos ( See @ParliamentaryZone or @VXPals on Instagram )....

I’ve always felt drawn to the ethos of both Skateboarding and Open Source software. When Rodney Mullen did his TED talk a few years ago, he touched on similarities between the two when he compared skateboarders to Linux kernel hackers. Since then, I’ve pondered about all the other common ground between the two. Community Skateboarding and Open Source both thrive when people come together and collaborate. Linus Torvalds was a student who was tired of paying for UNIX, so he started writing a free operating system as a DIY hobby while releasing the source code to the community....

Sometimes tricks happen or unlikely spots get skated that are so ridiculous that it probably won’t ever happen again. Here’s a few old clips from local Canberra spots and parks that still blow my mind when I watch them. Grant Taylor - Scrivener Dam Drop-in Source: Grant Taylors “Nike SB Chronicles Unplugged” part https://youtu.be/GsdAArPhckg No footage or photo can do really do this spot justice. The dam is huge and before this happened a lot of people wondered if a drop-in was even possible....

UPDATE: This post was written 7+ years ago and a LOT has changed. TAMS is now TCCS. The old CSA website doesn’t exist anymore. I’m keeping this up for historical purposes, but I’m also writing some newer content soon. I’ve tidied up some formatting but kept this post content unchanged. In my town (Canberra, Australia) we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to skate facilities. Belconnen is the biggest park in the southern hemisphere and five of our parks have lights that operate every night....