Skateboarding
in South Africa
Story and Photos by Miles Masterson
South
Africa is on the rise. Although most of the overseas labels
are held by two distributors, Boogaloos and Sidewalk Surfer,
and the fledgling industry is not big enough to support a magazine,
there are thousands of skateboarders across the country, and
the sport is slowly gaining recognition from sponsors and the
press.
The inland area encompassing Johannesburg and Pretoria, known
as Gauteng, is where the biggest shit goes down. There are about
15 skateparks in this area and a bunch of shops run by the above
distributors and other independents. Being a highly urbanized
area, there are also numerous good street spots.
Of course, the standard of skating is not as high as America,
but skaters such as Clayton Peterson, Brendan Ryall, Harold
Peterson, Jacques and Puddy, and the Zwennis brothers regularly
bust the burliest tricks they can. Thankfully, there have been
a spate of tours from the states recently too. The likes of
Muska, Glifberg, Burnquist, Templeton, Koston, Vallely and others
have visited here in the past two years or so, inspiring the
locals and keeping them up to date. Apart
from the skate scene in Gauteng and all the isolated little
desert towns, the other major cities -which are all on the coast-
Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, all boast thriving skate
scenes, at least one park and vert ramp each and a few stand
out skaters. Of these, Cape Town’s Christie Wiehahn is
the most promising youngster. Christie’s parents opened
a skatepark this year and the amount of skate time it gave him
has turned Christie into a freak who can stick tricks such as
backside lipslides with ease. His mini and vert skills are also
improving vastly and he will soon be traveling stateside to
learn more.
Of the older guard, Dallas Oberholzer is the most accomplished.
Another skater worth a mention is Sven Martin, who now resides
in California. Other name South African skaters who have left
would have to be Greg Finch, Mike Sutcliffe, Clint van der Schyff,
all of whom rip and have had a picture of two in magazines such
as Transworld, Thrasher or the UK’s Sidewalk Surfer. Unfortunately
all of these guys found that the local scene was too limited
for their talent and have gone to reside in the UK or the USA,
a trend which most good SA skaters follow. Skateboarding’s
last surge in South Africa was around the early 1990’s,
after which it died a stone cold death and wasn’t to be
seen again until about three years ago, when it came out of
its underground slumber. Despite its isolation and drain of
talent, South African skateboarding is strong and getting stronger
and hopefully will be around for a long time to come.
South
Africa is on the rise. Although most of the overseas labels
are held by two distributors, Boogaloos and Sidewalk Surfer,
and the fledgling industry is not big enough to support a magazine,
there are thousands of skateboarders across the country, and
the sport is slowly gaining recognition from sponsors and the
press.
Apart
from the skate scene in Gauteng and all the isolated little
desert towns, the other major cities -which are all on the coast-
Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, all boast thriving skate
scenes, at least one park and vert ramp each and a few stand
out skaters. Of these, Cape Town’s Christie Wiehahn is
the most promising youngster. Christie’s parents opened
a skatepark this year and the amount of skate time it gave him
has turned Christie into a freak who can stick tricks such as
backside lipslides with ease. His mini and vert skills are also
improving vastly and he will soon be traveling stateside to
learn more.