Expertise in skate park development has taken Woodend resident Wade Trevean around the world but he is calling on home to assist his latest venture.
He is a lead volunteer on a project to fundraise and build a safe skate park for community connection in Dili, Timor Leste.
“Following the 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia, more than 70 per cent of Timor-Leste’s infrastructure was destroyed, leaving a dearth of educational and community spaces,” Wade said.
“Due to these impacts and other factors, the established skateboarders have nowhere safe to skateboard. This requirement is echoed by our partner Ba Futuru, a Timorese youth organisation that is located alongside the future skatepark and will assist in running the new space.”
Nick Oats, who identified the project’s need, contacted Wade for help after learning about his company Eastbywest and its involvement in volunteer skate park projects in under-resourced communities throughout the world.
“The fact that Dili is only a 90-minute flight from Darwin, it all made sense to utilise our specialised skills and resources to help one of Australia’s closet neighbours,” Wade said.
Scheduled for delivery in October, the Timor Skate team has so far raised $40,000 for the project and seeking to raise a further $20,000 to make it a reality.
All funds raised go directly to materials and programming of the skatepark.
“Timor Skate is made up of professional skatepark designers and builders in our own countries but who have delivered parks in a volunteer capacity from Mozambique to Palestine among various others in-between,” Wade said.
“This, as with all of our overseas projects, will be delivered in collaboration with locals where we will be passing on practical skills in skatepark construction, offering them the chance to build the next park.”
The project has involved extensive consultation and enthusiastic input from the local community.
So far the project has also delivered two shipments of donated skate goods including boards, hardware and safety equipment.
It has also had the support of ‘Good Push’ to employ a local manager who runs workshops with the local skaters and will assist in the activation and management of gear for the skate park.
“I really can’t wait to see the positive developments and inevitable growth take place with the local community at the Dili Skatepark in Timor Leste,” Wade said.
“Just as I have had the fortune of seeing Syrian refuge kids in Iraq experiencing shear and innocent joy as they roll down the ramps, to the girls breaking stereotypes at the Tripoli Skatepark in Libya, and a skater from the skatepark in Mozambique who now travels to international competitions.”
Wade grew up skateboarding. He turned into his interest into something more when he launched Eastbywest in 2015 with a key focus of designing skate parks for regional areas across Australia.
This soon extended to designing and helping to build skate parks in a volunteer capacity in remote or under resourced areas across the world.
Last year this included projects in Libya, Laos and an Inuit community in Northern Canada.
Wade has designed more than 150 skateparks including Macedon Ranges’ top ranking park in Lancefield. Future local projects include an extension to the Gisborne Skatepark.
Next month, he will help open the first skate park in an Australian Indigenous community.
Raising funds for the Deli project is important to ensure its delivery in October.
For more information, or to contribute to the project, visit: timorskate.org
