The driving force behind the promotion of wheeled sports in east Auckland wants to hear from anyone who can offer local riders a safe place to practice their moves.
East Skate Club founder Aaron Martin is working to improve the facilities available to skateboarders and scooter riders in the local community.
For the past six months he’s leased a small unit in Highland Park that’s housed skate ramps and obstacles for local youth to use and enjoy, and to socialise and meet new people.
The lease on the property expires on March 2 and Martin is putting a call out to the community for suitable spaces that could replace the existing location.
“These ramps were [previously] at our local skatepark in Lloyd Elsmore Park, however the council removed them due to an apparent health and safety hazard,” Martin says.
“There are no beginner ramps for people to learn wheeled sports in our local area, and our lease expires on March 2, when we will have nowhere to store our equipment and the owner is not willing to extend our lease agreement.
“We’ve been on the waiting list for more than 12 months with Auckland Council’s leasing team, with no empty council buildings, and no support toward the possibility of using flat, unused concrete car parks that are common across our local ward.”
Martin says a large number of local youngsters and their families come together to enjoy wheeled sports in east Auckland.
“With more than 1000 members from within our community, we’re desperate to keep our people off devices and out doing exercise the fun way, progressing at their own pace and not having the competitiveness other ‘traditional’ sports have.”
People who may have a suitable space in the community for Martin’s young skaters to use can phone him on 020 414 58907 or email aaron@eastskate.co.nz.
