The skateboard enthusiasts in Goa must be on cloud nine with the news of the skateboarding park at the Youth Hostel in Miramar, an initiative of young skateboarders from Goa. These youngsters now take skating classes at the park for children from the age of 4. NT KURIOCITY gets more details
RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT KURIOCITY
It is quite an irony that even though the first skateboarding park of India was built in Goa around the year 2003, not many are aware about the sport or the skateboarding parks at the Anjuna-Vagator Junction, Morjim and in Assagao, however it is not open to public anymore. The skateboarding community in Goa has about 15 active members comprising of students, working people; and Anveer Mehta, Samuel Ferreira and Vaibhav Rasam take skateboarding classes through the week.
Anveer from Caranzalem has always been in love with the outdoors and has been skateboarding for about four years now. Working with a nonprofit in rural Madhya Pradesh, he moved back to Goa seven months ago. He says: “Skateboarding is a sport that is totally new to India, in Goa we have been skating for about three to four years. There is a skating community outside Goa in a lot of cities like Bangalore, Ahmadabad and Pune.”
He adds that when they started skateboarding they were just about three to four people but today there are about 15 or more. When they have a skate jam on Sundays every one shows up, but on a random day there are always at least four to five skateboarders. Their long term goal is to make skateboarding a popular sport just like football in Goa. “When people see us skating on the road their reactions are like ‘you’ll are so stupid’, ‘falling down all the time’, ‘hurting yourself’, ‘why do you do it’ but that can happen anyway, for example: you fall while riding a bicycle, playing football or whatsoever,” says Anveer.
On the national scale they are also trying to work things out, probably get a committee in place, and get representation. Speaking about the sport, Anveer says that skateboarding is not something that everyone will enjoy, you have to be a little outdoorsy, ready to fall, bleed a little and be rough. He adds: “It is not something that everyone can come and try, you have to want it or if you have already been inclined into sports.” Anveer believes that skateboarding is very community-driven also.
The age group for classes is 4 to 40; the youngest student they had was four and a half years old and the oldest was in the late 30’s. But most of the children are below standard 8.
The initiative of building the park wasn’t a one-person’s-job. When they got space from the Youth Hostel, Miramar, Vaibhav looked into getting the funds from Vans, the international footwear brand; Anveer looked into the construction; Samuel and Porvorim-based artist Shreya Bora took care of painting the ramp.
Speaking about the two types of skateboarding, Anveer says there is ‘street skateboarding’ and ‘transition’. The street skateboarding emerged out of no infrastructure, when one had to skateboard on what is available; skateboard on roads, may be jump over gutters or stairs. He adds: “Transition was started in America as people would skateboard in empty swimming pools as the pools there are mostly bowl shaped. So that is how it started and then decades later this sport just progressed.”
Anveer further tells us about the risk factors in skateboarding. He says: “If you just put safety guards you should be fine but of course you will fall multiple times and sometimes you will also take a bad fall. But the best part is that once you take a fall you start getting used to it and then you learn how to fall.” Anveer adds that soon you learn how to break your fall. Once you fall, you just have to roll and get up and this causes minimum damage.
He also opines that they are the first skateboarding community even though there was a skateboarders park in Assagao where competitions would be held with semi pro, amateur and professional skateboarders from outside. “This was happening, but there was no local talent,” says Anveer.
Samuel a student of photography at The One School, Aldona has been skateboarding for the past 10 years. He says: “I began skating when I was 10. Being a part of this community is very good because it is growing especially now that this park is right in Panaji. We want to see new skaters from Goa because others cities of India like Bangalore, Mumbai already have established skaters.”
About what skateboarding means to him, Miramar-based Vaibhav says: “When I see children from our classes skate, the smile which they have when they conquer fear is what makes me feel good about this sport.”
Vaibhav further says that these days most of sports are too steeped into competitions like the nationals, state level etc. “Though skateboarding is introduced in the 2020 Olympics it’s still more of a sport where you compete with yourself every day. Skaters don’t care how good they are compared to other skaters, they just care how much they improved from what they were yesterday.”
Apart from the skateboarding classes, the community ‘skatelifegoa’ (the community’s account handle on social media app ‘Instagram’) also teaches slacklining (a form of tight-rope walking) at Miramar. “Though the skateboarding classes are chargeable, there is no fee for the slacklining and we keep it open for whoever wants to learn as it is a sport that really enhances your balance and concentration skills,” concludes Anveer.
