The Lawrey Story

Journalist and former Nelson City councillor Matt Lawrey loves unearthing the wonderful things Nelson has to offer. In between penning cartoons, managing Bike Hub Nelson and exploring the region with his whanau, Matt writes a monthly coumn for Nelson Magazine, where the topic is simply - Nelson.

Skateboarding. If you’re middle-aged or older, there’s a good chance the mere mention of the word gets your blood pressure up. No real surprise there, the loud bang that accompanies every attempted trick and the racket those hard little wheels make on paving stones can do your head in.

I never got into skateboarding and I’ve always found the noise painful but over the last 12 months I’ve had to reassess my feelings about the sport on account of our youngest embracing it. One of the great things about having teenagers is that your love for them, coupled with your inability to really control them, forces you to reconsider your views on all sorts of things. As a result, where once I saw a mild annoyance, now I see something kind of great.

Consider the following: we live in a world full of grown-ups bemoaning the amount of time teens spend on screens. Skateboarding gets kids off screens, out of bed, out of the house and into the communities they call home. Skateboarding is physically demanding and surprisingly social. It’s also a sport that requires its participants to learn how to manage risk. Not only that but getting good at it requires determination and discipline. In fact, it requires so much determination and discipline, you have to wonder whether National might be better to forget about bootcamps and start promoting skateparks instead.

Another thing I like about skate boarding is that it’s about as egalitarian as sport can get. Once you’ve got yourself a board, it’s pretty much free, which means it’s a sport that brings people from all sorts of backgrounds together. The fact it comes complete with its own global culture is a bonus too, particularly for kids living in small cities in small countries at the bottom of the world.

The more I think about it, the more I can’t help wondering what life would be like if skateboarding didn’t exist. Seriously, it’s not like all those skaters would be throwing themselves into mountain biking or sailing or cricket. I suspect most of them would be in their rooms staring at their phones.

With all of this in mind, it was hugely encouraging to recently see an inner-city landlord by the name of Max Clark agree to let the group Skate Nelson Bays set up a temporary skatepark in the carpark of his New St building. Kudos to you Max! You helped to make something really cool happen for Nelson-Whakatū’s young people. Let’s hope we see more of this sort of thing, after all, cities that embrace youth culture tend to be the ones that retain and attract young people, and all the energy, talent and creativity that comes with them. The ones that don’t end up looking like the town in Footloose.