In the lead up to the 2023 NZ Skateboard Nationals our team attending the SBNZ National Squad Camp, commuted from Gisborne up the east coast to Uawa (Tolaga Bay) to put back into the local community.
The east coast has been hit hard with cyclones in the last year, we as a Skateboarding community wanted to give a little bit back.
After a formal welcome onto Hauiti Marae, the team headed down to the local skate park for a session with the local community, as it was still raining the local fire service removed the coastguard rescue boat and allowed us to run a skate session inside the shed.
Bowman Hansen spoke for the SBNZ Manuhiri (guests) as part of the welcome.
We came out to teach today, but we also learnt a lot, being welcomed onto the marae and embraced as skateboarders is something I will cherish, it is the first time I have experienced something like this in my skating career, I hope we get to do more of this” “It was great to give back to a community that has had such a tough year, it was a proud day” “I really enjoyed the whole morning. It was great to see our team respond to being invited into the wharenui – Bowman Hansen (Coach)
As we develop our High Performance programme and culture it is important to ensure we stay connected with our community. It was a fantastic day that had a big impact on our team and I can only hope we had a similar impact on the Uawa Community.
I would like to thank the Uawa community and Hauiti Marae, the Tairawhiti Trust, Element and our coaches Simon Thorp, Amber Clyde and Bowman Hansen who ran the morning – Ian Neely (High Performance Pathway Manager)
Local Uawa (Tolaga Bay) skaters were presented with brand new skateboards, by SBNZ coach Simon Thorp from @younggunsskateschool the boards were provided by @elementaustralia
The day was organized by the Tairawhiti Adventure Trust in conjunction with SBNZ.
